Last night I started to do Good morning Squats as part of my ME squat movement. Man, I have never felt so beat up after a workout and goddamit I feel it today. I’m not quite sure whether I’m doing this correctly. Firstly I unrack the bar and position myself to do a regular good morning. When my upper torso is near parallel to the floor I then descend to the floor by bending my knees. However in this position I feel all wrong. My back is rounded (I can’t help it) and my neck for some reason seems to take alot of pressure. When I rise to complete the rep my lower back is screaming.
My best squat is 360 pounds yet I had to call it quits in the GM squats when I got to 220. Any ideas?
I ran into the same problem too. GMSQ make me feel like my head is going to pop off! The guy to ask about this stuff would be big martin if he is around.
Will42
Keep your heap up, even look slightly up. Practice your form with no weight or just the bar in front of a mirror/side view. Don’t round your back, if your rounding its too much weight. I’ve been doing these 1 legged on a bosu ball since last october. But I started with about 65-95lbs on 2 legs on the gorund for a while to get the proper form. These are one of the best lifts for strength. Keep your back in the same position as you would a deadlift.
If your lower back is taking the brunt of this exercise, especially if you have kyphotic posture at the bottom of the movement you might want to think about the risk/reward ratio of such a movement. It might sound cool to do it, but if it fucks up your back it isn’t worth it.
You seen the pictures of Dave Tate(I think) doing these at Elitefts.com? Go to the q&a section, then Exercise Index, there should be two sequential pictures in Good Morning Squat.(there might be one in t-nation as well, maybe in one of the Exercises You’ve Never Tried article, but that might be harder to find)
Are you pushing ur ass back during the gms? If you are just leaning straight forward with your legs completely straight, then you are sure to have a rounded lower back when you dip into the squat. Sit back a little as you descend on the gms and allow a little bend in the knees before u are actually conciously squatting. You’ll know what I mean when u see the picture.
This question would also be a good one to ask in the elitefts q&a section - there u might also get an answer from the westside guys themselves.
i got to agree with boss here…i used ot do this move quite a bit got up to some good weights 600+ in this move but there is no way now i would do it…there is much much more effecient moves and its a very out dated move wich no one really does any more…i think you would be much better off doing chain suspended good mornings with a safety squat bar or a camberd squat bar…or using a safety squat bar for your box squats…it willaccomlish what your trying ot do with the gm-sq but to a much better degree without putting you at risk…rb