Good Morning Exercise and Strength Training
There comes a point in everyone’s training when gains in both size and strength begin to slow down. If you’re not careful, gains can even come to an abrupt halt.
One of the best ways to tip-toe around plateaus is to arm yourself with an extensive exercise library. Giving yourself a library full of compound exercises is the best way to keep your workouts fresh and your gains consistent. Compound exercises like the squat and deadlift are staples in everyone’s workout, and are often incorporated as strength and size plateau busters as they naturally boost your body’s levels of free flowing testosterone. BUT what do you do when your squat or deadlift plateaus? When this happens, it may be time to say Good Morning to a new exercise. The following simple compound exercise may make all the difference in your training.
Say Hello to Good Mornings
The Good Morning workout is an often neglected and sometimes completely unknown compound exercise that predominantly targets the hamstrings. They are, however, usually performed in conjunction with a back training program as they also work as a glute/hamstring tie-in and an excellent erector spinae strengthener.
IN TERMS OF PLATEAU-BUSTING, THEY CAN HELP BREAK THROUGH LEG TRAINING PLATEAUS AS THEY ENCOURAGE MUSCLE BALANCE BETWEEN THE OFTEN OVERTRAINED QUADRICEPS AND THE LARGELY UNDERTRAINED HAMSTRINGS.By hitting the glute muscles, Good Mornings also help to improve your stability and control of your squatting form. For example, next time you squat, monitor your knees. Do you find that they cave in? This is a weakness warning. By tightening up your rear end, however, you can correct this form issue and actually increase the strength of your squat.
Tips to Performing Good Mornings
Since the Good Morning is not a well-known exercise in the gym, it may be hard to find proper coaching for your muscle groups. A correct Good Morning begins with you in a regular squatting stance (feet about shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent) and the bar should sit slightly below your trapezius muscles. Throughout the strength training stretch in your hamstrings, your lower back should maintain a slight arch and your abs should stay engaged from beginning to the end of the movement. When you are finally in position, keep your head up and bend forward at the hips while maintaining a slight bend in your knees. Your body structure and level of flexibility will determine how far you bend forward without breaking proper form. When you have reached this point in your Good Mornings, return to the standing position, stopping just before you reach completely erect. There is a lot of controversy surrounding Good Mornings. Many trainers and athletes will avoid this exercise that pushing your hips altogether as many argue it can lead to lower back injuries when performed incorrectly with light weight. So, if you are new to the Good Morning, take it easy. For many, beginning with an unloaded Olympic bar is the best option. As technique is essential to succeeding with this exercise, develop the best form possible before stepping up in weight.
ALLMAX Nutrition can help you say Good Morning to new muscle growth with TESTOFX. Completely reformulated technology, TESTOFX will boost the bioavailability of testosterone in your body by up to 284% by inhibiting deactivating testosterone-fighting chemicals and hormones. It also includes a cortisol inhibitor, which helps to protect muscles from excess stress to the body. So arm yourself with TESTOFX and rise, shine and grow with Good Mornings. With these two tools in hand, you’ll be able to annihilate your training plateaus for good.
