Top of the morning: wake up your hamstrings with the wide-stance good morning

Muscle & Fitness, July, 2008 by Sean Waxman

THE TRADITIONAL good morning is a great strength builder--as long as it's performed correctly. Yet most people have tight hamstrings, preventing them from doing it properly and causing most of the flexion to occur at the spine vs. the hips. Thus, the move becomes ineffective as well as potentially dangerous.

Besides working on your overall flexibility, a solution to this dilemma is the wide-stance good morning. This variation stretches and strengthens your hams, which allows you to perform all your bent-over exercises more effectively and efficiently.

"GOOD" INSTRUCTION

* Position the bar in a squat rack at shoulder level, and grasp it with an overhand grip, your hands slightly outside shoulder width.

* Step under the bar and place it across your traps, then slowly walk out a couple of steps.

* Widen your stance until you start to feel a little tightness in your adductors (inner thighs) and hamstrings, then straighten your legs.

* Raising your chest high, take a deep breath and tighten your abs. Keep your knees slightly bent.

* Maintaining the natural arch in your lower back, slowly lean forward. Go as far as you can while keeping your lower back locked into position. (For those of you with tight hams, this may be only a few inches.)

* Pause momentarily, then flex your hamstrings to return to the starting position.

WHEN TO USE IT

Perform this exercise on leg day. You'll feel intense soreness afterward, so if you're new to this move, we suggest starting with just the bar. You shouldn't do this move with heavy loads right away, so keep your sets at 3-5 and your reps within the 12-20 range.

Sean Waxman is a strength and power expert, NSCA guest lecturer and owner of Pure Strength, Inc. Sign up for his free newsletter at purestrength.com

BY SEAN WAXMAN, CSCS

EDITED BY JIMMY PENA, MS, CSCS, M&F FITNESS DIRECTOR