Here are a dozen insights about making this extremely fatigue resistant muscular movement a strong habit! 1. The soleus during the SPU activity apparently does not “discriminate” against people because of age and some other things limiting many kinds of exercise. This is specific to the SPU motion of the ankle joint during soleus contractions that is done in the absence of adding a heavy load (like the body weight when walking). Some volunteers were able to participate despite a background of very real physical challenges of living after living for years with diabetes, common orthopedic problems, or cardiovascular diseases. 2. We developed the SPU motion not just to limit the involvement of other muscles, but also to maximize the fuel utilization by the soleus (the opposite of fuel efficiency). The soleus muscle, although only 1% body weight, possesses sufficiently high quality molecular machinery for substantially improving whole-body metabolic regulation and prolonged contractile activity. 3. It is the right muscle used the right way. That is a simple expression that might help you understand the goal of this movement. SPUs do not require adding an external load and the resistance is just the weight of the leg when sitting. This relatively light load and the bent knee sitting posture allow for the soleus muscle to be activated during a relatively high velocity movement, which is much different than walking and running (and more energetically demanding). 4. Thus make no mistake, SPUs are an intense type of contractile activity at the cellular level; it just does not feel that way. Without the sense of high effort and fatigue, people can do SPUs for hours. 5. The perception from what you feel during a muscular activity is not always the same as what is actually happening inside your muscles. 6. People do not “make time” to do this muscular activity. In the real world, SPUs are spread throughout various periods of the day when doing ordinary sitting. The average person sits about 10 hours/day (~70 hours each week). That is a lot of opportunity to do SPUs. You do not sit more because you choose to do SPUs during ordinary sitting time. 7. The paradox is that although people do not “make time” to do SPUs, people spend more time doing it than any other type of muscular exercise they have ever done before. A major barrier to most kinds of exercise is that people perceive there is not enough time. People are busy and/or would rather do other things that involve sitting. 8. The SPU activity converts the most unhealthy time of the day (sitting inactive dozens of hours each week) into their most consistent healthy behavior (sitting with an active metabolism because of the soleus). 9. It is not an “either/or” type of decision. SPU muscle contractions do not in any way interfere with whatever else you are doing or want to do for good health. 10. Some people successful in making SPU a regular habit were eager to combine their discipline and grit already gained by various difficulties in life with the newfound knowledge about tapping into soleus metabolism. 11. Both unfit and fit persons can each display impressive physiological responses. 12. Ordinary people have the physical ability and plenty of time to take full advantage of this particular kind of intense muscular contractile activity for more time than they ever thought possible. Some of our research subjects started doing SPUs with high intensity soleus muscle contractions, and for prolonged periods without fatigue, even though they had no exercise training background.
60,000+. That’s the answer to the common question I am asked “How many combined soleus contractions do your 2 legs always achieve in a day because of SPUs? But I also remind people it’s better to think about the “daily contractile activity TIME” instead of “steps/day”. By choosing to take advantage of SPUs, it guarantees the local energy demand in my soleus muscles during my normal sitting time stays very high. How high? Significantly greater than if I could take 100,000 walking or jogging steps/day. But there is zero competition between SPUs and any type of exercise I want to do, because SPUs don’t cause fatigue, and only reduce the time I would have to spend sitting inactive.
Dr. Hamilton! So glad you are speaking directly on this subject. Others try to interpret your work but you explain the concept best. Looking very much forward to more. Thank you!!
Thank you Linda. Feel free to let us know what points you want to learn more about. You are right that it is always best to go directly to the source. So feel free to ask questions and comment when we can help clear up something that others may have said that appears inaccurate or not supported by our research papers. We are glad to help clarify things with simple and accurate explanations in either the website and/or video lessons.
We are doing our best. It is good to see people from remarkably diverse backgrounds around the world and from remarkably diverse cultures to live a more active healthy lifestyle. Admittedly, there is still much to teach the world about the best physiology and biochemistry so everyone knows better about how their bodies work. I encourage you and others to make it a goal to keep learning, and ask when I have not explained something enough.
Excellent follow up! Just what I was looking for to integrate the science and the "how." A lot of gratitude for your commitment for not only the deep research but making it accessible and inviting to whomrever the average person is. You have a natural, authentic style that is unique and a real gift. As an 81 yr. old marathoner (29 of them), I sense my walking and now-limited running, and overall health will be receiving an huge gift....as will the multitudes around the planet. Mahalo Plenty, Dr. Marc!
Aging impacts every single one of us. So do time constraints of a busy lifestyle. Your attitude is hitting the bullseye of the best approach to optimizing success! SPUs are important at ANY age. SPUs are what we can all do in the part or the day and days the week we that we are not able to exercise by running or whatever. No matter what limits us from running or doing other activities, we have no reason to abandon our discipline of enjoying an active vibrant lifestyle. In some ways, lots of time engaged in muscular activity becomes more necessary the older we get!
Another great video. I feel no fatigue I feel warm from head to toe. This is absolutely amazing. The human body is a miraculous machine, thank you for tapping into one of its many wonders and sharing it. Thank you.
You are welcome. As this becomes a habit over a period of months, there are a series of waves for additional responses that are less common in the first week. In part because of the feasibility and safety, SPU muscular activity is designed to provide you the unique benefits of keeping your muscle metabolism elevated for more time per day than anything else. That leads to unique feelings and physical responses we are still learning much about.
Thank you for your interest and thoughtful concern for many people who for various real reasons, have had barriers limiting their muscular abilities prior to this kind of research. It’s often fantastic to see someone who previously could only sit inactive most every hour of the day eagerly enjoy displaying their desire for making this a habit for much of the day (hours, not minutes)!
@@marchamiltonphd You are awesome. The work you do is awesome. You are changing lives. I introduced this to great granny. She is hooked! Now she wants a boyfriend. 😊
You are welcome. Please excuse my delay in replying. It’s hard to always be quick enough because I do this video content “in my free time”. But it’s enjoyable to learn from people around the world like yourself. Keep it up!
Dr Hamilton thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for because I had tried to do SPUs but couldn’t do it for more than a few minutes. Traditional exercise is not an option for me right now but at the same time I want a way to manage my glucose levels. My breast cancer treatment left me with chronic fatigue and some days I can barely do my grocery shopping without completely exhausted and needing to lie down afterwards. As I write this I have been doing SPUs for 15 minutes with no fatigue! Thank you so much and good luck in your research!
I’m sure people reading this feel for your difficult situation, and pleased to learn of your initial success. We may be able to provide you lessons learned from research to help optimize your gradual improvement in making SPUs a daily habit. There is a method for some individuals to send more private comments via the email in our website, if you wish. I wish we had the resources to explain the “how to” and “why physiologically should I” in a more substantial way. But the research is advancing very rapidly and we will provide additional publications that extend to much more than just glucose control.
I was diagnosed peripheral artery disease two weeks ago. The pain in my lower left leg was excruciating. I started this exercise , and my pain has diminished significantly. Obviously this exercise has improved the blood circulation in my legs
Just found you and think this is GENIUS! 👏 I am doing it now with my morning coffee to make sure glucose level is proper, and I can feel it working. ❤ Thank you!
Psalm 139:14-17 seems apropos! I agree that it is genius. But it is not my smarts. Just 3.5 decades of hard work and 20 years of developing this specific approach for the goal of sustaining muscle metabolism by the most special muscle in the body. I too am thankful for a solution to maintain healthy metabolism all day long.
@@marchamiltonphd Amen! I could tell you were sharing your God-given blessing and inspiration. I laughed with joy when i saw the first video - I’ve been seeking and now, message received!! Well done Brother. Thank you for the humble and genuine reply.. and Praise the Lord 🙏❤️
Some of the advice we give new research subjects is available by emailing us at our website. But here is a starter kit just shared with others. 1. The goal is to make it a sustainable habit. Each and every day. Most find it feasible some of every hour of the day when doing normal seated behaviors you do anyway. 2. Make a short term goal for 2 days for a high frequency and brief duration that you know you can do with a strong commitment (such as “I will do SPUs for 2-5 min 20 times today. The average person sits down more than 20 times a day for a total of 600 minutes. So there is plenty of opportunity if you commit. 3. Then after that short term victory, you are ready to make a 1 month commitment. You choose how much. For me personally, I find it easiest to simply tell myself that I will spend at least half of all my sitting time doing SPUs, every hour I sit and every day. But I find that once I get going, there’s no reason to stop! It makes me feel energized knowing I feel better and am constantly saturating my body with the effects of a healthy low stress kind of muscle metabolism. 4. If you wish to email, articles are available upon request. Share your success too.
Thank you for this video I saw Andrew Huberman talking about it. His description was brief with the only exception that it will help out to lower your glucose levels, but the videos that Yelp put explains exactly what we need to do. Thank you so much for this.
