Everything You Need to Know About the Good Morning Exercise

A good night’s sleep, a fresh cup of coffee, a few sun salutations before you start your day—all of these can set you up for a good morning (and a great day), but that’s not the kind of good morning we’re talking about. 

We’re diving into the simple good morning exercise that targets your hamstrings, glutes, core, and low back to make you a stronger, more durable athlete and human. Whether that means crushing your next Peloton ride, completing a hilly half marathon, or giving your kids a piggyback ride without worrying about your low back pain acting up, adding good mornings to your exercise routine can help. 

What Exactly Is the Good Morning Exercise?

Although it might appear that you’re simply bending forward from the waist, there’s a lot more going on when you do a good morning. “Good mornings target the hamstrings and they're an excellent way to stretch, warm up, engage, and strengthen the hamstrings by only using our body weight,” says Peloton instructor Rad Lopez. (Of course, you can also do them weighted. More on that later.)

Good mornings target your entire posterior chain, or the muscles along the back of your body, including your erector spinae, hamstrings, and glutes, as well as your core. They also give you a chance to practice your hip hinge, which is an essential movement pattern, whether you’re doing deadlifts with a heavy barbell in the gym or lifting a 40-pound bag of dog food off the floor. 

What's the Difference Between Good Mornings and RDLs?

While good morning exercises engage the same muscles as Romanian deadlifts (RDLs), there are a few key differences between the two moves. Both feature a hip hinge, but to do an RDL, you hold the weight in your hands with your arms at your sides or just in front of your thighs. With a good morning, however, the weight is placed higher, across your back or at your shoulders. 

Intrigued? Check out Peloton’s selection of bootcamp, lower body, or full body strength workouts to fit some good mornings—along with a healthy dose of posterior chain work—into your next workout. 

The Benefits of Doing Good Mornings

No matter if you’re an experienced weight lifter or you’re new to strength training, good morning exercises have some serious upsides. And the good news is, you don’t have to load up a heavy barbell to reap the benefits; they can be done with bodyweight alone as part of your warm-up or strength routine. 

“Understanding that this move is used to fire up and wake up the hamstrings is important. If your hamstrings are strong, warmed up, and well stretched, naturally your lower body and muscles, in general, are going to perform more efficiently,” Rad says. 

Improved Strength 

Good mornings are an excellent way to develop strength in multiple areas, including your hamstrings, low back, glutes, and core. That strength translates to better performance and a lower risk of injury in your endurance workouts, such as cycling, running, rowing, or any other form of cardio. 

Enhanced Posture 

Many of us are guilty of sitting (or standing) in a forward-leaning position for significant portions of the day. When we’re typing, texting, driving, cooking, or even doing workouts like cycling or rowing, our posture often suffers, sometimes leading to chronic back and neck pain if you let it go for too long. 

But exercises like good mornings are an excellent antidote. By engaging the posterior chain, they can help get your spine back into proper alignment and improve posture. 

Better Movement Quality 

No matter what you’re training for, good morning exercises help you dial in your hip hinge and improve your lower body flexibility. The ability to brace your core and safely bend forward to pick something heavy up off the ground is a skill that will serve you both in and out of the gym.  

What Muscles Does the Good Morning Exercise Work?

As a compound movement, good mornings offer a lot of bang for your fitness buck. In other words, unlike isolation exercises (think biceps curls or triceps dips), which target only one muscle at a time, a compound movement recruits multiple muscles or muscle groups. 

Hamstrings 

Good mornings target your hamstring muscles, an often overlooked part of lower body strength, especially if you’re a cyclist. Cycling tends to build your quadriceps, which is great—however, if you don’t have the hamstring strength to match, you risk developing muscle strength imbalances that can lead to injury. 

Back Muscles 

Muscles like the erector spinae, which run up and down the length of your spine, can become weak and overstretched if you tend to sit in a forward-hunched position. Good morning exercises work to counteract that. That means less lower back pain, better posture, and less postural fatigue during long rides, which translates to improved comfort, higher efficiency, and faster times. 

Glutes and Core

Good mornings develop your glute and core muscles, which are key players in endurance sports like cycling, running, and rowing. Strengthening these muscle groups can reduce your risk of injury while making you more efficient, which means faster times with less effort. 

How To Do the Good Morning Exercise Correctly

If you’re only just waking up to the importance of this key move, we’ve got you covered. Here’s a step-by-step guide to doing a good morning with perfect form. 

Tips for Proper Form

Good morning exercises may look intimidating, but they’re actually not hard to master, especially if you keep certain form tips in mind, Rad says. 

Don’t Lock Your Knees

By keeping a slight bend in your knees, you avoid putting unnecessary stress on your knee joints. 

Maintain a Neutral Spine

Excessive rounding or arching of your lower back can lead to low back pain, especially under load, so keep your neck, upper back, and lower back in alignment and maintain a flat back throughout the movement. 

Engage Your Core

To protect your core, keep it braced, as if you were preparing to receive a punch, throughout the exercise.

Variations For Good Mornings

Barbell Good Morning

Dumbbell Good Morning 

Banded Good Morning 

Single Leg Good Morning 

Start out doing this move with bodyweight only to make sure your form and balance are dialed in before adding a barbell, dumbbell, or band. 

How to Add Good Mornings to Your Exercise Routine

If you’re going to add good mornings to your routine, make sure you warm up before you dive in. That means getting your heart rate slightly elevated with some light cardio, —such as a quick spin on the bike, an easy jog, or walking—for five to ten minutes. 

It’s also a good idea to do at least one set of good mornings with bodyweight or very light weight before adding moderate or significant weight in your subsequent sets. This gives you a chance to make sure your form is solid before you add intensity, which helps to ensure your muscles are fully warmed up. And that means you’ll feel better during your hard sets while reducing your risk of injury. 

But make no mistake: You don’t need to add weight or complete an intense strength training session to get a lot out of a set of good mornings. These exercises can also be a great way to get your body ready for your cardio workout, Rad says. Whether you’ve got a long endurance ride or a HIIT session on the schedule, you won’t regret starting with your posterior chain fired up.