Researchers Find Muscles That Burn Fat And Boost Your Metabolism While Sitting

Hamilton and colleagues developed the soleus push-up, which activates the soleus muscle differently than when standing or walking. (CREDIT: University of Houston)

The same mind whose research gave rise to the idea that “sitting too much is not the same as exercising too little” made a revolutionary discovery designed to turn a sedentary lifestyle on its head: the calf soleus, though and making up just 1% of your body weight, can do great things to improve metabolic health in the rest of your body if activated correctly.

And Mark Hamilton, a professor of human health and performance at the University of Houston, discovered this approach for optimal activation—he is a pioneer in the “soleus push-up” (SPU), which effectively boosts muscle metabolism for hours, even while sitting. The soleus muscle, one of the 600 muscles in the human body, is the back muscle of the leg that runs just below the knee to the heel.

Published in a magazine iScience, Hamilton’s research suggests that the soleus push-up’s ability to support increased oxidative metabolism to improve blood glucose regulation is more effective than any of the popular methods currently touted as a solution, including exercise, weight loss, and intermittent fasting. Oxidative metabolism is the process in which oxygen is used to burn metabolites such as blood glucose or fats, but it depends in part on the immediate energy needs of the muscles during their work.

“We never dreamed that this muscle had this ability. It has always been inside our bodies, but until now, no one has ever explored how to use it to improve our health,” said Hamilton. “When properly activated, the soleus muscle can elevate local oxidative metabolism to high levels for hours rather than minutes, and does so by using a different fuel mixture.”

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Muscle biopsy showed that the contribution of glycogen to soleus muscle nutrition was minimal. Instead of breaking down glycogen, the soleus muscle can use other fuels such as blood glucose and fats. Glycogen is usually the predominant type of carbohydrate that fuels muscle exercise.

“The soleus muscle’s lower than normal glycogen dependency helps it work for hours without effort without fatigue during this type of muscle activity because there is a certain limit to muscle endurance caused by glycogen depletion,” he added. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first concerted attempt to develop a specialized type of contractile activity aimed at optimizing human metabolic processes.”

When SPU was tested, the whole body effect on blood chemistry included a 52% improvement in blood glucose (sugar) deviation and a 60% reduction in insulin requirements within three hours of a glucose drink.

The soleus calf muscle, although only 1% of your body weight, can greatly improve metabolic health in the rest of your body. (CREDIT: University of Houston)

The new approach to maintaining soleus metabolism is also effective in doubling the normal rate of fat metabolism during inter-meal fasting by lowering blood fat (VLDL triglyceride).

soleus push-up

Based on years of research, Hamilton and colleagues developed the soleus push-up, which activates the soleus muscle differently than when standing or walking.

Muscular system (back view). (Credit: iStock)

The SPU targets the soleus muscle to increase oxygen uptake – more than is possible with these other types of soleus muscle activity, as well as being fatigue resistant.

So how do you do the soleus push-up?

In short, when you are sitting, your feet are on the floor and your muscles are relaxed, your heel lifts and your forefoot stays in place. When the heel reaches its maximum range of motion, the foot passively releases to come back. The goal is to simultaneously shorten the gastrocnemius muscle while the soleus muscle is naturally activated by its motor neurons.

Although the SPU movement may look like walking (although it is performed while sitting), it is actually the complete opposite, according to the researchers. When walking, the body is designed to minimize the amount of energy used due to the way the soleus muscle moves. The Hamilton Method turns this on its head and forces the soleus muscle to use as much energy as possible for a long time.

“The soleus push-up seems easy from the side, but sometimes what we see with the naked eye is not everything. This is a very specific movement that right now requires wearable technology and expertise to optimize health benefits,” Hamilton said.

Additional publications are in the works on how to teach people to properly learn this unique movement, but without the complex laboratory equipment used in this latest study.

The researchers are quick to point out that this is not some new fitness tip or diet of the month. This is a powerful physiological movement based on the unique features of the soleus muscle.

A potential first step towards a breakthrough in healthcare

Hamilton calls it “the most important study” ever done at his Metabolic Innovations lab at UH and said the discovery could be the solution to a host of health problems caused by living for hours every day with too low a muscle metabolism caused by inaction. . The average American sits about 10 hours a day.

Regardless of a person’s level of physical activity, too much sitting has been shown to increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, dementia, and more. More than half of all American adults and 80% of people over 65 live with metabolic problems caused by either diabetes or prediabetes.

A low metabolic rate while sitting is of particular concern to people at high risk for age-related metabolic diseases such as metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

Hamilton said that inactive muscles require less energy than most people realize, saying it’s “one of the most fundamental yet overlooked problems” pointing the way to discovering metabolic solutions to help prevent some age-related chronic diseases.

“All 600 muscles combined typically provide only about 15% of the whole body’s oxidative metabolism within three hours of carbohydrate ingestion. Even though the soleus muscle makes up only 1% of body weight, it is able to increase its metabolic rate during STC contractions, easily doubling and sometimes tripling the body’s carbohydrate oxidation.

We are not aware of any existing or promising pharmaceuticals that come close to increasing and maintaining whole body oxidative metabolism to this extent.”

For more science news, visit our New Discoveries section at The bright side of the news.

Note: Materials provided by the University of Houston. Content can be edited for style and length.

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