Good Mornings
Good Mornings
Muscle Group Stretched: Hamstrings
Muscle Group Strengthened: Hamstrings, Back
Type of Stretch: Dynamic Active
Difficulty: All Levels
Suggested Prerequisites: none
This is one of my go-to active flexibility drills for students looking to improve their hamstring flexibility. This drill has us lean forwards into a flat back forward fold, lengthening our hamstrings as much as possible, and then contract those hamstrings while they’re in the lengthened position, making them stronger and better able to support deeper forward fold type stretches.
How To
Step 1
Start standing with feet hip-width apart, knees slightly (or if you have tight hamstrings, generously) bent, hands on your hips.
Step 2
Keeping your back flat, hinge at the hips, rotating the front of your hip bones towards the floor, lifting your sits bones away from the ground, as far as you can to feel a hamstring stretch. You may feel your butt drift backwards to counterbalance the weight of your upper body, that’s OK.
Step 3
Once you’ve leaned as far forwards as you can with a flat back (even if that’s not yet parallel to the floor), press both feet into the floor as you lift your torso back up to standing. Intentionally pushing your feet into the floor is something you need to add to help engage your hamstrings - without the “foot press” engagement, our back muscles do more of the work to lift our torso.
Repeat for 8-12 reps.
Modifications
Need to make it easier?
Don’t be afraid to bend your knees!
Brace your hands against your thighs for support.
Want to make it harder?
Straighten your legs.
Reach your arms out to the side, or overhead - this will make the “lever arm” of your upper body feel heavier, so your hamstrings will have to work harder to lift the weight.
Add weight. Hold weights in your hands, or a barbell on your back to turn this into a traditional weightlifting Good Morning. But for the purposes of flexibility training, pick a weight that still allows you to go through the same range of motion that you can as before you added weight.
