In a world of endless fitness fads, the path to healthy living can be daunting and confusing. Wait, how much cayenne pepper do I sprinkle in my lemon-infused water? Do I really need to pay to ride a stationary bike in a candlelit room? You'd be better served doing an exercise that came well before—and will live long after—the Bowflex and Shake Weight collecting dust in your attic: the deadlift.

"There's nothing more primordial than picking some heavy shit up off the floor," says Barry's Bootcamp trainer Noah Neiman. "That's cave man shit."

Not just for muscle-bound meatheads, the deadlift engages your abs, lower back, hamstrings, quads, and glutes—or, more simply put: all the muscles that help you move through your average day as a living, breathing homo sapiens. Unfortunately, it's difficult and our bodies are inherently lazy, which turns out to be a poor combination.

"Our body has a very specific motion that it wants to take when you bend over and pick thing up. When the weight gets heavy, you start to rely too heavily on your weakest muscle groups, which are your lower back, and some of your lat muscles," says Neiman, who, after 19 years of training, still has to make sure he's doing his deadlift with proper form. "People arch their back, try to lift with their back."

So, how do you fix it?

The short answer is pretty obvious, and one you've probably heard before: Keep your back straight, your chest up, and your spine level. That means your neck, too. If you're looking at the ceiling, you're doing it wrong.

The longer answer: Stop skipping leg day, bro. You can't do deadlifts with weak legs. Work out your tree trunks at least twice a week, and thrice if you can. Until they're strong enough to do a proper lift—driving your hips forward, and squeezing your glutes to bring the weight skyward—do your deadlifts with light weight, or none at all. So you might look like a weakling for a few weeks; that's still better than slipping a disk.

Do it the right way, and you'll be a beast in no time. You might even see some abs, Neiman says: "My biggest change in my midsection came when I started deadlifting and doing squats and all those movements. More so than any crunch I ever did."

Clay Skipper is a Staff Writer at GQ.XInstagram