Good Afternoon-
I recently started doing good mornings with an olympic bar held behind my neck (the same way as in squatting).-bending forward 90 degrees with an arched back. I was quite enjoying it and showed it to a friend who showed it to the old fitness guru at his gym. He said the ‘guru’ was horrified when he showed it to him and said that that is a really good way to have your back permanently crippled in a few years. Any comments?
teatime!
I believe Bruce Lee’s back injury occured after doing good mornings.
Maybe that has something to do with the caution tape people put around it.
I’ve been advised to do them to strengthen my back for squatting. I’m not doing that now though, because right now I just deadlift.
Since I don’t have much experience under the bar on this subject, you’ll probably find better info here:
Absolute bunk. Good mornings are the best barbell exercise for gaining strength in your lower back, glutes, and hamstrings. Your entire posterior chain is hit and hit hard. If you keep your back arched or neutral, you will be fine.
Bruce Lee was injured doing good morings, but he was doing them wrong. His version of a goodmorning was to bend all the way over (chest to knees), thus rounding is back. He’s a perfect example of why you must always keep you back arched or neutral during any loaded lifting.
What Ford Perfect said, and as I said in the hamstring post, you must breathe into your abdomen, expand it somewhat but tighten your abs hard, in order to stabilize your core for this exercise. Also you could do stiff-legged deadlifts or just deadlifts, because it is easier to drop the weight if you have to.
Originally posted by Ford Prefect
His version of a goodmorning was to bend all the way over (chest to knees), thus rounding is back.
Holy crap! I didn’t know that!
Hey Ford, have you seen the guys over on Pavel’s board who talk about rounded back lifting? I guess they start with really light weights… I dunno, I didn’t really read any of it. What are your opinions on that?
IronFist
There’s been a lot of talk about rounded back lifting over at Dr. Squat’s forum also.
I think it’s very dangerous and not worth the risk. I’m sure dropping from a small distance onto your head may strengthen your neck, but I’m not about to train it.
Check out T-mag’s latest issues. There is a two-part interview with a gentlemen who got a PhD studdying the spine. He has a bit to say about rounded back exercises and stretches. (I only skimmed so far)
Basically when you round your back and lift a load, you put extreme pressure on your lower vertabrae and in turn the disks of cartillage between them. Your body wasn’t built to handle loads like that, so not only are you stretching the ligaments that support your spine (and inturn support your whole body), but you also put yourself in immediate danger of slipping a disk or doing more severe structural damage to the spine.
Seeing as the spine is one of the most important parts of your body, I’m not about to mess with it in hopes of gaining “fucntional” strength which is a loaded term anyway.
Originally posted by Ford Prefect
Check out T-mag’s latest issues. There is a two-part interview with a gentlemen who got a PhD studdying the spine. He has a bit to say about rounded back exercises and stretches. (I only skimmed so far)
Can you post a link?
IronFist
I found the link. It’s a good article.