Whether we are working out in office, outdoor and home, our time and energy are precious resources for training. This is especially true if you have trouble fitting in your workouts or find it difficult to recover between training sessions. Therefore, it is sensible to pack your workouts with the most effective exercises.
In this manner, the least amount of training time and effort will yield the biggest results. Powerlifters and bodybuilders utilize the good morning and Romanian deadlifts, if they can’t perform any of the mention exercises they utilize deadlift alternatives as workouts to develop strength and mass in the posterior chain (erectors, glutes, and hamstrings) and core.
Both actions rely on the same hip hinge movement pattern, which involves extending the hips forward while keeping the back neutral and the knee unaltered. But how do the good morning deadlift and the Romanian deadlift differ from one another?
What Is Good Morning Deadlift?
A hip hinge that is top-loaded from the posterior side is a truly excellent morning exercise. The loading vector and range of motion differ from a barbell hip thrust or a kettlebell swing in this exercise.
The sole distinction between a good morning, a barbell hip thrust, and a kettlebell swing is the lever action with respect to the location of the load.
A class three lever is referred to as the good morning. In this instance, the load is at one end on the upper back. The hips’ musculature provides the effort, and the movement’s bend, or fulcrum, is bearing down from the pelvis through the feet and into the ground.
Pros and Cons of Good Morning Deadlift
Pros
- Good morning is popular from an athletic standpoint since it trains the entire posterior chain. It is the most efficient “posterior core” movement a sportsperson can perform.
- Good morning is an excellent activity for strengthening the lumbar and gluteal muscles synergistically, which is essential for developing power and proper movement mechanics.
Cons
- Since they are rather unconventional, good mornings can be challenging to learn and master. Due to this, your spine’s supporting muscles and ligaments are subjected to a great deal of stress.
- Serious injury could result from even a mildly rounded back.
- This exercise will be less beneficial if your hamstrings are tight because you won’t be able to bend forward very far.
What Is A Romanian Deadlift?
Undoubtedly, the most effective exercise you can perform with a barbell or any type of weightlifting bar is the deadlift. The deadlift stimulates your posterior chain, but it also engages a variety of other muscles, just like a good morning. It would be accurate to refer to the deadlift as a full-body workout.
In addition to being an excellent muscle and strength builder, deadlifts show you the most secure approach to lifting a large object. Deadlifts should be a part of your workout routine if you want to get in shape, add muscle, become stronger, transform your physique, or are simply looking to improve your health.
Pros and Cons of Romanian Deadlift
Pros
Exercises like the deadlift are fairly natural. An almost ideal exercise for increasing strength is the romanian deadlift. Romanian Deadlifts strengthen all the key muscles in your posterior chain in addition to your legs (back muscles). So, deadlifts will be helpful if you want a wider, more muscular back.
Cons
Heavy deadlifts are excellent for increasing strength and muscle mass, but they also carry a risk of injury, especially if your form is subpar. Use a dedicated deadlift bar or a power bar along with full-sized bumper plates for the best results when performing deadlifts.
Good Mornings vs RDL – Which Exercise Is Better
1. Placement of Bar
The bar is usually positioned in a low bar position on the back during the good morning exercise. The bar is gripped in front of the body with straight arms and pulled tightly against the body when performing the RDL.
When choosing programming strategies, keep this in mind because you’ll want to control how much volume is placed on the spine overall.
2. Exercise Technique
- Good Morning – As you would when performing squats, rack and support your barbell on your upper back. To make sure it remains in place, pull the bar downward. With your core engaged, pull your shoulders down and back. Stand with your feet at about hip-width apart and slightly flex your knees.
- Hinge from your hips, push your butt back, and lean forward until your upper body is as parallel to the floor as possible without rounding your lower back or bending your knees any farther.Bring your hips forward and stand up straight again.
- RLD– Put the barbell on the ground. About nine inches, or roughly mid-shin height, should separate it from the ground. Place your feet hip-width apart under the bar as you stand. Hold the bar with an overhand or mixed grip while stooping.
- Drop your hips to a level just below shoulder height while maintaining straight arms. Squeeze your abdominals and gently arch your lower back. Drive your feet into the ground and stand up straight without bending your arms or hunching your back.
- For the duration, keep the bar close to your legs. Return the bar to the floor by bending your knees and hip-hinging. For a few seconds, pause with the bar on the floor. Then, reset your core and grip, and repeat.
3. Grip
In contrast to the RDL, where it can be a factor restricting weight or reps, the good morning has a significantly lower grip demand.
The two primary good morning grip configurations are the thumb under and thumb over grips. Double overhand, mixed grip and straps are the typical grip choices for the RDL.
4. Muscle Working
Both good mornings and romanian deadlift are effective muscle-building exercises. The primary distinction is that although deadlifts essentially engage your complete body, good mornings mostly target your hips and lower body.
Use the exercise that focuses on the muscle groups you want to strengthen. Compared to the RDL, the good morning has the potential to activate the back muscles more. Compared to the good morning, the RDL has the ability to activate the hamstrings more.
5. Building Body Mass
If you’re more concerned with gaining bulk, you should increase the volume of your workouts by adding more reps and sets while slightly lowering the intensity. Aim for 3-5 sets of 8–12 repetitions each for Romanian deadlifts, loading the bar with moderate weight.
The bar will be loaded with 30–40% of your deadlift 1-rep maximum, which is less weight than you would load for a conventional deadlift. You’ll stick to the same set-and-rep rules for good mornings.
However, you should load this exercise between 30 and 40% of your 1-rep max squat (not deadlift). When constructing muscle, the rest interval between sets should range from 1 to 2 minutes (for both RDLs and good mornings).
6. Difficulty Of Movement
Due to the bar on the back, which gives a larger stimulation for maintaining a neutral spine and is suitable for everyone, regardless of their mobility, some people believe that saying good morning is an easier movement.
The RDL calls for better mobility and increased upper body awareness because the bar is in front of the body. Because the bar is not on the back, which can be cognitively taxing, some people believe that the RDL is a simpler action. You should give them each a try and decide for yourself!
7. Strength Gain And Endurance Training
Your workout volume should be increased by including more reps and slightly lighter loads if your objectives are more strength endurance-focused.
Both RDLs and good mornings should be performed in 2 to 4 sets with 12 to 20 reps each set. When enhancing your strength endurance, you should only allow yourself a 30- to 45-second break between sets.
Conclusion
Deadlifts are a great exercise, as are good mornings. They have similar muscle development potential and can be used to achieve similar training objectives. The deadlift is perhaps your best choice if you had to pick one. Considering that it uses more muscles and may be safer, it gives you better exercise for your money.
Nevertheless, adding the good morning to your exercises would be beneficial because it is a wonderful assistance exercise for improving your deadlift performance (as well as your squat). However, deadlifts will yield the best results if you can only do one of these exercises due to time or energy constraints.
