10 Best Barbell Good Morning Alternatives for Hamstring Strength

The Barbell Good Morning racks a bar across your upper back, then has you push your hips back and lower your torso toward parallel. The Barbell Straight Leg Deadlift is the closest swap because it changes only where the bar sits: you stand holding it in your hands instead of racking it across your back, then push your hips back the same way as the bar lowers toward the floor. If a bar isn't free, the Band Good Morning loops a band behind your neck and has you hinge against it instead.

Original Exercise: Barbell Good Morning

Barbell Good Morning
Primary Muscle
Hamstrings
Equipment
Barbell
Difficulty
Advanced
Type
Compound
Secondary Muscles: Lower Back
How to Perform Barbell Good Morning
  1. Start by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and the barbell resting on your upper back.
  2. Keeping your back straight and your core engaged, hinge forward at the hips, pushing your buttocks back as if you were trying to touch the wall behind you with your glutes.
  3. Lower your torso until it is parallel to the ground, feeling a stretch in your hamstrings.
  4. Pause for a moment, then return to the starting position by squeezing your glutes and pushing your hips forward.
  5. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Ranked Barbell Good Morning Alternatives

Best Match
Good Morning Off Pins

1. Good Morning Off Pins

90.2% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Advanced Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Begin with a bar on a rack at about the same height as your stomach. Bend over underneath the bar and rack the bar across the rear of your shoulders as you would a power squat, not on top of your shoulders. At the proper height, you should be near parallel to the floor when bent over. Keep your back tight, shoulder blades pinched together, and your knees slightly bent. Keep your back arched and your cervical spine in proper alignment.
  2. Begin the motion by extending through the hips with your glutes and hamstrings, and you are standing with the weight. Slowly lower the weight back to the pins returning to the starting position.
Barbell Straight Leg Deadlift

2. Barbell Straight Leg Deadlift

84.2% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Intermediate Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your toes pointing forward.
  2. Hold the barbell with an overhand grip, hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
  3. Bend at your hips and lower the barbell towards the ground, keeping your back straight and your knees slightly bent.
  4. Lower the barbell until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings.
  5. Engage your hamstrings and glutes to lift the barbell back up to the starting position.
Romanian Deadlift

3. Romanian Deadlift

84.2% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Intermediate Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Put a barbell in front of you on the ground and grab it using a pronated (palms facing down) grip that a little wider than shoulder width. Tip: Depending on the weight used, you may need wrist wraps to perform the exercise and also a raised platform in order to allow for better range of motion.
  2. Bend the knees slightly and keep the shins vertical, hips back and back straight. This will be your starting position.
  3. Keeping your back and arms completely straight at all times, use your hips to lift the bar as you exhale. Tip: The movement should not be fast but steady and under control.
  4. Once you are standing completely straight up, lower the bar by pushing the hips back, only slightly bending the knees, unlike when squatting. Tip: Take a deep breath at the start of the movement and keep your chest up. Hold your breath as you lower and exhale as you complete the movement.
  5. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
Wide Stance Stiff Legs

4. Wide Stance Stiff Legs

84.2% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Intermediate Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Begin with a barbell loaded on the floor. Adopt a wide stance, and then bend at the hips to grab the bar. Your hips should be as far back as possible, and your legs nearly straight. Keep your back straight, and your head and chest up. This will be your starting position.
  2. Begin the movement be engaging the hips, driving them forward as you allow the arms to hang straight. Continue until you are standing straight up, and then slowly return the weight to the starting position. For successive reps, the weight need not touch the floor.
Romanian Deadlift From Deficit

5. Romanian Deadlift From Deficit

83.7% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Advanced Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Begin standing while holding a bar at arm's length in front of you. You can stand on a raised platform to increase the range of motion.
  2. Begin by flexing the knees slightly, and then flex at the hip, moving your butt back as far as possible, lowering the torso as far as flexibility allows. The back should remain in absolute extension at all times, and the bar should remain in contact with the legs. If done properly, there should be heavy tension felt in the hamstrings.
  3. Reverse the motion to return to the starting position.
Hanging Bar Good Morning

6. Hanging Bar Good Morning

82.2% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Advanced Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Begin with a bar on a rack at about the same height as your stomach. Suspend the bar using chains or suspension straps.
  2. Bend over underneath the bar and rack the bar across the rear of your shoulders as you would a power squat, not on top of your traps. At the proper height, you should be near parallel to the floor when bent over. Keep your back tight, shoulder blades pinched together, and your knees slightly bent. Keep your back arched and your cervical spine in proper alignment.
  3. Begin the motion by extending through the hips with your glutes and hamstrings, and you are standing with the weight.
  4. Slowly lower the weight back to the starting position, where it is supported by the chains.
Barbell Stiff Leg Good Morning