It’s naive for someone to think glucose metabolism is the only reason, or even the primary reason. First, I ask people to read the research article. It describes a general principle about why we needed to develop a method of for hours (not minutes) each day. The article also gives some other outcomes than just glucose (including lowering insulin concentration as much or an even larger % as the glucose), c peptide, VLDL triglyceride, and the calorie burn. But those are only the tip of the bigger iceberg of effects. More studies have been done and results will be forthcoming when ready for public dissemination. Finally, I can share that in part because of the anatomical location of the soleus muscle and it’s role in walking and running, we’ve interesting studies coming about the role SPUs play in even non-metabolic benefits for improving walking abilities of elderly and even athletic performance of young fit people.
Thanks for your reply I just like to keep one thing in mind if he wasn’t because I saw the video of Andrew Huberman, I would have not known anything about this Solis pusher and doing a search. Found me to you and look at your video and I’m glad to know there’s a lot more benefits push-up just goes levels I’m interested to know as much as possible and I’ll keep looking for watching your videos to get as much information as possible.
Thanks for this great content, Dr Hamilton! Couple questions: 1) Understanding that more research needs to be done on the broader systemic implications of SPUs, has there been anecdotal evidence from those you're working with that doing SPUs alone (without additional more traditional exercise) can have a notable impact on weight loss? 2) If you're unable to comment on the above, is there a repository of testimonials anywhere where folks who have been employing SPUs can share their experiences with the world? Would love to hear the different potential benefits that folks are reporting from using SPUs while we await the rigorous clinical studies to validate. Thanks!
Take a look at some of the recent replies to questions about energy expenditure (eg Net vs Gross) and type of fuels (fats vs glucose). Also see the pinned comment speaking about weight loss in general. The key to any kind of weight loss is 1) making it sustainable 2) realizing that weight balance is a function of energy expenditure relative to energy intake. Some kinds of exercise may stimulate energy intake. See for yourself how best to select a healthy eating pattern, while at the same time maintaining a good steady elevated energy expenditure of muscle with SPUs intermittently throughout the day, as much as you want.
Thanks god for this video! All kinds of short floating around about in all sorts of languages (i am in Korea) but none of them talks about the most saliant points! In fact, i was doing it all wrong, jerking, pushing with the tip of the toe, using tigh muscles, etc. and feeling the fatigue about 1-2 mins it....i am still not 100% sure if i am doing it right but with your pointers, especially about fatigue, i think i may be able to get it. Really appreciate taking your own time to do this!
@@HongHong-pu4ye good for you - and it’s not just the current video itself (and others in my channel) but notice there are hundreds of thorough responses to most comments. Those responses are sometimes more informative than the videos! Over the next month make it a goal to read them all more than once; and while doing that always do SPU contractions.
@@marchamiltonphd I was just starting to read people's comments and your answers! They are rich with information, and very effective as they come from people's trial and errors, and contain your responses. Thank u again.
@marchamiltonphd Thanks so much for taking the time to make these videos, respond to comments and share this information with the masses. Especially appreciate your response below regarding people on low carb diets. I was trying to understand whether this has any relevance for me, since my blood sugar always remains so stable, but it sounds like it benefits anyone who tends to struggle with consuming more energy than they expend.....i.e. most of us in the developed world.
Thank you for your very instructive videos, Dr Hamilton. I am a petite woman of 4 feet 11 inches. When I sit at the table, my feet touch the floor and I can easily do the soleus push up (hoping that I do them correctly). But, in the evening, I sit on a lazy boy in the living room to read or watch TV. I have to put my feet up in the reclining sofa because my feet don’t touch the floor. Otherwise, I can’t sit comfortably in the sofa and I don’t want to sit in a straight chair like I do during the day, to do other tasks. Since my feet don’t touch the floor, I can’t do the soleus push-up in the reclining sofa. I am wondering if there is another way to do it, in that position? I am a retired clinical nurse who is and have always been very interested in health prevention. Thank you very much and have a great day!
Email via the website. With just a little discussion, we can solve it just right for you personally. You aren’t alone with regards to some furniture and body sizes needing extra tips. But we are used to it and have lots of experience to focus on what will solve it for you personally.
@@marchamiltonphd thanks a lot, Dr Hamilton. As I was hoping for an answer from you, I discovered your website and I already contacted you with my question and another one.
@@marchamiltonphd will there be an upcoming video showing modifications for people who can't sit comfortably with their feet on the floor? 🙂 Happy New Year!
Yes it is a controlled smooth movement on the upstroke, and then relax so it is passive coming back down. See the short introductory instructional video that my lab recently put on RUclips to start. Expect to continually improve throughout the coming year in both your technique and lifestyle habits. Be careful listing to others that were not directly involved in the research. We explained in the article and prior videos that it is not uncontrolled fidgeting or leg shaking, etc. Somewhat like learning to ride a bicycle or throw a ball, with time it becomes an automatic habit that does not require much thought, but it is still a controlled movement. We will do our best to teach explain in much more detail both on a website and in videos.
Hello Doctor. May i ask do we have to do both legs at same time or can we just do one leg in session? Is it as effective as lets say doing soleus pushup of both legs together? Waiting for your kind reply. Thanks in advance and keep up the good work you are doing to humanity. I salute you, sir.
Thank you for your polite question. Sometimes 1 leg alone is all you can do depending on where you are sitting. In that case, know that 1 leg doing SPUs well can be impressive. In theory, if you were doing a highly controlled experiment and measuring fuel used for working muscle, then 2 legs would use 2X more fuel than 1 leg. But I’ve seen that when sitting where the floor or chair/sofa are not like I like it, the 1-leg kind is better. The rule of thumb is to keep moving because no one can have a very high muscle metabolism when muscle isn’t active. But like I said in the video, you can be guaranteed that when soleus is working for you, it must use a lot of fuel. Compared to the energetics of all 600 of your resting muscles combined (one-third body weight), most people can learn how to keep muscle metabolism at a level 4X higher each minute they choose to do so with 2 leg SPUs, or to double the body’s muscle metabolic rate by high quality 1-leg SPUs.
Great excercise.I can feel the difference between my bad leg which cannot do the excercise at this point to the same level as the good leg but would continue as this makes sense for my circulation issue and will help my diabetes I think
I do not know your specific leg problems or barriers that make exercise hard for you to do. And social media is not an appropriate place to offer specific medical advice. However, I am glad to share some factual issues and general observations from research insights. Motivated by people like yourself, I pasted a detailed comment for you to read closely in the first comment (see the comment I tagged on Sept 11 2023).
I do alot of cycling and find my calf muscles are quite developed as soleus and gastrocnemius muscles are important in the pedal stroke. Ive been doing the soleus push ups as well since i read about the benefits regarding blood sugar levels.
Athletes and fitness enthusiasts of all ages are using SPUs in training. The SPU activity trains these muscles at a greater intensity and duration than is possible during cycling (or running). The VO2 (oxygen demanding metabolism) of the calf is much higher when doing SPUs walking or running (see Figure 2C in our iScience article). Also remarkably, that data was during several hours of SPU activity and only minutes of treadmill exercise. You are correct that calf plantarflexion is important in cycling, running, and walking. That lower leg muscle group is dominated by the soleus because it is much stronger than either the lateral or medial gastrocnemius (the 2 separate muscles at the top outer part of the calf, whereas the soleus is both much wider and much longer all the way to the heel). But it is not just about what happens inside the muscles, and includes how the systemic responses good for other parts of the body.
Hi doctor Hamilton very pleased youtube recommended your video just wonder if that push up done in alternate movement? That means left right left right alternatively
EITHER “alternating” or “dual” (both legs at same time) offer variety. **The only “non-negotiable” mindset everyone would be wise to embrace is about TIME: every minute you sit with a high vs low metabolism matters.
It’s OK to have variations depending on the situation. The simplest advice is like the Nike advertisement said, “Just Do It”. The key physiological thing to consider is “what matters is what each muscle sees locally each minute of the day you are awake!!!”, as explained below. So it doesn’t matter if each of your muscles are working at the exact same moment (“dual” mode) or more like when you walk one leg at a time (“alternating mode”). EVERYONE REMEMBER THIS SHORT PHYSIOLOGICAL LESSON (it’s easy): Each soleus works independently when its individual motor neurons activate it. Each has its own blood supply and metabolic machinery sensing and responding to the local energy demand. Each side locally turns on hundreds of processes controlling the molecular genetics, making new proteins. The end result is that each muscle gets more endurance and better physiological machinery to regulate inflammation and glucose and fat metabolism and other processes. Those local events improve distant tissues in the body (brain, heart, fat, liver, pancreas, etc).
You are welcome. If you believe that you have a unique biological reason for asymmetry in the muscle on each side of the leg, it’s OK to email off-line for more discussion.
