What Part of the Body Does the Smith Good-Morning Exercise Train?

“Good morning” is not just a way to greet someone. It’s also an exercise you can do for your lower body, with a regular barbell or with a Smith machine -- an apparatus that consists of a fixed bar that can only move up and down. Given the lack of lateral movement, you can focus on doing the good morning without having to worry about stabilizing the bar. Learning all the muscles that the good morning trains helps you direct your focus to the appropriate muscles for maximum stimulation.

  1. Proper Technique

    • A Smith machine good morning starts with setting the bar to shoulder height. Stand behind the bar and grasp it with an overhand grip a little wider than shoulder width. Duck under the bar and press your upper back against the bottom of the bar. Stand almost fully upright and take one step forward with each foot so your feet are a little bit in front of your body. This is the starting position. Keep your back flat and legs straight at all times. Bend forward until your torso is parallel to the floor to stretch your hip extensors. Then elevate your torso to the upright position to contract your hip extensors.

    Buttocks

    • One of the two main muscles worked during good mornings is the gluteus maximus. You may better know this as the buttocks muscle or the glutes. There are actually two divisions to your gluteus maximus: a set of upper fibers and a set of lower fibers. Both of these divisions act as hip extensors and are thus activated during the good morning.

    Thighs

    • Three muscles of your thighs, specifically the rear portion, also act as hip extensors: the semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris long head. You may not have heard of any of these names because they are often collectively referred to as the hamstrings, which may sound more familiar to you. There is another muscle that is a part of the hamstrings, but does not function as a hip extensor and is thus not worked when you perform the good morning.

    Adductor Magnus

    • This may be another unfamiliar muscle to many and is better known as one of the groin muscles due to its location in your inner thigh region. When you perform the good morning, you recruit the adductor magnus. This muscle works as a hip extensor, similar to the gluteus maximus and hamstring muscles. It is only the rear fibers of the adductor magnus that do this movement. Its front-most fibers are not involved.