New research from America claims that you can super-charge your metabolism by simply doing calf muscle raises while seated.
The research, published in the journal iScience, suggests using the soleus muscle in your calf in this way is more effective in sustaining metabolism than other popular methods, including exercise, losing weight, and intermittent fasting.
Dr Marc Hamilton from the University of Houston explains by sitting and lifting the heel in a certain way, the soleus muscle in the calf burns loads of glucose and fat.
Hamilton explained the research in conversation with Benito Vergotine on The Honest Truth:
Labeling it a ”groundbreaking discovery” which is set to ”turn a sedentary lifestyle on its ear”, Hamilton, a professor of Health and Human Performance, is pioneering the “soleus pushup” (SPU) which he says effectively elevates muscle metabolism for hours, even while sitting.
The soleus, one of 600 muscles in the human body, is a posterior leg muscle that runs from just below the knee to the heel.
Hamilton’s research suggests the soleus pushup’s ability to sustain an elevated oxidative metabolism to improve the regulation of blood glucose is more effective than any popular methods currently touted as a solution.
Oxidative metabolism is the process by which oxygen is used to burn metabolites like blood glucose or fats, but it depends, in part, on the immediate energy needs of the muscle when it’s working.
“We never dreamed that this muscle has this type of capacity. It’s been inside our bodies all along, but no one ever investigated how to use it to optimize our health, until now,” said Hamilton.
“When activated correctly, the soleus muscle can raise local oxidative metabolism to high levels for hours, not just minutes, and does so by using a different fuel mixture.”
Doing various tests, Hamilton says the effects of the ”Soleus Pushup” on blood chemistry included a 52% improvement in the excursion of blood glucose (sugar) and 60% less insulin requirement over three hours after ingesting a glucose drink.
The new approach of keeping the soleus muscle in the calf humming is also claimed to be effective at doubling the normal rate of fat metabolism in the fasting period between meals, reducing the levels of fat in the blood (VLDL triglyceride).
Hamilton calls it the “most important study” ever completed at his Metabolic Innovations lab at UH, and said the discovery could be a solution to a variety of health problems caused by spending hours each day living with muscle metabolism that is too low, caused by inactivity.
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