Lots. The article you’ve seen was just the tip of a much bigger iceberg. It will take forward thinking people of all types, to provide funding, and to assist in other ways. There are many various metabolic health issues that must be addressed. But research can address how a high dose of low stress soleus activity impacts brain health, cardiovascular health for multiple disease conditions, aging well, movement disorders of several kinds, fatigue disorders and inflammatory issues often related to autoimmune problems. SPUs have opened up the door to researching many questions related to the general issue of “what happens in our human bodies” now that we have a way for very intense soleus muscular activity to be sustained for many HOURS per DAY (not just 75-150 minutes/week like most public health goals have been for traditional exercises). Think about that. We reported in the first article only on some of the glucose and lipid metabolism effects in a single day of doing SPUs. But there are long term adaptive benefits to muscular activity that aren’t evident in just one day.
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The SPU is most effective to improve your health AND fortunately also most comfortable when done correctly. One tip I was giving was to place the toes below the knee, rather than putting the toes in front of the knee. Sometimes this is easier to do when you slide your hips forward, and sometimes this is easier if you pull your feed backwards (depending on what you are sitting on). The reason for this optimal position is that it makes your soleus muscle strongly positioned for pushing up your legs to a higher level, while also elevating your metabolic demand much greater than in other positions. The research study shows you can increase your metabolic demand (energy for muscle work) more than twice as much by this little tip. If I missed giving you a complete answer, I am sorry because I may not understand your comment because I am still learning your language. Please ask a follow up question if you want more help.
To keep it brief (a lot can be said!) here are a few points. 1. When doing the natural kind of motor neuron stimulation (SPUs), the electrical impulses are imperceptible. It would be impossibly painful to get the same response by man made stimulators. 2. The effect of this is if you want a very intense stimulation of the soleus for a long time, by far the SPU will do that best (more intense than even running). 3. SPUs are also is hassle-free to do anytime/anywhere without needing to wear electronics. So there is a physiological and practical benefit from simply learning an easy new habit. Extra details: I’ve spent a lot of time researching electrical stimulation and it definitely has its place. But artificial stimulation of the soleus isn’t nearly as powerful in raising metabolism (as SPUs) and takes a lot MORE discipline to do everyday throughout the day (than just learning how to make SPUs an automatic habit). BTW - the following fact won’t make some happy but can’t be overstated. Companies trying to sell you electrical stimulators often make dishonest health claims.
Cool. Thanks for sharing your immediate first responses like that. It may help other people who are hesitant to give it a try. BTW can you imagine how surprised (or “weird” as you say) we felt when we started to see that our oldest research subjects said exactly what you did (“it felt about the same at the end as the the beginning”) after 15 min of working with the soleus metabolism at a level 8X higher than is possible during walking, then again after 150 min and, when at the end of the day after about 500 minutes! Some of those people had never exercised over 1-2 hours at a time in their whole life and had medical conditions precluding them from other kinds of exercise. I personally find it empowering to know that this is something I can do for myself to sustain many benefits of a heck of a lot of muscle metabolism regardless of other problems encountered during old age.
Doctor, it was a very nice presentation. Please clarify whether I can do SPUs with the right leg for some time and then keeping the right leg at rest with the left leg or SPUs should be done with both the legs at a time simultaneously?
@@dulal7328 Yes you can. “Metabolic inertia” = A practical mindset that you want to keep your metabolic engines in muscle humming all day while awake (as opposed to the stop-start cycles you would be forced to do without this SPU soleus activity). Analogy - If you know anything about some kinds of machines. Apparently it’s FAR less wear and tear and better for a long lifespan of a compressor within an air conditioner in homes to be “multistage” instead of turning on-off dozens of times per day. A multistage motor keeps working all day, without having to RE-start each time. Instead the AC keeps working at a low level (like your 1-leg option) sometimes and higher level sometimes (2-legs), but avoids the harsh stop-start option (all or none). For some of the evidence for this in muscle physiology: Read the Discussion section of our SPU publication (see free link in our website and video description).
@@dulal7328glad to help. Also don’t forget to read all the other comments to the existing videos in this channel. It’s ok to ask about them too. There are over 200 detailed replies I’ve provided at the last count.
Hi Dr. Hamilton, I have several questions so I'll post them all separately to be easier to respond to. In reading all the other comments I understand you like to frame the question as "how much can we do" as opposed to "what is the minimum effective dose". Are we to assume since glucose lower benefits kicked in at the 30 minute mark that ANY amount is better than 0 amount and it is worth accumulating time in 10-15 minute increments if that is all we are able or willing to do?
I’m not sure of your question but suspect it’s a general statement about “what’s a good tip for a starting point” as to how long to do SPUs. For everyone just getting started, it’s ok to start with as little OR as much as is right for you personally. My lab team has a lot of experience and expertise from working with all kinds of people. One general rule of thumb is most people end up surprising themselves. I sometimes tell people, just make the small goal of 2 minutes of SPUs each time you sit down. That’s easy of course. But once they go 2 minutes, they do more. People often realize “since I have to sit throughout the day anyway as part of normal life, I might as well also include SPUs as a habit and raise my metabolism for more time than I am already doing with my other exercise habits”. So for example if you sit down for 15 minutes to talk on the phone, make the goal of learning the habit to start doing SPUs for the first 2 min. That may turn into the whole 15 min phone call. Then later in the day you may sit to watch the TV news, now you may get another 15 min. Before you know it, you will be doing SPUs more time than you’ve done any other muscular activity.
This is a weird applied research question, Dr Hamilton, but do you think people who play the drumset might unknowingly enjoy the benefits of SPUs? Since drumming often involves raising the heel and pressing on the ball of the foot.
Thanks for the question. One thing to remember is that we spent years to develop the biochemistry and biomechanics. There is definitely a little bit of a learning curve where some people improve their responses with help from an experienced researcher. But one thing you raise that helps a lot of people is to use music! For one it makes developing the habit enjoyable. Today I spoke with lab members about filming some of this in 1 min videos to show people like you how to optimize the SPU motion during both slower relaxing music and also during more energetic tunes. Thanks again for sharing your ideas about drummers as I need to enlist some! BTW- Someone else suggested adapting the old school sewing machines for a more energetic SPU motion.
The best approach is to habitually use this to keep muscle metabolism elevated throughout the times of day whenever sitting. That will improve not only glucose but other important things such as doubling fat oxidation. But the more limited acute option you you may have inferred was to do this instead of sitting when either blood glucose or insulin are too high after carbohydrate ingestion (typically 30-150 min in the postprandial period).
I don’t know specifically whether it will tend to help or aggravate your situation, but here are related issues to consider. Even just when walking (not running), that huge tendon in the back of the ankle has an enormous amount of extra tension put on it. This happens because it resists the forces applied by your ENTIRE body weight tugging on it. The Achilles tendon actually stretches and then recoils (springs back to a shorter length) during each step to propel the body forward. That is very unlike when sitting to do an SPU. In fact, this was a major fact we used when developing the SPU activity. Why? Because we wanted to develop a way to safely help aging people keep using the soleus muscle without the kind of high force-stretch-shortening action in the Achilles. Although that is better for sustaining metabolism than brief amounts of walking/running, I don’t know if the SPU motion will also help to heal the Achilles by nourishing it with the extra blood flow. However, often after a knee replacement, patients are prescribed protocols to repetitively bend the knee without body weight for many hours per day (not minutes like normal exercises).
No it’s better while sitting for 2 simple reasons. You can do it many more hours per week while sitting than while standing. Secondly (and less obviously), if done right, there is not as much extra Soleus energy use to do it standing despite having to load it with your entire body weight. I for example can activate my Soleus just as intensely with seated SPUs as with standing heel lifts! But I don’t get sore from doing SPUs after ANY amount of time (even 50 hours per week!).
Thanks for India.. I am benefiting alot from this exercise.. But one doubt though... What should be the height of the chair?.. also to reduce fat when can we do this? thanks in advance sir
It’s always a good idea to adjust the way you sit to maximize comfort and to also help you do the SPU motion optimally. It’s not just the height. But also to position the feet more under the knees (see the other video where this is demonstrated), it’s also sometimes helpful to slide your legs and bottom forward. When doing this it is also helpful to comfortably tilt your upper body back against the chair/sofa.
One key variable to the amount of energy required by the Soleus is how much total range of motion it moves. So it’s not critical or necessary that the heel touches the floor. You can move the foot position to any place that it seems to be comfortable and helps you most easily maintain a wide range of motion. Also, you can count with a clock the number of contractions you do in one minute. Start at between 40-60 per minute and try to move the heel up and down over a comfortable but long range of motion. Then as you speed it up, keep that same range of motion. Most people can do it at 100/min and maintain a good range. But after about 130/min, the range decreases. That means you are moving too fast. While doing this you will find the ideal foot placement and if you prefer the heel to touch down or not. FINALLY AND importantly, no exercise does you good if you don’t do it!!! The more TIME you spend working muscle is related to the direct benefits. So while MAKING THIS A NEW HABIT THE TIME per day is a good goal. In summary: You asked about the quality. I explained that is based on the range of motion more than just the rate. But I also explained that the quantity of time is where you need to make serious goals and remain committed to it every day.
