The “good morning squat” is a common squat mistake where your hips rise faster than your shoulders as you stand up, tipping your chest forward.
Once you’re stuck in this position, you have no choice but to muscle the weight up using your lower back. This leads to three big problems:
- Higher injury risk
- Stalled progress
- Weak quads and overdeveloped glutes and lower back muscles
If you want to squat safely and build strong, balanced legs, you need to ditch good morning squats.
In this article, you’ll find out why you’re doing it, how to fix your technique, and more.
Key Takeaways
- A “good morning squat” (also known as a “stripper squat”) happens when your hips rise faster than your shoulders as you stand up in the back squat, causing you to lean excessively forward and rely heavily on your lower back to lift the weight.
- The most common cause of a good morning squat is weak quads relative to your lower back muscles. Your body naturally shifts weight toward stronger muscles, causing your hips to shoot upward prematurely.
- Poor ankle mobility can also cause good morning squats because it prevents your knees from moving over your toes, which is necessary to keep your torso upright in the squat. You can fix this by improving your ankle flexibility or using weightlifting shoes.
- Even if you have strong quads and good ankle mobility, poor squat technique can still lead to a stripper squat. Good squat cues can help with this.
- Not everyone needs to fix their good morning squat. Having long thigh bones relative to your torso and shin bones naturally forces you to lean forward.
What Is a “Good Morning Squat?”
A “good morning squat” (or “stripper squat”) is a badly performed back squat where your hips rise faster than your shoulders as you stand up, turning the movement into a good morning.
It contrasts with a well-performed squat, where your hips and shoulder rise at the same rate
Here’s an illustration to help you visualize this.
Picture 1 shows the correct position at the bottom of the squat, picture 2 shows the correct way to ascend, and picture 3 shows a good morning squat where your hips shoot up, your knees move backward, and your back ends up almost horizontal:
What Causes a Good Morning Squat?
The most common reasons people develop a good morning squat are:
1. Weak quads.
Many weightlifters think weak back muscles cause good morning squats. The logic goes like this: you fold over because your back isn’t strong enough to hold your torso upright under the weight.
While this can be the case—and having a strong back is necessary to squat heavy weights—weak quads are more commonly to blame.
When your quads are weak, your body naturally tries to shift the load onto stronger muscles—your glutes and lower back. Your hips shoot up first because it’s easier to leverage the weight this way, turning your squat into a good morning.
READ MORE: 12 Quad Exercises for Your Next Quad-Focused Leg Day
2. Poor mobility.
Limited ankle mobility can also lead to good morning squats.
Proper squatting requires your knees to travel forward over your toes. When tight ankles prevent this, your shins remain nearly vertical, forcing your hips to shoot further back. To keep the bar balanced over your feet, you then hinge forward at the hips, unintentionally performing a good morning.
READ MORE: How to Improve Flexibility and Mobility for Squatting
3. Bad technique.
If your quads are strong and your ankles are mobile, but your squats still look like good mornings, then your technique is likely the issue.
Common form mistakes—like driving through your heels, looking down, or losing back tightness—can cause your hips to shoot upward prematurely. Fortunately, these are often the easiest to rectify (more on the specifics soon).
READ MORE: How to Do the Back Squat: Form, Benefits, and More
Why Good Morning Squats Are a Problem
If you fail to fix a good morning squat, you’re inviting trouble. Here’s why:
- Less quad growth: In a good morning squat, your quads do little work. And that means they remain underdeveloped, even if you squat heavy weights.
- Higher injury risk: Good morning squats put significantly more stress on your lower back than well-performed squats, which increases your risk of injury. Moreover, since good morning squats don’t train your quads effectively, they can contribute to muscle and strength imbalances that may increase your odds of injury.
- Limits progress: Relying on your lower back and hips might let you squat heavy now, but sooner or later your strength gains will stall. To reach your strength potential, you need to use your quads in the squat.
