I'm really proud of this lift! I'm going to try to start posting more of my big lifts and sets that I'm proud of on this blog here.

This is an example of a weight I never thought I could possibly hit on a movement like this when I first started toying around with it a couple years ago. But with patience and some hard work I was able to vastly exceed my own expectations about what I thought was possible with this type of hinge work. 

I had done this exact exercise somewhat heavy prior to doing this lift, with sets at 240lbs for 5 (which was easy), and 270lbs for 3 (I think I had another 20lbs in the tank that day) previously, but I had never tried more than that until this workout. I had also done 250lbs 3 on a straight bar (not to pins) with a little bit more ROM than this.

Overall, I'm happy with how I executed this. I kept the back pretty tight, hips stayed high, hinge was clean, and I didn't cheat (much) during the concentric by involving the legs. One of the biggest problems with heavy good mornings is the temptation to cheat away from the hinge by bending the knees and involving the legs. This defeats the purpose of the good morning because it no longer tests the capacity of the hip extensors in relative isolation, instead it basically just turns the movement into an ugly squat.

It takes a strong back and strong glutes/hammies to do something like this, and it takes a lot of discipline to not just cheat the weight up and turn it into a squat morning.

It also takes a high threshold for discomfort. This exercise doesn't hurt me per se, but it is just really uncomfortable in a way that's hard to describe. Similar to Anderson squats. Not uncomfortably painful, but definitely painfully uncomfortable. 

Most people probably shouldn't attempt anything like this. But I am pretty confident in my ability to brace and in the overall resilience of my back at this point. I have spent a long time working my way into these types of positions under heavily loaded conditions, and an even longer time practicing and perfecting the art of hitting heavy lifts.

Next time I try this exercise for a heavy single the goal will be 350lbs. I may not have the nuts to attempt that for a long, long time though!