With more and more of us working from home and trying to multitask nearly 24 hours a day, there seem to be fewer and fewer opportunities to exercise in the traditional way.
If you’re looking for something quick and easy to speed up your metabolism, and something you can do without leaving your desk, look no further.
Research has found that a little movement in the lower legs can undo some of the negative effects of sitting still for several hours at a time; it can even keep muscle metabolism going for hours.
Image credit: istock
These are the soleus muscles, which is the largest muscle at the back of the lower leg, located just below the gastrocnemius. It’s crucial for walking, running, and jumping, and according to this study and statementwe can unlock your metabolic potential by doing the “soleus flex.”
“We never dreamed that this muscle has this kind of ability. It’s been inside our bodies all along, but no one has investigated how to use it to optimize our health, until now. When properly activated, the soleus muscle can elevate local oxidative metabolism to high levels for hours, not just minutes, and it does so by using a different fuel mix.”
This studio included 25 people who lived a variety of physical lifestyles. He had them perform these soleus curls from a seated position, using monitors and muscle biopsies to get results.
Those results revealed that soleus push-ups led to a 54% improvement in stopping blood glucose swings and reduced insulin requirements by 60% when participants drank glucose.
Plus, it burned fat, specifically the kind that contributes to high cholesterol, by boosting muscle metabolism. Fat metabolism doubled compared to normal rates in people who didn’t do soleus pushups.
The scientists involved say that the way this muscle stays energized plays a big role in how it can influence such a change.
“The lower-than-normal dependence of the soleus on glycogen helps it work for hours effortlessly and without fatigue during this type of muscular activity, because there is a definite limit to muscular endurance caused by glycogen depletion. To our knowledge, this is the first concerted effort to develop a specialized type of contractile activity focused on optimizing human metabolic processes.”
As exciting as this is, there is a trick to the move that can be difficult to master.
“The soleus flex looks simple from the outside, but sometimes what we see with the naked eye is not the whole story. It is a very specific movement that at this time requires experience and wearable technology to optimize the health benefits.”
The team that discovered the benefits is working on refining the instructions so that all of us tied to our desks can start benefiting and staying fit, without the need to work on our feet or on a treadmill.
