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Barbell good morning: small load, big effect

Also called: good morning, good mornings. All one movement, one page.

By

We compute it and we cite it. We do not test gear. How we know this.

Short answer

Bar on your back like a squat, then hinge forward at the hips and come back up. Small loads, big effect.

Pattern
Hinge
Equipment
Barbell · Plates · Squat rack
Usual bar
45 lb / 20.4 kgOhio Power Bar, 45 lb

The kit this lift needs

Straight from this movement’s own equipment list. The spec pages below compare published figures across every model we have verified — no prices, no ratings, nothing we claim to have tested.

Gear for this lift

One verified model per piece of kit the barbell good morning needs

One representative model per category, picked from the listings we have verified. Specs are the seller's published figures, read on the date printed on each card. We have not tested any of it, and there is no rating on this page because there is nothing to rate it against.

BarWeight is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no extra cost to you. Full disclosure.

Barbells

Cap Pro Series 7 ft Olympic Barbell

B006R4EOWI
BarbellsCAP Barbell7 ft
Length
7 ft
Sleeve
2 in Olympic

Best for: A general-purpose 7 ft bar for a rack-and-plate home gym.

Skip if: You want a specific knurl or tensile rating — the listing does not publish those figures.

Check these yourself before ordering

  • — The actual bar weight, which the listing title does not state
  • — Shaft diameter and whether there is a centre knurl
  • — Loadable sleeve length against how many plates you own
View on Amazon

Specs read from the listing on 2026-07-24. Listings change — confirm the current spec and option before you order.

Plates

Amazon Basics 2-Inch Olympic Grip Weight Plates

B0DNS4B576
PlatesAmazon Basics2 in Olympic
Bore
2 in Olympic
Material
Cast iron

Best for: Iron plates for a rack-and-bar gym where nothing gets dropped.

Skip if: You deadlift on a floor you care about. Iron is not a bumper.

Check these yourself before ordering

  • — Which weights the option you selected actually contains
  • — Whether they are sold singly or in pairs
  • — Plate thickness against your sleeve length — see the bar data on this site
View on Amazon

Specs read from the listing on 2026-07-24. Listings change — confirm the current spec and option before you order.

Power racks

HulkFit Power Rack

B0H6ND831G
Power racksHULKFITAlloy Steel
Material
Alloy Steel
Dimensions
53.54"D x 47.64"W x 81.5"H
Color
Red
Included Components
Exercise Accessories, Instruction Manuals, Power Rack, Tools
Unit Count
1 Count
Model Number
Power Rack

Best for: Barbell work in the cage plus cable work off the same frame, without a second machine on the floor.

Skip if: You want a guided bar path. A rack holds the bar; it does not steer it.

Check these yourself before ordering

  • — Interior depth against your bench, and upright height against your ceiling
  • — Hole spacing through the pressing range — 2 in Westside spacing is not universal
  • — Whether the J-hooks, safeties and any pulley parts are included in the option you picked
View on Amazon

Specs read from the listing on 2026-07-24. Listings change — confirm the current spec and option before you order.

Comparing the whole field before you buy is the better move. Each guide below picks for a named job and states the published spec that put it there:

Barbell good morning setup

  1. 01Bar on your back in a squat position, unracked, two steps out.
  2. 02Feet hip to shoulder width, knees soft.
  3. 03Brace hard before the first rep.

How to do a barbell good morning

  1. 01Push your hips back and let your torso travel toward horizontal.
  2. 02Stop where your back can stay flat.
  3. 03Drive the hips forward to return to standing.

How to load the bar for the barbell good morning

Before the barbell good morning is a rep, it is a number on the bar. Plates go on in pairs, one per sleeve, and the bar itself is part of the total — a 45 lb bar with a 45 on each side is 135 lb, not 90. This animation walks the three loads you will meet most often.

Our own render, modelled to the IPF bar spec and the published plate spec table.An original 3D animation showing how the three most common barbell loads are built. A 45 lb bar starts empty; a 45 lb plate slides onto each sleeve to make 135 lb, a second pair makes 225 lb, and a third pair makes 315 lb. The running total and the plates-per-side count are shown throughout. This is an illustration of a class of equipment, not footage of a specific product.Original animation by BarWeight — an illustration of this class of equipment, not footage of a specific product, and not a demonstration of how to perform a lift.

Need a different number? Run it through the plate math calculator.

Barbell good morning video demonstration

Reading the steps only gets you so far, and a render cannot show you what a human body does under a bar. This is the barbell good morning demonstrated by a coach, not by us — we did not make this video, we do not host it, and we do not earn anything from it.

Demonstration

HOW TO DO THE GOOD MORNING EXERCISE: Build Your Glutes, Hamstrings And Squat With Perfect Technique

Jeff Nippard

HOW TO DO THE GOOD MORNING EXERCISE: Build Your Glutes, Hamstrings And Squat With Perfect Technique — Jeff Nippard. Embedded from YouTube; this site did not produce the video.Natural bodybuilder and powerlifter with a biochemistry degree; channel is built on citing and explaining peer-reviewed strength/hypertrophy research alongside technique coaching.

Common barbell good morning errors

  • Loading it like a squat. This lift needs a fraction of that weight.
  • Rounding the back to get lower.
  • Bending and straightening the knees to cheat the range.

Barbell good morning: muscles worked

Primary

  • Hamstrings
  • Gluteus maximus
  • Erector spinae

Secondary

  • Adductor magnus
  • Abdominals (bracing)

How we know: Standard functional anatomy — which joints move and which muscles cross them. Convention and reasoning, not a measured EMG result.

Barbell good morning: what the evidence does and does not say

No EMG source was located for the good morning in this pass. The muscle list is standard functional anatomy — a loaded hip hinge with the bar on your back — not a measured result.

How to program the barbell good morning

Training convention: light, 3-4 sets of 8-12, treated as an accessory. Start far lighter than you think.

Rep ranges are training convention. They are what most lifters and coaches do, not a measured result, and nothing on this page is medical advice.

Run the numbers

Knowing the lift is half of it. The other half is loading the bar correctly.

Questions people actually ask

▶How much weight should I use for good mornings?

Far less than you squat. Training convention treats this as a light accessory in the 8 to 12 rep range. Loading it like a squat is the single most common mistake on the lift.

▶How far forward should I lean on a good morning?

Toward horizontal, and no further than the point where your back can stay flat. If you have to round to go lower, you have found your range.

▶What is the difference between a good morning and an RDL?

Where the bar sits. A good morning has the bar on your back like a squat; an RDL has it in your hands. Both are hip hinges, but the good morning puts a much longer lever on your torso, which is why the load is so much lighter.

Same pattern, different lift

All barbell exercises

Sources

No study is cited for this movement because none was verified for it. The description above is mechanical instruction and standard functional anatomy. We would rather tell you the shelf is empty than put something on it.

How this page is built and what we will and will not claim: read the methodology.