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You are welcome! As far as the time YOU GET TO CHOOSE to do SPUs habitually, think of it this way. The muscle metabolism is elevated IMMEDIATELY once you start doing it. So when you sit down, start doing SPUs if even for just 2 minutes. I bet that you will find it hard to stop at 2 minutes. The high soleus metabolism can be SUSTAINED at an elevated level for as many minutes AS YOU CHOOSE. How many people in the world do you think will one day say it is really odd to ask someone like me, "how LITTLE may I do something that is safe, free, and good for me?" For me personally, I want to spend as much time doing things that are good for me, so long as I don't have to stop doing something else that is good for me. But with SPUs, I do not have to give up anything else; I still exercise as much as possible. But I must spend at least 7-10 hours/day awake and sitting like everyone else. It is fascinating to witness millions of people in diverse cultures around the world who have begun to understand why and how to replace unhealthy sitting with a very healthy special kind of soleus metabolism. Here is what happens frequently. It is not uncommon for people to at first make a goal of finding just one place they know they will sit every day for 30-60 min, and decide they can and will comfortably do SPUs in much of that hour. Within just a week, they realize they can keep this up and eventually spend more time raising their metabolism with SPUs than any other exercise as they get older. They also start to realize just how many hours they needlessly were living with a low rate of muscle metabolism. They start to appreciate the undeniable scientific fact that no matter how much they exercise or manage their nutrition, muscles do not need much fuel (from either fat or glucose) to make energy when the muscle is resting with a low energy demand (like your car not needing much fuel when it is parked). Then finally, most people who over time learn how to do SPUs better and better each week, end up finding it an automatic habit that fills up 25%, 50%, or even more of the time they are sitting throughout the week.
I noticed that when I was doing SPUs the “wrong” way my heart rate went up over 100 bpm and when I did. SPUs correctly my heart rate did not increase . Is this an indication that I am doing the exercise correctly now ?
Yes there should not be either a large heart rate (HR) or blood pressure (BP) response. We reported that the heart rate barely increased in our first published research study. Blood pressure and heart rate can remain at normal resting levels in most people. One reason that HR and BP go up during most kinds of exercise (like hand gripping or standing heel lifts) is because there a metabolic stress inside the working muscles that stimulates tiny nerves embedded in muscles that lead back to the brain. What we need (and working on) are tools to help everyone like you learn how to optimize Soleus activity with SPUs (“the right way”).
What can be done to select that the fuel burned would be glucose? My diabetic mil is underweight and is transitioning to glucose control through diet and exercise rather than meds. She can not afford to burn any fat but the diet to control her sugars has her burning fats. Would this not cause the Soleus muscle to also burn fat?
Many people ask about our research related to aging. In some ways it’s even MORE important for elderly people to spend a lot of time living with muscular activity (so long as it’s safe and achievable like sitting to do SPUs). Here is one basic fact that you and everyone will want to know. I can not address any persons individual specific medical problems but this concept is useful to know. There are different kinds of fat that can fuel muscle (“body fat” under the skin which we have lots more of and “blood fat” that is more dangerous for poor aging). We discovered a long time ago that the INactive soleus muscle loses the ability to bind and break down the blood fat in old age. It’s been known a long time that as people age, the regulation of different kinds of blood fat (also called “lipids) is associated with many disease processes. It is interesting to know that depending on the specific muscle type and the specific way it is made to work, muscles may sometime not use any blood fat and sometimes lots of blood fat. The soleus is a special muscle and SPUs are a unique way to use it safely while sitting (ie you don’t risk falls, the need to leave home, etc). In agreement with what our research studies are showing, SPUs work by a very different energetic process than most exercises or any medicines. If you eat high carbs, the soleus will tend to burn more blood glucose for a short while, until the body wants it to switch back to using a kind of blood fat. We learned that SPUs in the fasted state (no eating for just a few hours) burn up the kind of fat that is in the blood. Here’s why. Because this unique muscle is very enriched with an enzyme called LPL that binds to and breaks down the more dangerous VLDL blood fat (the kind that causes heart disease and/or inflammation), we learned the soleus uses this kind of “bad” fat preferentially. We study this enzyme LPL and VLDL fat because it is known to be difficult to “turn on” this kind of fuel use during normal exercise. There are not any drugs that help to burn up this fat by muscle anything close to as well as soleus activity either. People with diabetes and prediabetes and some kinds of cardiovascular disease (for genetic and other reasons) have too little LPL activity. That is just one reason why people like myself do SPUs whenever I’m sitting. I want to take advantage of the natural processes of muscle metabolism that the body has in it to help avoid the common problems associated with sluggish VLDL fat metabolism (cardiovascular disease and inflammation are common causes of things like dementia and other age associated problems). Hope this answer is both thorough enough to help you learn something new and useful about how the human body works?
As much as you want to increase your health. Please when you have the time, read all the many comments I’ve responded to other people. You will see hundreds of tips. Many deal with the TIME issues. One tip here is for example this easy one to remember EACH TIME you sit down. Sitting inactive (muscles turned off) does not do your body any good. But keeping Soleus blood flow and metabolism is a feasible way to keep those direct health benefits on many times each day and with a safe comfortable way to fit your own lifestyle.
Thank you for your great work on this. Can SPU be done while standing? I tried doing the same movement while standing for about 15min alternating my legs and very less fatigue. Do you think this will work?
I need to make a video of this and write a more detailed explanation. It’s a common question. For now I’ll just give you a quick answer. Do the standing heel lifts as a method to make stronger muscles. Do that for brief amounts of time to minimize injury and maximize strength training. But that’s the “wrong gear” for being able to sustain a high Soleus muscle metabolism like you can do with SPUs at a few periods of the day you want to while sitting anyway. It adds up such that by the end of the week you’ve been able to maintain a healthy muscle metabolism for many hours with SPUs (as opposed to minutes of most activity).
You are welcome. Make it a habit and I’ll feel even more proud of your commitment and glad for your accomplishments. Feel free to make it a goal to see if in 1 month you can do some SPUs each and every time you sit down for one day. Share your success to encourage others if you want.
Hello Dr. Hamilton, I had an abnormal experience today. I checked my sugars first thing in the morning and it was 103 mg/dl.. I did about 10 mins of SPUs, and just rested for about 45 mins. Didn't eat anything or exercised. Just had a glass of water. When I checked again, it was still at 103. What do you think could be the reason?? Usually my levels are lowered by 20-25 points with 10 mins of SPU, but not this time.
We should probably discuss this off-line via email. Here I’ll make a general comment that is very important for everyone to know for certain. In my research findings, the soleus sometimes uses mostly fat for fuel, and sometimes mostly blood glucose. We have never assumed that SPUs always decrease blood glucose concentration each moment of activity. We did find that after ingesting a 75 g load, people who were doing SPU activity correctly all reduced the rise in glucose that takes place beginning after about 30 min of the sugar test drink. A huge issue to consider in all studies of various exercises in general, is asking “how long after stopping exercise will the metabolic rise last?” That is complex and depends on several factors. But in general, the blood glucose lowering after stopping activity is “less certain” than the blood glucose lowering DURING thr momentary activity. Makes sense? I hope so because not enough physicians and scientists seem to appreciate this; so I suppose the real world patients have not been taught this frequently. I’ll add one major point that is good logic everyone maybe can understand. When you turn off any engine, it is self evident the fuel use plummets back down. So it is for muscle metabolism! That is ONE big reason WHY we developed the SPU activity; it is a rare way to keep muscle metabolism humming at healthy levels throughout the day.