7. Barbell Stiff Leg Good Morning

79.2% Match
Glutes Barbell Intermediate Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent.
  2. Hold the barbell across your upper back, resting it on your traps.
  3. Keeping your back straight, hinge forward at the hips, pushing your glutes back.
  4. Lower your torso until it is parallel to the ground, feeling a stretch in your hamstrings.
  5. Engage your glutes and hamstrings to return to the starting position.
Clean Deadlift

8. Clean Deadlift

78.9% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Intermediate Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Begin standing with a barbell close to your shins. Your feet should be directly under your hips with your feet turned out slightly. Grip the bar with a double overhand grip or hook grip, about shoulder width apart. Squat down to the bar. Your spine should be in full extension, with a back angle that places your shoulders in front of the bar and your back as vertical as possible.
  2. Begin by driving through the floor through the front of your heels. As the bar travels upward, maintain a constant back angle. Flare your knees out to the side to help keep them out of the bar's path.
  3. After the bar crosses the knees, complete the lift by driving the hips into the bar until your hips and knees are extended.
Power Clean

9. Power Clean

78.6% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Advanced Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Start with the barbell on the ground in front of you, with your feet shoulder-width apart.
  2. Bend down and grip the barbell with an overhand grip, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
  3. Keep your back straight and chest up as you lift the barbell off the ground, extending your hips and knees.
  4. As the barbell reaches your mid-thigh, explosively pull it upwards, shrugging your shoulders and pulling your elbows high and to the sides.
  5. As the barbell reaches its highest point, quickly drop underneath it, rotating your elbows around and catching the barbell on your shoulders in a front squat position.
Band Good Morning

10. Band Good Morning

77% Match
Hamstrings Band Intermediate Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Using a 41 inch band, stand on one end, spreading your feet a small amount. Bend at the hips to loop the end of the band behind your neck. This will be your starting position.
  2. Keeping your legs straight, extend through the hips to come to a near vertical position.
  3. Ensure that you do not round your back as you go down back to the starting position.

Why You Might Need a Barbell Good Morning Alternative

The Barbell Good Morning needs a rack or a strong lift off to get a bar onto your back, and that is not always on hand. The Barbell Straight Leg Deadlift and the Romanian Deadlift ask for the same hip push with the bar in your hands, one starting from standing and the other pulled up from the floor first, so no rack is needed to load up. Good Morning Off Pins keeps the bar across your back and starts you from a dead stop against pins instead of unracking it, which suits the days a rack is free but you want to remove the swing out of the bottom. When only a band is around, the Band Good Morning loops the band behind your neck so you still hinge against resistance from above.

How to Choose the Right Substitute

Take the Barbell Straight Leg Deadlift or the Romanian Deadlift when you want the same hip push without a rack: the first starts standing with the bar in hand, the second pulls it off the floor first. Reach for Good Morning Off Pins or the Romanian Deadlift From Deficit for more demand. Wide Stance Stiff Legs sets your feet out wide, bends at the hips to take the bar with legs nearly straight, then drives the hips forward to stand. With only a band, the Band Good Morning gives you the same hinge with the band looped behind your neck and no barbell at all. Save the Power Clean for days you also want speed off the floor; the Clean Deadlift is a controlled pull from the floor that starts from a squat rather than a hinge.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can I do if I don't have a squat rack for the Barbell Good Morning?

The Barbell Straight Leg Deadlift starts standing with the bar in your hands, and the Romanian Deadlift starts with the bar on the floor and has you pull it up first, so there is nothing to unrack either way, and both ask for the same push of the hips back and forward. If a band is easier to find, the Band Good Morning loops the band behind your neck so you can still hinge against a load from above.

How do I make the Barbell Good Morning harder without adding weight?

Good Morning Off Pins starts you from a dead stop against pins rather than from the top, so you lose the swing that carries you out of the bottom. The Romanian Deadlift From Deficit has you stand on a raised platform holding the bar at arm's length, so you can lower it further before your flexibility runs out.

What changes with Wide Stance Stiff Legs compared to the Barbell Good Morning?

Wide Stance Stiff Legs sets your feet out wide, then has you bend at the hips with your legs nearly straight to take the bar, and drive your hips forward to stand. The bar stays in your hands rather than across your back, so the load sits lower.

Which Barbell Good Morning alternative also builds speed off the floor?

The Power Clean pulls the bar from the floor and finishes with an explosive pull and a catch on the shoulders, rather than the slow lowering of the Barbell Good Morning. The Clean Deadlift is the same pull from the floor without the explosive finish. Keep the Power Clean for sessions built around power rather than a slow, controlled bend.

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