hi all - i just did good mornings today, first time ever. i handled the olympic bar okay for 2 sets of 12 reps, added 10lbs on third set. not much of a burn but no pain either.
anyone have good basic cues for form? i squeezed the bar hard and contracted my lats and dug my feet in the ground.
It depends on the type of goodmorning.
An arched back goodmorning (this is the defaut GM is only āgoodmorningā is written) is basically a Romanian deadlift with the barbell on your shoulders. So the key is to keep your core tightly braced, upper back tight and think of the movement as āpushing your hips backā NOT as bending forward.
In a rounded back goodmorning the hips actually do not move as far back and you bend at the waistā¦ for the first half of the ROM your back stays straight, but then you round it up (imagine trying to give yourself a blow job) ā¦ this is movement done with very light weights.
great thanks CT, probably wont bother with the rounded back version and just work on form and work up the weight slowly. Thanks!
Best coaching cue ever.
coach I have a question regarding good mornings if I may:
When I perform the movement, my ROM isnāt huge, probably get down to 45 degrees or so. Am I better off strengthening the ROM I have by adding weight, or working on improving the ROM and keeping the weight the same? I have a history of back pain, if that matters, but so far have been able to do GMs for high reps pain-free.
Thanks
That is fine, for nowā¦ it really is not about bending forward as much as possible but about putting maximum tension on the posterior chain.
From my experience (because I was like you in the GM) two things can cause this short range of motion:
So Iād definitely:
Work on improving posterior chain extensibility
Getting the hamstrings stronger with isolation exercises (leg curls) where you use a slow eccentric tempo
Do GM with the ROM you can handle but pause for two second in the bottom position when you feel a maximum hamstring stretch/tension
Coach,Iāll grab the opportunity and ask a question about gm too
In regards to strengthening the low bar squat,do you think heavy good mornings(sets of 3-5 or 3-5 rep maxes) have their place,or would you rather seeing gm done only for reps higher reps,to build the posterior chain?
I like heavy arched back GM to improve the low bar squat BUT you must be able to keep tension on the posterior chain. If the tension shifts away from it (you donāt feel the hams being loaded and doing the work) then itās too heavy and wont be that useful.
I did them yesterday and today my hams feel destroyed,so Iām most likely on the right path(although I rounded on the last rep)
Thanks for the response
Excellent dude! Always remember that the purpose of assistance exercises is to load a specific muscle or group of musclesā¦ if you dont feel it there you are just wasting time and energy
i was pleasantly surprised that i could feel my hams and glutes day after my first ever sets of GMsā¦
Brilliant, Iāll definitely get on that. One last thing:
Any special little tips for this? Or is it simply a case of spend the time stretching that we all know we should be doing anyway but none of us actually doā¦
what about doing hamstring curls prior to GMs to āgreaseā the joints? i forgot the specific article, but i read somewhere on t-nation to do some curls before squatting to get things warm.
Well it can work. Itās what is called āpre-fatigueā. In this specific case it will have 3 potential benefits and 2 possible drawbacks.
BENEFITS
It will āwake-upā the hamstringsā¦ āscientificallyā what goes on is that isolating the hamstrings will activate them and make them more responsive to being recruited during a compound movementā¦ I hypothesize that itās due to increasing the sensitivity of the neuromuscular junction. In simple terms it means that you will be ale to recruit the hamstrings more easily.
It can help improve mind-muscle connection. In simple words by creating a small amount of pump/local fatigue in the hamstrings you will be more aware of them when you do your GM (enhanced feedback) which also facilitate their proper use.
By pre-fatiguing the hams a bit you will recruit the fast twitch fibers sooner in your goodmorning sets (if the hamstrings are fatigued a bit it means that they are not as strong. If they are not as strong they will have to recruit more muscle fibers sooner in your work sets to do the workā¦ you will move less weight and/or do less reps, but for stimulating the muscle it wont matter)
DRAWBACKS
You will not be able to use as much weight (see point 3 above). For building mass in the hamstrings it wont matt3er because it simply means that you will take less reps or less weight to get maximum hypertrophy stimulation in the hamstrings. But the movement will become less effective at strengthening the glutes and lower back. So itās a matter of what your priority is. Early in the training cycle doing leg curls as your first exercise, then GM is likely a good idea. But for the later phases I would reverse the order.
Excessive local pump in the hamstrings might reduce the extensibility of the hams and make them more tensed, which could reduce your range of motion. So if ROM is not large to start with, it might not be the best idea.
How about seated GMās?
By moving the feet out in front of the knees, or pushing the knees out Sumo style, can we increase ROM or hit the hamstrings better while still leaning just a little bit forward?
thanks CT, excellent advice as always. i am nowhere near as strong as you guys here on the board so i am not that worried about hypertrophy as i have a LOT of weight to shed and to be honest i am more interested in strength anyways. i did elevated hip thrust today, then hamstring curls THEN goblet squats - only 80lbs on the goblet even though i have squatted 3 plates in the pastā¦ i guess i will check in later when my numbers get higher or i get back under the bar for squats and then reverse the orderā¦ i read on of the articles on this website saying the opposite of your 2nd drawback saying pump will INCREASE ROM not decreaseā¦ let me find the article and post it again.
either way, thanks!