There have not been overuse injuries in research my lab has supervised. Your question is good and raises several issues we haven’t had time to comment enough about. Even elderly people in their mid-90s or people who have never done any previous exercise have not had side effects. Part of this is hopefully that they get good expert supervision. Part is good technique (more videos to come). A big part is also fortunately the human anatomy itself! We documented some of this in the published article. SPUs move the ankle in the normal range of motion as in walking but without holes or uneven ground to cause twisting. The weight lifted during an SPU is only 25% of body weight. The soleus is naturally built stronger than other muscles, and the Achilles tendon is also remarkable. Ankles don’t get arthritis or need replacement as much with age like knees, hips, vertebrae, shoulders, wrists, etc. So yes, “it’s the right movement for the right muscle” for prolonged contractile activity. Important general point: anything done incorrectly can cause problems. So keep learning and I’ll try to offer explanations of what we learn through research. If pain occurs, then stop, get advice, and evaluate how to safely do it best. As with many things, people have to be their own life coach and become educated by only genuine experts. This RUclips channel and the website are largely in RESPONSE TO observing for the past 8 months millions of people trying it on their own. So what about the high dose of muscle metabolism we emphasize in our studies? Is it “fanciful” to think there would be any practicality to it, as one respectable PhD once described this line of research? The recent public enthusiasm after the first SPU paper from my lab was unexpected. We set out on this research path decades ago simply because we took a physiological perspective to learn how the body works. SPUs are obviously unique from other popular types of muscular activity. This surely isn’t about taking short-cuts or a quick fix. Benefiting from muscular activity over the whole day takes commitment. Gimmicks aren’t focused on physiological methods as much as they are lowering the bar to the point of ineffectiveness. We all know the popularity of watches giving people a reminder to stand up at the end of each hour, even though it’s proven impotent. There have always been a lot of public health messages focused on “how little time each week can we advise people to be active”. That kind of attitude is not driven by human physiology as much as it is marketing.
As much as you choose to elevate your muscle metabolism. We see fat and/or glucose metabolism and cardiovascular responses start to appear quickly (minutes, immediate). You’ve heard the expression “where there’s a will there’s a way”. The SPU was developed to give you and other people in need of “a way” to benefit more from your own soleus muscles health promoting effects. It’s no secrete that muscular activity is key to aging better, and achieving better health at any age. So now we can think about your question a little differently. Notice researchers used to focus mostly on answering if there was any effect of brief amounts of activity. They didn’t try to develop an innovative type of muscular activity well suited to optimizing health by sustainable activity (fatigue resistant and safe in high doses). My lab is more enthusiastic about the more novel question than the minimal benefit by the minimal dose. That is necessary for people who truly want to combat diseases difficult to prevent/manage and to age optimally. We asked what can we provide people like you as one potentially potent solution that is actionable by anyone/anywhere. It’s also important that this can be continued all the way until the end of the natural lifespan (to extend the benefits of muscular activity when you need it the most in old age). It’s best to make it a habit before those last years, but we find it helps the elderly significantly even if they start at old age.
It generally reduces the intended benefits. Adding load induces fatigue. This isn't intended to replace strength training. And strength training soleus contractions are done so briefly, that strength training is a poor substitute for SPU activity (AKA "soleus endurance training" if you want to call it that). SPU activity is what you do within the dozens of hours each week that you are sitting at otherwise too low of a rate of muscle metabolism to sustain health generating processes underlying the contribution of optimal muscle physiology.
If you want to learn don’t be discouraged because from what you’ve said it appears you are still early in the learning curve. But I can give you and everyone a general comment about biomedical research vs self experimentation: people in the public should not be warned to not listen to anyone who tells them to do a quick experiment in the themselves without lots of careful planning and understanding of how to test a treatment. I can guess for example from what you’ve said that with further thought you would agree to a couple things. We obviously do not know what methods you used, including doing the movement correctly without sufficient practice and more expert lessons. However it appears you made a general incorrect assumption that shouldn’t be done with any kind of potential treatment (whether that be a drug, supplement, exercise, etc). Given the way glucose regulation works in the body, it’s virtually impossible to do an activity and take a blood sample 20-60 min later and determine from that whether or not the exercise did or didn’t impact glucose regulation. You are welcome to read the research methods we used but that’s unlikely what you want to do. Sort of like you can also read an automobile repair manual but most likely you’d say it takes more education and experience than just reading. The “bottom line” is not to be “sad” but trust something you can be more certain about. 1. When you work a muscle it needs fuel. When it’s not working it needs negligible fuel. 2. The soleus is enriched with metabolic machinery better than other muscles. 3. We did our best effort to study it during SPUs, and learned with the best possible methods that compared to inactivity on one day, other days that people where fed the exact same amount of a high glucose load there was a consistently smaller increase in blood glucose within the next 3 hours in everyone tested. Blood samples were obtained each 15 min. Generally the rise in the first hour was blunted already by about 45 min and the glucose in the SPU day stayed at a lower level than compared to the inactive day as long as they kept doing SPU activity. One other comment. The goal of this or ANY treatment is not to lower glucose at each moment of the day. For example your body wants to burn fat sometimes instead of glucose. That’s not a bad thing, of course. In the same research paper we actually showed this with SPUs. Think of it like “metabolic flexibility” (not my term but one widely used by researchers). I for example have been doing SPUs the past hour this morning and my blood glucose has been steady, because obviously my body is sensing what kind of fuel to use is best for me at the moment.
@@marchamiltonphd Thanks for the reply, probably people commenting that it worked for them within just 20/30 minutes (these people claimed to wear a CGM) or other doctors spreading the news saying that the effect is immediate got me confused. I watched your videos on how to do the exercise. Still, after 5 days of trying the exercise my blood sugar, tested 3 times a day doesn't bulge. I use Metformin and Ozempic. I don't even eat carbs at all. Probably I'm the odd one out ... But my blood sugar lowers if I get a 15 minutes fast walk, after the meal or fasted. I'll keep trying. 🙏🏻
It looks like now that you’ve said this in follow up (you don’t eat carbs and take those meds) that we understand. In agreement with what our research studies are showing in other people, SPUs work by a very different process. If you eat low carb, or are in the fasted state (not eaten in a few hours), we learned the soleus will focus on burning fat. But here is what’s a good key to that to know. Because this muscle is very enriched with an enzyme called LPL that binds to and breaks down the more dangerous VLDL fat (the kind that causes heart disease and/or inflammation), we learned the soleus uses this kind of “bad” fat preferentially. We study this enzyme LPL and VLDL fat because it is known to be difficult to “turn on” this kind of fuel use during normal exercise. There are not any drugs that help to burn up this fat by muscle anything close to as well as soleus activity either. People with diabetes and prediabetes and some kinds of cardiovascular disease (for genetic and other reasons) have too little LPL activity. In fact, most people like myself don’t have diabetes and don’t want my glucose to go down lower, but do SPUs whenever I’m sitting. That is so that I can avoid the common problems associated with sluggish VLDL fat metabolism (cardiovascular disease and inflammation are common causes of things like dementia and other age associated problems, albeit worse if you have diabetes too). Hope this is now a more complete but clear explanation?
@@marchamiltonphd thanks 👍🏻 It's clearer. But now I wonder, why is everyone presenting this as a great help for diabetics to lower the blood sugar? Thank you doc 🙌🏻
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Here are a dozen insights about making this extremely fatigue resistant muscular movement a strong habit!
1. The soleus during the SPU activity apparently does not “discriminate” against people because of age and some other things limiting many kinds of exercise. This is specific to the SPU motion of the ankle joint during soleus contractions that is done in the absence of adding a heavy load (like the body weight when walking). Some volunteers were able to participate despite a background of very real physical challenges of living after living for years with diabetes, common orthopedic problems, or cardiovascular diseases.
2. We developed the SPU motion not just to limit the involvement of other muscles, but also to maximize the fuel utilization by the soleus (the opposite of fuel efficiency). The soleus muscle, although only 1% body weight, possesses sufficiently high quality molecular machinery for substantially improving whole-body metabolic regulation and prolonged contractile activity.
3. It is the right muscle used the right way. That is a simple expression that might help you understand the goal of this movement. SPUs do not require adding an external load and the resistance is just the weight of the leg when sitting. This relatively light load and the bent knee sitting posture allow for the soleus muscle to be activated during a relatively high velocity movement, which is much different than walking and running (and more energetically demanding).
4. Thus make no mistake, SPUs are an intense type of contractile activity at the cellular level; it just does not feel that way. Without the sense of high effort and fatigue, people can do SPUs for hours.
5. The perception from what you feel during a muscular activity is not always the same as what is actually happening inside your muscles.
6. People do not “make time” to do this muscular activity. In the real world, SPUs are spread throughout various periods of the day when doing ordinary sitting. The average person sits about 10 hours/day (~70 hours each week). That is a lot of opportunity to do SPUs. You do not sit more because you choose to do SPUs during ordinary sitting time.
7. The paradox is that although people do not “make time” to do SPUs, people spend more time doing it than any other type of muscular exercise they have ever done before. A major barrier to most kinds of exercise is that people perceive there is not enough time. People are busy and/or would rather do other things that involve sitting.
8. The SPU activity converts the most unhealthy time of the day (sitting inactive dozens of hours each week) into their most consistent healthy behavior (sitting with an active metabolism because of the soleus).
9. It is not an “either/or” type of decision. SPU muscle contractions do not in any way interfere with whatever else you are doing or want to do for good health.
10. Some people successful in making SPU a regular habit were eager to combine their discipline and grit already gained by various difficulties in life with the newfound knowledge about tapping into soleus metabolism.
