5 Effective Good Morning Exercise Alternatives for Men

Barbell Good Morning, a hip hinge exercise, is one of the best moves you can do to maintain your glutes and hamstrings. Unfortunately, too many people are doing it wrong. If you’re not doing it right, you’re not only putting yourself at risk for a lower back injury, but also wasting your time working out.

While good morning exercise is a great movement to be included in your routine, advances in your training require that you explore new exercises. The primary reason for this is that not everyone who begins training knows how to properly hinge while performing a barbell good morning.

Barbell good mornings can be an uncomfortable exercise for some people. If you have limited lower back or shoulder mobility, you may find the move difficult to execute. Thankfully, there are several other options that target the posterior chain as well. Here are five alternatives we like:

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Five Good Morning Exercise Alternatives

1) Back Extension Variations

Back extensions are a great way to strengthen the muscles that you use when you do a good morning exercise. They can be done from either a 45 or a 90 degree angle, which is just as effective as doing a good morning from those angles. Back extensions are also an effective way to build hip and lower back strength, which means that you can lift more weight in your deadlift.

In addition, back extensions are great for building strength that can be transferred to other exercises.

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2) Reverse Hyperextensions

Reverse hyperextensions are great for building strength in your glutes and hamstrings while simultaneously building lower back strength. They isolate the glutes and hamstrings, which makes them a great choice if you want to focus on these muscle groups instead of using weight to build your entire body at once.

This is a great variation for anyone who has mobility restrictions in the knees, hips, or shoulders. It will also help you become more proficient at hip extension, which will help you jump higher and run faster. This increased mobility, in turn, will allow you to lift heavier weights.

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3) Hip Thrusts

Hip thrusts are a great way to strengthen your glutes and reinforce good hip extension mechanics. However, if your knees are bent at 90 degrees, your hamstrings and lower back won't be involved as much as they would be with exercises like Romanian deadlifts. While this is not a bad thing, it's just something to keep in mind so you don't neglect other movements that target the hamstrings and lower back.

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4) Glute Ham Raises

Glute-ham raises are a tremendous lower body exercise that can be performed for higher reps to increase muscle mass in the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back.

While you can do this exercise easily with your bodyweight alone, add some additional weight to the exercise. This will help you gain strength in the back of your shoulders and upper arms. However, be wary of adding too much weight.

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5) Resistance Band Good Morning

Resistance bands can be used as an alternative to a barbell to do good mornings. The band will feel uncomfortable around your neck, but its lack of pressure on the upper back and shoulders make it a better option than using a barbell.

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Takeaway

Good morning is a great way to strengthen your entire posterior chain, so it’s no wonder the exercise has been gaining popularity over the years. However, while it’s a great movement that has many benefits, it doesn’t necessarily need to be done using barbells. There are plenty of options available that you can do at home or at the gym if you don’t want to drop a ton of weight on your back.

Choosing to skip the Barbell Good Morning or opting for a different exercise, like a bodyweight squat or deadlift, is not wrong, but you may want to consider incorporating both to optimize your workout routine.

If you only perform one type of hip hinge movement, you may likely find yourself lacking strength in that area. This type of barbell exercise targets a slightly different set of muscles in the posterior chain than the other two options.