Zach Homol – @ZachHomol
What’s up guys! I’m excited to share some tips with y’all on the Good-Mornings. Good-Mornings, in my opinion, is one of the best accessory movements to building a strong DEADLIFT and SQUAT. The carry over from doing the Good-Mornings, CORRECTLY, to the deadlift are extremely apparent as you will see in the video below. The carry over is so great that when I see my Good-Mornings go up 10-15lbs, I see my Deadlift progress 15-20 lbs! I see the same carry over in the athletes I train and in those who run my programming. The deal with Good-Mornings is that they are often over looked or shied away from. I’ve heard a lot of reasons why people leave it out of their programing; an at risk exercise, vulnerable position to become injured, bad for the back, hurts the athletes knees, etc. I don’t disagree with those statements for the reason being that the vast majority of people who are doing the Good-mornings are doing them incorrectly. Therefore, those statements may hold true. BUT when the Good-Mornings are done correctly there’s not many better Main Accessory movements for the conventional deadlift. In the pictures below I will be breaking down incorrect and correct form of the Good-Morning. Follow up by watching the short video posted below for more tips!
I often see this form when lifters are performing the Good-Mornings. WE DO NOT WANT our Knees are locked out! We also DO NOT want our Shoulders to be rounded over, which leads to the upper back rounded. Also, notice the bar and how far over my toes the weight is. This is caused by FRONT HINGING, rather than BACK HINGING, which will be explained in the picture below. This is a vulnerable position and the risk will outweigh the reward.
Again, in this potion notice the knees are locked out and shoulders are rounded. BOTH ARE INCORRECT! The big focus in this picture is the FRONT HINGE. Notice my hips are slightly back, but not back nearly far enough. The bar and the weight of the bar are well over top of my toes putting the majority of the pressure from the weight on my lower back. Our focus should be in BACK HINGING, distributing the weight into the glutes and hamstrings which is explained in the following pictures below!
Here is the correct set up for performing the Good-Morning correctly, efficiently and getting the best carry over into our conventional deadlift. Let’s start at the heels. My toes are slightly pointed out, twisting my feet into the floor (External Rotation) which loads/ activates my glutes. Next, my knees are slightly bent and will remain slightly bent through the entire descent. When we are conventionally deadlifting, the knees are slightly bent from the start. When doing the Good-Mornings my focus is on simulating the movement just as if I was conventionally deadlifting. Next, HIPS. Notice my hips are slightly pointed BACK and the arrow is pointing BACK. When we start into the movement HINGE your hips back and slightly down. Hinge back as far as your hamstrings will allow. Hinging back and slightly down as you descend the upper body about 3/4 of the movement. Notice my back/ spine is, and will remain in a neutral position throughout the entirety of the movement.
The big focus in this picture:
-Toes are pointed out
-Knees are slightly bent
-Hips are hinged back
-Back/ Spine remains in a neutral position
-Chest does not cave
For More IN DEPTH TIPS and DETAILS on The Good-Mornings click the video below!
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