“I was once a fat dude with bad knees, then I experienced the awesome power of bodyweight training to shed weight and build a lean, strong body,” says BJ Gaddour, CSCS, who Men’s Health magazine calls “one of fittest men of all time.” 

Gaddour says almost anyone can become as lean and fit as he is by starting with just eight simple exercises he calls “the bodyweight eight” in his new book Men’s Health Bodyweight Burners.

Here’s one of those critical moves that’ll dramatically improve your fitness and boost fat burning: the hip hinge. It could be the most important exercise that almost nobody does. “Most desk-bound Americans’ hips and glutes are extremely weak and undertrained,” says Gaddour. “Proper hip hinging puts your body through a greater range of motion so you get the optimal benefit from the best fat-burning bodyweight cardio exercises in the world like burpees and plyo jumps.” 

Master the Movement: Start in a strong athletic base, feet hip-to-shoulder-width apart with a slight bend in your knees. “I like placing the back of my hands on my lower back because it allows me to make sure I’m maintaining a slightly arched low back throughout the movement and it also stretches my chest and front shoulders,” says Gaddour. 

The Most Important Fat-Burning Exercise You're Not Doing

Next—and this is the critical technique to get down—push your hips and hamstrings back as far as you can as if closing a door with your butt. Do this until your trunk is parallel with the floor while keeping your knees soft and that slight natural arch in your back. You’ll definitely feel the stretch in the backs of your thighs. Briefly pause in the bottom position, then push your hips forward and come to a full stand, squeezing your glutes at the top of the movement. 

Once you nail the Hip Hinge perfectly, you can progress the exercise to single-leg hip hinges, and later turn up the heat with more metabolic moves like staggered vertical jumps and hinging lunges. 

“Screw the gym,” says Gaddour. “All you need to get into the best shape of your life is you and gravity, and the bodyweight eight exercises to build upon.”

To learn more about the bodyweight eight, and for training tips and exercise secrets that will get you into the best shape of your life, pick up a copy of Men's Health Bodyweight Burnerstoday!