Good mornings

Greatly stimulating the lower back and hamstring muscles via hip extension, the "good morning" is called so due to the exercise reassembling someone getting up and being up right.

Good mornings can be effective, yet a lot of care should be taken when performing this exercise, and a heavy weight should never be used. The exercise is best performed with no weight for those who have no experience with the movement, and only a light weight used as the trainer gains confidence.

Performing good mornings

When training for muscular size it is often best to train in a rep range of 6-12 repetitions, although there is often much debate on the optimal rep range. It would be advisable to experiment with different ranges to see which suits you.

• Place barbell on squat rack pins, which are set at a suitable height for you to dismount and re-rack safely.
• Load bar with correct weight. Put on safety collars.
• Position barbell on back of shoulders, taking a wide grasp on the bar.
• Dismount barbell carefully, taking a step backwards and positioning feet at suitable width stance.
• Maintaining straight back and good body posture, bend hips so torso lowers forward.
• Keep a slightly bend in the knees fixed throughout execution.
• Continue until torso is just above parallel to the ground.
• Raise torso back to the starting position by extending the hip.
• Repeat for desired amount of repetitions.

Good mornings courtesy of Fitness Uncovered - Bodybuilding & Fitness

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