11. Both unfit and fit persons can each display impressive physiological responses.
12. Ordinary people have the physical ability and plenty of time to take full advantage of this particular kind of intense muscular contractile activity for more time than they ever thought possible. Some of our research subjects started doing SPUs with high intensity soleus muscle contractions, and for prolonged periods without fatigue, even though they had no exercise training background.
60,000+. That’s the answer to the common question I am asked “How many combined soleus contractions do your 2 legs always achieve in a day because of SPUs? But I also remind people it’s better to think about the “daily contractile activity TIME” instead of “steps/day”. By choosing to take advantage of SPUs, it guarantees the local energy demand in my soleus muscles during my normal sitting time stays very high. How high? Significantly greater than if I could take 100,000 walking or jogging steps/day. But there is zero competition between SPUs and any type of exercise I want to do, because SPUs don’t cause fatigue, and only reduce the time I would have to spend sitting inactive.
Dr. Hamilton! So glad you are speaking directly on this subject. Others try to interpret your work but you explain the concept best. Looking very much forward to more. Thank you!!
Thank you Linda. Feel free to let us know what points you want to learn more about. You are right that it is always best to go directly to the source. So feel free to ask questions and comment when we can help clear up something that others may have said that appears inaccurate or not supported by our research papers. We are glad to help clarify things with simple and accurate explanations in either the website and/or video lessons.
Doc you are saving so many lives incredible
We are doing our best. It is good to see people from remarkably diverse backgrounds around the world and from remarkably diverse cultures to live a more active healthy lifestyle. Admittedly, there is still much to teach the world about the best physiology and biochemistry so everyone knows better about how their bodies work. I encourage you and others to make it a goal to keep learning, and ask when I have not explained something enough.
Excellent follow up! Just what I was looking for to integrate the science and the "how." A lot of gratitude for your commitment for not only the deep research but making it accessible and inviting to whomrever the average person is. You have a natural, authentic style that is unique and a real gift. As an 81 yr. old marathoner (29 of them), I sense my walking and now-limited running, and overall health will be receiving an huge gift....as will the multitudes around the planet. Mahalo Plenty, Dr. Marc!
Aging impacts every single one of us. So do time constraints of a busy lifestyle. Your attitude is hitting the bullseye of the best approach to optimizing success! SPUs are important at ANY age. SPUs are what we can all do in the part or the day and days the week we that we are not able to exercise by running or whatever. No matter what limits us from running or doing other activities, we have no reason to abandon our discipline of enjoying an active vibrant lifestyle. In some ways, lots of time engaged in muscular activity becomes more necessary the older we get!
Another great video. I feel no fatigue I feel warm from head to toe. This is absolutely amazing. The human body is a miraculous machine, thank you for tapping into one of its many wonders and sharing it. Thank you.
You are welcome. As this becomes a habit over a period of months, there are a series of waves for additional responses that are less common in the first week. In part because of the feasibility and safety, SPU muscular activity is designed to provide you the unique benefits of keeping your muscle metabolism elevated for more time per day than anything else. That leads to unique feelings and physical responses we are still learning much about.
Thank you Doc! I will teach this to my mom because she is not very mobile anymore and she could benefit from this. Keep up the great work!
Glad it was helpful.
Thank you Dr Hamilton for this incredible discovery. Making lives better worldwide
Thank you for your interest and thoughtful concern for many people who for various real reasons, have had barriers limiting their muscular abilities prior to this kind of research. It’s often fantastic to see someone who previously could only sit inactive most every hour of the day eagerly enjoy displaying their desire for making this a habit for much of the day (hours, not minutes)!
@@marchamiltonphd You are awesome. The work you do is awesome. You are changing lives. I introduced this to great granny. She is hooked! Now she wants a boyfriend. 😊
Solid information on the soleus push up.
That’s the goal. Thanks.
Fantastic work, Dr Hamilton! I wish I'd see you more on these valuable RUclips videos! Greetings from Iran!
thank you best regards from Tunisia
You are welcome. Please excuse my delay in replying. It’s hard to always be quick enough because I do this video content “in my free time”. But it’s enjoyable to learn from people around the world like yourself. Keep it up!
Dr Hamilton thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for because I had tried to do SPUs but couldn’t do it for more than a few minutes. Traditional exercise is not an option for me right now but at the same time I want a way to manage my glucose levels. My breast cancer treatment left me with chronic fatigue and some days I can barely do my grocery shopping without completely exhausted and needing to lie down afterwards. As I write this I have been doing SPUs for 15 minutes with no fatigue! Thank you so much and good luck in your research!
I’m sure people reading this feel for your difficult situation, and pleased to learn of your initial success. We may be able to provide you lessons learned from research to help optimize your gradual improvement in making SPUs a daily habit. There is a method for some individuals to send more private comments via the email in our website, if you wish. I wish we had the resources to explain the “how to” and “why physiologically should I” in a more substantial way. But the research is advancing very rapidly and we will provide additional publications that extend to much more than just glucose control.
I was diagnosed peripheral artery disease two weeks ago. The pain in my lower left leg was excruciating. I started this exercise , and my pain has diminished significantly. Obviously this exercise has improved the blood circulation in my legs
Just found you and think this is GENIUS! 👏 I am doing it now with my morning coffee to make sure glucose level is proper, and I can feel it working. ❤ Thank you!
Psalm 139:14-17 seems apropos! I agree that it is genius. But it is not my smarts. Just 3.5 decades of hard work and 20 years of developing this specific approach for the goal of sustaining muscle metabolism by the most special muscle in the body. I too am thankful for a solution to maintain healthy metabolism all day long.
@@marchamiltonphd Amen! I could tell you were sharing your God-given blessing and inspiration. I laughed with joy when i saw the first video - I’ve been seeking and now, message received!! Well done Brother. Thank you for the humble and genuine reply.. and Praise the Lord 🙏❤️
Thank you
You are welcome and remember that you are in control of your muscle metabolism every minute you choose to be.
I will definitely incorporate this into my daily life. Thank you.
Some of the advice we give new research subjects is available by emailing us at our website. But here is a starter kit just shared with others. 1. The goal is to make it a sustainable habit. Each and every day. Most find it feasible some of every hour of the day when doing normal seated behaviors you do anyway. 2. Make a short term goal for 2 days for a high frequency and brief duration that you know you can do with a strong commitment (such as “I will do SPUs for 2-5 min 20 times today. The average person sits down more than 20 times a day for a total of 600 minutes. So there is plenty of opportunity if you commit. 3. Then after that short term victory, you are ready to make a 1 month commitment. You choose how much. For me personally, I find it easiest to simply tell myself that I will spend at least half of all my sitting time doing SPUs, every hour I sit and every day. But I find that once I get going, there’s no reason to stop! It makes me feel energized knowing I feel better and am constantly saturating my body with the effects of a healthy low stress kind of muscle metabolism. 4. If you wish to email, articles are available upon request. Share your success too.
Would there be a benefit to actually sitting in a rocking to naturally be able to do this movement continually?
thanks Dr.
Thank you for this video I saw Andrew Huberman talking about it. His description was brief with the only exception that it will help out to lower your glucose levels, but the videos that Yelp put explains exactly what we need to do. Thank you so much for this.
It’s naive for someone to think glucose metabolism is the only reason, or even the primary reason. First, I ask people to read the research article. It describes a general principle about why we needed to develop a method of for hours (not minutes) each day. The article also gives some other outcomes than just glucose (including lowering insulin concentration as much or an even larger % as the glucose), c peptide, VLDL triglyceride, and the calorie burn. But those are only the tip of the bigger iceberg of effects. More studies have been done and results will be forthcoming when ready for public dissemination. Finally, I can share that in part because of the anatomical location of the soleus muscle and it’s role in walking and running, we’ve interesting studies coming about the role SPUs play in even non-metabolic benefits for improving walking abilities of elderly and even athletic performance of young fit people.
Thanks for your reply I just like to keep one thing in mind if he wasn’t because I saw the video of Andrew Huberman, I would have not known anything about this Solis pusher and doing a search. Found me to you and look at your video and I’m glad to know there’s a lot more benefits push-up just goes levels I’m interested to know as much as possible and I’ll keep looking for watching your videos to get as much information as possible.
Thanks for this great content, Dr Hamilton! Couple questions:
1) Understanding that more research needs to be done on the broader systemic implications of SPUs, has there been anecdotal evidence from those you're working with that doing SPUs alone (without additional more traditional exercise) can have a notable impact on weight loss?
2) If you're unable to comment on the above, is there a repository of testimonials anywhere where folks who have been employing SPUs can share their experiences with the world? Would love to hear the different potential benefits that folks are reporting from using SPUs while we await the rigorous clinical studies to validate.
Thanks!
