Good Morning

When you are first learning this pattern, leave your ego at the door and use a light bar or even just the empty shaft. Focus entirely on hinging at the hips rather than bending at the waist. Imagine a straight rod running through your spine; it must not flex, extend, or twist. If your lower back begins to ache or round, you have exceeded your current mobility or loaded the bar too heavily. Stop immediately when form degrades, as spinal shear is not worth the extra reps. Beginners often compensate by bending the knees into a squat or letting the bar slide down the back, both of which defeat the purpose of the exercise. Keep a slight, constant knee bend throughout, lock your gaze a few feet ahead, and move with deliberate control. Trust the stretch in your hamstrings and build confidence slowly. You will quickly discover how much power lives in your posterior chain when you respect the mechanics.

Most lifters sabotage this movement by treating it like a squat, bending their knees excessively as they descend instead of pushing the hips backward. Another frequent error is allowing the thoracic spine to collapse or the lumbar curve to reverse, which shifts dangerous compressive forces directly onto the intervertebral discs rather than the target musculature. Many also rush the tempo, using momentum to bounce out of the bottom position, which completely eliminates the eccentric tension required for true posterior chain development. Finally, placing the barbell too low on the traps or gripping it too tightly can pull the shoulders forward and break your rigid spinal alignment before the first rep even begins.