What if I told you there was a newly discovered exercise that can dramatically boost metabolism and burn fat? Would you consider trying it if it required no equipment or specialized training? What if you could do it while sitting at a desk?

That exercise exists, and it’s called a soleus pushup. The benefits were published in a 2022 study by Marc Hamilton at the University of Houston.

Researchers have known for decades that sitting all day is bad for your health. Even among people who regularly exercise, death rates are higher if your job keeps you stuck at a desk. Heart attack rates climb for jobs with you sitting for as little as three hours a day.

Several solutions have been tried, and there have been successes. Simply standing up can reduce your chances of death by a third. You can see similar benefits by walking for two minutes every hour. Desks with treadmills built in have also been shown to significantly lower risk factors.

But those solutions all have problems. Some people can’t step away and walk for two minutes every hour. Standing desks cost money, and desks with treadmills can be costly and impractical in many workplaces.

Then researchers discovered something odd about the soleus muscle. The soleus is a powerful muscle in the back part of the lower leg. It’s essential for standing, walking and running. Scientists discovered that repeatedly lifting your heel up and letting it fall down can help regulate blood sugar levels and burn calories.

According to the study author Marc Hamilton, it can raise your metabolism to high levels for hours, not just minutes. It does so by “using a different fuel mixture.” Unlike normal muscles, the soleus doesn’t break down much glycogen for fuel. Instead, it can use blood glucose and fats. That means it can work for hours without fatiguing.

That last part is important. During the study, participants did soleus pushups for 270 minutes a day. That’s 4.5 hours of heel raises.

Remember, there weren’t any sore muscles after because of how the soleus draws energy. And the results were dramatic. There was a 52 percent improvement in blood glucose fluctuations and a 60 percent reduction in insulin requirements after a meal. It reduced the fat levels in the subject’s blood and doubled their fat metabolism.

The researchers stated, “We are unaware of any existing or promising pharmaceuticals that come close to raising and sustaining whole-body oxidative metabolism at the magnitude in the current study, including drugs...”

“By comparison, Soleus Push Up (SPU) contractions were capable of raising the energy demand 10-fold greater, without any evidence of progressive fatigue or other physiological limitations in the unfit individuals studied.”

Researchers are quick to point out you need to move in a very specific way. They were able to verify it was working by using sophisticated laboratory equipment. There are publications in the works to instruct people on the best way to perform this exercise, but here’s a general idea.

The good news is you can do this anyplace you’re sitting for long periods. If you’re binge-watching a lot of TV. If you’re the passenger on a long commute. Even someone recovering from an illness can do this to improve their health before resuming a full exercise routine.

Like any exercise, you should attempt this for shorter periods until you understand how it will affect your body. No more than thirty minutes a day, three days a week to start. Then increase as tolerated.

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Reference Links:

A potent physiological method to magnify and sustain soleus oxidative metabolism improves glucose and lipid regulation

Marc T. Hamilton, Deborah G. Hamilton and Theodore W. Zderic
iScience, Published:August 04, 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.104869

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11/3/2022