How to Fix a Good Morning Squat
Use these three tips to fix your good morning squat:
1. Strengthen your quads.
The main reason your squat turns into a good morning isn’t simply weak quads—it’s having weak quads relative to your lower back.
Your body naturally shifts load to stronger muscles when things get tough. If your lower back is significantly stronger than your quads, you’ll tip forward into the good morning position, because that’s where you feel strongest.
Many people recommend front squats to fix this issue. Front squats are a fantastic exercise, but I disagree they’re the best solution here.
While front squats make tipping forward less severe—you’ll lose the bar if you lean too much—you can still rely heavily on your lower back to help lift the weight. And that defeats the purpose.
Instead, try belt squats, hack squats, or leg presses first. Each of these exercises strengthen your quads without letting your lower back take over.
Belt Squat
READ MORE: How to Belt Squat for Quad Strength & Mass
Hack Squat
READ MORE: How to Hack Squat for Leg Mass & Strength
Leg Press
READ MORE: How to Do the Leg Press: Benefits, Form, & Alternatives
2. Improve ankle mobility or wear weightlifting shoes.
If immobile ankles are causing your good morning squat, you have two practical solutions: increase ankle mobility or wear weightlifting shoes.
Many people think ankle flexibility requires complicated stretches. But one of the easiest—and most effective—methods is spending more time in a deep squat with your knees over your toes and your chest up.
Check out this video to learn how to do this:
Alternatively, weightlifting shoes instantly solve ankle mobility problems by elevating your heels. When you elevate your heels, it’s much easier to push your knees out over your toes and keep your torso upright.
They also provide a solid, flat base to press from. This improves your balance, which helps you drive through your entire sole, not just your heels.
3. Use the right cues.
Weightlifting cues are mental mantras you recite to help you focus on and improve specific aspects of your form. The cues that work best for fixing good morning squats are:
- Eyes on the Horizon: Keeping your eyes on the horizon helps you raise your chest and prevents you from tipping forward.
- Claw the Floor: Imagining pulling your big toe, pinky toe, and heel toward the center of your sole activates the muscles in your feet and lower legs, and creates a stable, balanced base for lifting heavy weights.
- Back into the Bar: Forcefully driving your back into the bar as you stand up prevents you from leaning too far forward.
- Knees to the Wall: Thinking about touching the wall (or rack) in front of you with your knees ensures your knees track forward.
READ MORE: The 9 Best Squat Cues for Picture-Perfect Form
When You Don’t Need to Fix a Good Morning Squat
While fixing a good morning squat usually makes sense, some people can safely ignore it altogether.
Your body proportions have a huge impact on your squat form. If you have long femurs (thigh bones) compared to your tibias (shin bones) and torso, your squat will naturally involve more forward lean.
Even with good ankle mobility and strong quads, your body simply needs to lean forward more to balance.
Here’s a video explaining this:
So, if you fall into this camp, don’t obsess over “fixing” your forward lean—it’ll only lead to frustration. Accept it’s part of your squatting mechanics and do what you can to minimize it (use cues, wear squat shoes, etc.)
FAQ #1: What is the error in the good morning squat?
A good morning squat happens when your hips rise faster than your shoulders during a back squat, causing your torso to tip forward. This shifts the weight away from your quads onto your lower back and glutes, increasing injury risk, limiting quad growth, and potentially causing your strength to plateau.
FAQ #2: What’s the fastest fix for a good morning squat?
The fastest fix for a good morning squat is wearing weightlifting shoes. Elevating your heels instantly lets your knees travel forward more easily, helping you maintain a more upright torso.
Strengthening your quads and improving your ankle mobility also help significantly, but these solutions take more time.
FAQ #3: How can I tell if I’m doing a good morning squat?
The simplest way is to record yourself squatting, then review the footage to see if your hips rise faster than your shoulders. Asking a training partner to watch you can also help. But remember, they might interpret your form differently than you would.