5 Best Good Morning Exercises (Start Your Day Strong)

Banded good mornings are a great exercise with all the benefits of the traditional good morning but without the barbell on your upper back.

It allows you to improve your posture while activating your abs, glutes, hamstrings, and upper back muscles while reducing your risk of injury.

To perform this exercise:

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
2. Take a resistance band and step on it firmly with both feet, then squat down to place the other side of the band around your neck so it’s on your traps.
3. Stand straight up while keeping the core tight and the shoulders back.
4. Hinge at the hips as deep as you can until you feel a hamstring stretch while keeping your back straight.
5. Come back up and repeat.

3. Front-loaded Good Morning Exercise

This variation can allow you to improve your hinge pattern, an important movement required in essential exercises like deadlifts and kettlebell swings.

To perform this exercise:

1. Hold a kettlebell in front of your chest.
2. Place your feet hip-width apart with a slight bend in your knees.
3. Propel your hips forward as you squeeze your glutes.
4. Stand back up to go back to the standing position.
5. Repeat until you reach the desired number of sets.

Though it doesn't engage the hamstrings as fully as the traditional barbell version, I've observed that this variation uniquely challenges and improves flexibility and strength in the posterior chain and lower back in those I train.

To do this exercise:

1. Straddle a flat bench and place a barbell behind your back.
2. Keep your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground in front of your knees.
3. Hinge down to forward as far as possible.
4. Reverse the motion while trying to keep your back extremely flat to return to the starting position.
5. Return to the upright position and repeat until you reach the desired number of sets.

Pro Tip:

From my coaching playbook, I suggest kicking off with 'pancake good mornings.' It's a weight-free variation that's a hit among my clients for its incredible effectiveness in firing up the hamstrings and adductors.

1. Stand with feet wider than shoulder-width.
2. Bend forward at the hips, keeping your back straight.
3. Aim to lower your torso towards the ground, legs straight but not locked.
4. You should feel a stretch in your hamstrings and inner thighs.
5. Use your core and hamstrings to return to the start.

5. Single-Leg Good Mornings

The single-leg good morning is a unilateral exercise that allows you to target each side of the glutes and hamstrings at a time to create a more aesthetic look.  It is a good exercise for improving your hip mobility.

To perform this exercise:

1. Rest the bar on your lower traps as you would for a barbell back squat.
2. Lift one leg and hinge at the hip until your chest is parallel to the ground while maintaining a neutral spine.
3. Reverse the motion to return to the standing position.
4. Repeat until you reach the desired amount of reps on both sides.

From my coaching experience, I've noticed that messing up good morning exercises is typically due to poor form.

Main slip-ups:

• Not leading with your hips and over-bending your torso
• Bending your knees too much shifts the focus to your quads, not your back muscles
• Rounding your back  (start with lighter weights or bodyweights to master the form before leveling up)
• Ditching a warm-up

Without warming up, your muscles won't be prepared for the action, which can increase your chances of pulling or straining something. 

Your spinal alignment should never change throughout the movement for two reasons:

• Having poor form increases your risk of injury by increasing stress on your lower back.
• Not engaging the correct muscles.