Take a look at some of the recent replies to questions about energy expenditure (eg Net vs Gross) and type of fuels (fats vs glucose). Also see the pinned comment speaking about weight loss in general. The key to any kind of weight loss is 1) making it sustainable 2) realizing that weight balance is a function of energy expenditure relative to energy intake. Some kinds of exercise may stimulate energy intake. See for yourself how best to select a healthy eating pattern, while at the same time maintaining a good steady elevated energy expenditure of muscle with SPUs intermittently throughout the day, as much as you want.
Thanks god for this video! All kinds of short floating around about in all sorts of languages (i am in Korea) but none of them talks about the most saliant points! In fact, i was doing it all wrong, jerking, pushing with the tip of the toe, using tigh muscles, etc. and feeling the fatigue about 1-2 mins it....i am still not 100% sure if i am doing it right but with your pointers, especially about fatigue, i think i may be able to get it. Really appreciate taking your own time to do this!
@@HongHong-pu4ye good for you - and it’s not just the current video itself (and others in my channel) but notice there are hundreds of thorough responses to most comments. Those responses are sometimes more informative than the videos! Over the next month make it a goal to read them all more than once; and while doing that always do SPU contractions.
@@marchamiltonphd I was just starting to read people's comments and your answers! They are rich with information, and very effective as they come from people's trial and errors, and contain your responses. Thank u again.
@marchamiltonphd Thanks so much for taking the time to make these videos, respond to comments and share this information with the masses. Especially appreciate your response below regarding people on low carb diets. I was trying to understand whether this has any relevance for me, since my blood sugar always remains so stable, but it sounds like it benefits anyone who tends to struggle with consuming more energy than they expend.....i.e. most of us in the developed world.
Interesting, thank you. A question: is there any difference, in relation to the energy consumption, between being in ketosis, or not?
SPUs in our test subjects consistently get a doubling (2X more) fat utilization when you are fasting or eating low carb.
Thank you for your very instructive videos, Dr Hamilton. I am a petite woman of 4 feet 11 inches. When I sit at the table, my feet touch the floor and I can easily do the soleus push up (hoping that I do them correctly). But, in the evening, I sit on a lazy boy in the living room to read or watch TV. I have to put my feet up in the reclining sofa because my feet don’t touch the floor. Otherwise, I can’t sit comfortably in the sofa and I don’t want to sit in a straight chair like I do during the day, to do other tasks. Since my feet don’t touch the floor, I can’t do the soleus push-up in the reclining sofa. I am wondering if there is another way to do it, in that position? I am a retired clinical nurse who is and have always been very interested in health prevention. Thank you very much and have a great day!
Email via the website. With just a little discussion, we can solve it just right for you personally. You aren’t alone with regards to some furniture and body sizes needing extra tips. But we are used to it and have lots of experience to focus on what will solve it for you personally.
@@marchamiltonphd thanks a lot, Dr Hamilton. As I was hoping for an answer from you, I discovered your website and I already contacted you with my question and another one.
@@marchamiltonphd will there be an upcoming video showing modifications for people who can't sit comfortably with their feet on the floor? 🙂 Happy New Year!
Hi. Should we leave our feet uncontrolled way when lowering after raising them? Or should we do it in a controlled way?
Yes it is a controlled smooth movement on the upstroke, and then relax so it is passive coming back down. See the short introductory instructional video that my lab recently put on RUclips to start. Expect to continually improve throughout the coming year in both your technique and lifestyle habits. Be careful listing to others that were not directly involved in the research. We explained in the article and prior videos that it is not uncontrolled fidgeting or leg shaking, etc. Somewhat like learning to ride a bicycle or throw a ball, with time it becomes an automatic habit that does not require much thought, but it is still a controlled movement. We will do our best to teach explain in much more detail both on a website and in videos.
Hello Doctor. May i ask do we have to do both legs at same time or can we just do one leg in session? Is it as effective as lets say doing soleus pushup of both legs together? Waiting for your kind reply. Thanks in advance and keep up the good work you are doing to humanity. I salute you, sir.
Thank you for your polite question. Sometimes 1 leg alone is all you can do depending on where you are sitting. In that case, know that 1 leg doing SPUs well can be impressive. In theory, if you were doing a highly controlled experiment and measuring fuel used for working muscle, then 2 legs would use 2X more fuel than 1 leg. But I’ve seen that when sitting where the floor or chair/sofa are not like I like it, the 1-leg kind is better. The rule of thumb is to keep moving because no one can have a very high muscle metabolism when muscle isn’t active. But like I said in the video, you can be guaranteed that when soleus is working for you, it must use a lot of fuel. Compared to the energetics of all 600 of your resting muscles combined (one-third body weight), most people can learn how to keep muscle metabolism at a level 4X higher each minute they choose to do so with 2 leg SPUs, or to double the body’s muscle metabolic rate by high quality 1-leg SPUs.
@@marchamiltonphd Thanks for the kind reply, sir.
Great excercise.I can feel the difference between my bad leg which cannot do the excercise at this point to the same level as the good leg but would continue as this makes sense for my circulation issue and will help my diabetes I think
I do not know your specific leg problems or barriers that make exercise hard for you to do. And social media is not an appropriate place to offer specific medical advice. However, I am glad to share some factual issues and general observations from research insights. Motivated by people like yourself, I pasted a detailed comment for you to read closely in the first comment (see the comment I tagged on Sept 11 2023).
I do alot of cycling and find my calf muscles are quite developed as soleus and gastrocnemius muscles are important in the pedal stroke. Ive been doing the soleus push ups as well since i read about the benefits regarding blood sugar levels.
Athletes and fitness enthusiasts of all ages are using SPUs in training. The SPU activity trains these muscles at a greater intensity and duration than is possible during cycling (or running). The VO2 (oxygen demanding metabolism) of the calf is much higher when doing SPUs walking or running (see Figure 2C in our iScience article). Also remarkably, that data was during several hours of SPU activity and only minutes of treadmill exercise. You are correct that calf plantarflexion is important in cycling, running, and walking. That lower leg muscle group is dominated by the soleus because it is much stronger than either the lateral or medial gastrocnemius (the 2 separate muscles at the top outer part of the calf, whereas the soleus is both much wider and much longer all the way to the heel). But it is not just about what happens inside the muscles, and includes how the systemic responses good for other parts of the body.
Hi doctor Hamilton very pleased youtube recommended your video
just wonder if that push up done in alternate movement? That means left right left right alternatively
EITHER “alternating” or “dual” (both legs at same time) offer variety.
**The only “non-negotiable” mindset everyone would be wise to embrace is about TIME: every minute you sit with a high vs low metabolism matters.
SaluteSiR
Is it normal that I feel like not feet/legs are not in exact tandem?
It’s OK to have variations depending on the situation. The simplest advice is like the Nike advertisement said, “Just Do It”. The key physiological thing to consider is “what matters is what each muscle sees locally each minute of the day you are awake!!!”, as explained below.
So it doesn’t matter if each of your muscles are working at the exact same moment (“dual” mode) or more like when you walk one leg at a time (“alternating mode”).
EVERYONE REMEMBER THIS SHORT PHYSIOLOGICAL LESSON (it’s easy): Each soleus works independently when its individual motor neurons activate it. Each has its own blood supply and metabolic machinery sensing and responding to the local energy demand. Each side locally turns on hundreds of processes controlling the molecular genetics, making new proteins. The end result is that each muscle gets more endurance and better physiological machinery to regulate inflammation and glucose and fat metabolism and other processes. Those local events improve distant tissues in the body (brain, heart, fat, liver, pancreas, etc).
Thank you!
You are welcome. If you believe that you have a unique biological reason for asymmetry in the muscle on each side of the leg, it’s OK to email off-line for more discussion.
Can you tell us what research questions you are currently investigating that have spawned from this article's findings?
Lots. The article you’ve seen was just the tip of a much bigger iceberg. It will take forward thinking people of all types, to provide funding, and to assist in other ways. There are many various metabolic health issues that must be addressed. But research can address how a high dose of low stress soleus activity impacts brain health, cardiovascular health for multiple disease conditions, aging well, movement disorders of several kinds, fatigue disorders and inflammatory issues often related to autoimmune problems.
SPUs have opened up the door to researching many questions related to the general issue of “what happens in our human bodies” now that we have a way for very intense soleus muscular activity to be sustained for many HOURS per DAY (not just 75-150 minutes/week like most public health goals have been for traditional exercises). Think about that.
We reported in the first article only on some of the glucose and lipid metabolism effects in a single day of doing SPUs. But there are long term adaptive benefits to muscular activity that aren’t evident in just one day.
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The SPU is most effective to improve your health AND fortunately also most comfortable when done correctly. One tip I was giving was to place the toes below the knee, rather than putting the toes in front of the knee. Sometimes this is easier to do when you slide your hips forward, and sometimes this is easier if you pull your feed backwards (depending on what you are sitting on). The reason for this optimal position is that it makes your soleus muscle strongly positioned for pushing up your legs to a higher level, while also elevating your metabolic demand much greater than in other positions. The research study shows you can increase your metabolic demand (energy for muscle work) more than twice as much by this little tip. If I missed giving you a complete answer, I am sorry because I may not understand your comment because I am still learning your language. Please ask a follow up question if you want more help.
