Bodyweight Good Mornings (Step-by-Step Instructions)

Bodyweight Good Mornings are one of my favorite bodyweight movements to incorporate into a warm-up. They don’t require any equipment, they are very easy to learn and are a great exercise to warm up and stretch the posterior chain – specifically the hamstrings.

In this guide, I’m going to teach you how to do a Bodyweight Good Morning, why I use them in my programming and a few variations to keep things interesting.

How To Do a Bodyweight Good Morning

Equipment Needed

None

Step-by-Step Instructions

Stand tall with feet hip-width apart, hands beside the ears.
Put a slight bend in the knee and pull the shoulder blades back
Now, hinge at the hips by pushing the hips back and bending at the waist. Push knees out slightly as you descend.
Keep the back slightly arched throughout the movement.
Continue the hinge until you feel a stretch in the hamstrings.
Stand back up tall and push the hips forward to the starting position.
Repeat until all reps are completed.

Coaching Points

This is a warm-up movement and therefore should be done in a controlled manner throughout.

Listen to your body. Depending on your hamstring (and sometimes glute or low back) flexibility, you may be able to lower down quite far or not very much at all. The key is to move just to the edge of your range of motion. Don’t try to force anything.

Bodyweight Good Mornings Muscles Worked

A Bodyweight Good Morning is going to work the same muscles that a regular Good Morning, or an RDL works. The main difference is because there is no real resistance, a Bodyweight Good Morning is going to stretch these same muscles.

The hamstrings, glutes and low back (Erector Spinae) will all benefit from Bodyweight Good Mornings. This is what makes them a great dynamic warm-up exercise to add to a lower-body lift or run workout.

BW Good Morning Variations

If you’re looking to mix up your routine a bit, here are a couple of variations that you can try out.

Single-Leg BW Good Morning

Single-Leg Bodyweight Good Mornings will work to warm-up the same areas as regular Good Mornings, but will add an element of balance as well. You can even increase the balance challenge by incorporating an Airex Pad or Bosu Ball into the exercise.

SL Good Mornings can take a while to complete so I usually like to stick to 5 or 8 (at most) each side instead of the typical set of 10. Doing 10 reps on each leg can seem like forever and can bog down the energy of a warm-up.

Single-Leg Anti-Rotational RDLs

This is another single-leg variation. Single-Leg Anti-Rotational RDLs are a mouthful to say and can sound intimidating, but they’re really quite simple to do.

Wrap a thin resistance band to the upright of a squat rack, or something similar. Stand perpendicular to the rack, grab the band and pull it to your midline. From this position, it’s the same movement as a Single Leg Good Morning.

By using a band, the glutes and core have to work to keep the body from rotating while you hinge (hence anti-rotational).