How does this effect circulation to the feet and legs like neuropathy, lipidema and lymphodema?
Do you think electrical muscle stimulation could help?
To keep it brief (a lot can be said!) here are a few points. 1. When doing the natural kind of motor neuron stimulation (SPUs), the electrical impulses are imperceptible. It would be impossibly painful to get the same response by man made stimulators. 2. The effect of this is if you want a very intense stimulation of the soleus for a long time, by far the SPU will do that best (more intense than even running). 3. SPUs are also is hassle-free to do anytime/anywhere without needing to wear electronics. So there is a physiological and practical benefit from simply learning an easy new habit.
Extra details: I’ve spent a lot of time researching electrical stimulation and it definitely has its place. But artificial stimulation of the soleus isn’t nearly as powerful in raising metabolism (as SPUs) and takes a lot MORE discipline to do everyday throughout the day (than just learning how to make SPUs an automatic habit).
BTW - the following fact won’t make some happy but can’t be overstated. Companies trying to sell you electrical stimulators often make dishonest health claims.
That is so weird. I did SPU's the whole 15 mins of the video and it felt about the same at the end as at the beginning.
Cool. Thanks for sharing your immediate first responses like that. It may help other people who are hesitant to give it a try. BTW can you imagine how surprised (or “weird” as you say) we felt when we started to see that our oldest research subjects said exactly what you did (“it felt about the same at the end as the the beginning”) after 15 min of working with the soleus metabolism at a level 8X higher than is possible during walking, then again after 150 min and, when at the end of the day after about 500 minutes! Some of those people had never exercised over 1-2 hours at a time in their whole life and had medical conditions precluding them from other kinds of exercise. I personally find it empowering to know that this is something I can do for myself to sustain many benefits of a heck of a lot of muscle metabolism regardless of other problems encountered during old age.
Doctor, it was a very nice presentation. Please clarify whether I can do SPUs with the right leg for some time and then keeping the right leg at rest with the left leg or SPUs should be done with both the legs at a time simultaneously?
@@dulal7328 Yes you can. “Metabolic inertia” = A practical mindset that you want to keep your metabolic engines in muscle humming all day while awake (as opposed to the stop-start cycles you would be forced to do without this SPU soleus activity).
Analogy - If you know anything about some kinds of machines. Apparently it’s FAR less wear and tear and better for a long lifespan of a compressor within an air conditioner in homes to be “multistage” instead of turning on-off dozens of times per day. A multistage motor keeps working all day, without having to RE-start each time. Instead the AC keeps working at a low level (like your 1-leg option) sometimes and higher level sometimes (2-legs), but avoids the harsh stop-start option (all or none). For some of the evidence for this in muscle physiology: Read the Discussion section of our SPU publication (see free link in our website and video description).
@marchamiltonphd Thank you, Sir. It's
a great pleasure for me to have your valuable reply.
@@dulal7328glad to help. Also don’t forget to read all the other comments to the existing videos in this channel. It’s ok to ask about them too. There are over 200 detailed replies I’ve provided at the last count.
Hi Dr. Hamilton, I have several questions so I'll post them all separately to be easier to respond to. In reading all the other comments I understand you like to frame the question as "how much can we do" as opposed to "what is the minimum effective dose". Are we to assume since glucose lower benefits kicked in at the 30 minute mark that ANY amount is better than 0 amount and it is worth accumulating time in 10-15 minute increments if that is all we are able or willing to do?
I’m not sure of your question but suspect it’s a general statement about “what’s a good tip for a starting point” as to how long to do SPUs. For everyone just getting started, it’s ok to start with as little OR as much as is right for you personally. My lab team has a lot of experience and expertise from working with all kinds of people. One general rule of thumb is most people end up surprising themselves. I sometimes tell people, just make the small goal of 2 minutes of SPUs each time you sit down. That’s easy of course. But once they go 2 minutes, they do more. People often realize “since I have to sit throughout the day anyway as part of normal life, I might as well also include SPUs as a habit and raise my metabolism for more time than I am already doing with my other exercise habits”. So for example if you sit down for 15 minutes to talk on the phone, make the goal of learning the habit to start doing SPUs for the first 2 min. That may turn into the whole 15 min phone call. Then later in the day you may sit to watch the TV news, now you may get another 15 min. Before you know it, you will be doing SPUs more time than you’ve done any other muscular activity.
Tried it and found my soleus did fatigue. All goes show experiments are important.
This is a weird applied research question, Dr Hamilton, but do you think people who play the drumset might unknowingly enjoy the benefits of SPUs? Since drumming often involves raising the heel and pressing on the ball of the foot.
Thanks for the question. One thing to remember is that we spent years to develop the biochemistry and biomechanics. There is definitely a little bit of a learning curve where some people improve their responses with help from an experienced researcher. But one thing you raise that helps a lot of people is to use music! For one it makes developing the habit enjoyable. Today I spoke with lab members about filming some of this in 1 min videos to show people like you how to optimize the SPU motion during both slower relaxing music and also during more energetic tunes. Thanks again for sharing your ideas about drummers as I need to enlist some! BTW- Someone else suggested adapting the old school sewing machines for a more energetic SPU motion.
When can do this excercise to lower blood sugar level sir
The best approach is to habitually use this to keep muscle metabolism elevated throughout the times of day whenever sitting. That will improve not only glucose but other important things such as doubling fat oxidation. But the more limited acute option you you may have inferred was to do this instead of sitting when either blood glucose or insulin are too high after carbohydrate ingestion (typically 30-150 min in the postprandial period).
Hi, as an "eldery" runner I have experienced aome Achilles tendon discomfort, will ths agravate any Achille's tendon problem?
I don’t know specifically whether it will tend to help or aggravate your situation, but here are related issues to consider. Even just when walking (not running), that huge tendon in the back of the ankle has an enormous amount of extra tension put on it. This happens because it resists the forces applied by your ENTIRE body weight tugging on it. The Achilles tendon actually stretches and then recoils (springs back to a shorter length) during each step to propel the body forward. That is very unlike when sitting to do an SPU. In fact, this was a major fact we used when developing the SPU activity. Why? Because we wanted to develop a way to safely help aging people keep using the soleus muscle without the kind of high force-stretch-shortening action in the Achilles. Although that is better for sustaining metabolism than brief amounts of walking/running, I don’t know if the SPU motion will also help to heal the Achilles by nourishing it with the extra blood flow. However, often after a knee replacement, patients are prescribed protocols to repetitively bend the knee without body weight for many hours per day (not minutes like normal exercises).
Is it possible to measure the SPU with some kind of smartwatch?
We’ve done much research about measurement issues. Stay tuned!
Hello doctor, is it even better to do the heel raises whilst standing up not sitting though?
No it’s better while sitting for 2 simple reasons. You can do it many more hours per week while sitting than while standing. Secondly (and less obviously), if done right, there is not as much extra Soleus energy use to do it standing despite having to load it with your entire body weight. I for example can activate my Soleus just as intensely with seated SPUs as with standing heel lifts! But I don’t get sore from doing SPUs after ANY amount of time (even 50 hours per week!).
Thanks for India.. I am benefiting alot from this exercise.. But one doubt though... What should be the height of the chair?.. also to reduce fat when can we do this? thanks in advance sir
It’s always a good idea to adjust the way you sit to maximize comfort and to also help you do the SPU motion optimally. It’s not just the height. But also to position the feet more under the knees (see the other video where this is demonstrated), it’s also sometimes helpful to slide your legs and bottom forward. When doing this it is also helpful to comfortably tilt your upper body back against the chair/sofa.
Sir the heels should be touched to the ground ? If we keep our foot just underneath the knees ?
One key variable to the amount of energy required by the Soleus is how much total range of motion it moves. So it’s not critical or necessary that the heel touches the floor. You can move the foot position to any place that it seems to be comfortable and helps you most easily maintain a wide range of motion. Also,
you can count with a clock the number of contractions you do in one minute. Start at between 40-60 per minute and try to move the heel up and down over a comfortable but long range of motion. Then as you speed it up, keep that same range of motion. Most people can do it at 100/min and maintain a good range. But after about 130/min, the range decreases. That means you are moving too fast. While doing this you will find the ideal foot placement and if you prefer the heel to touch down or not.
FINALLY AND importantly, no exercise does you good if you don’t do it!!! The more TIME you spend working muscle is related to the direct benefits. So while MAKING THIS A NEW HABIT THE TIME per day is a good goal.
In summary: You asked about the quality. I explained that is based on the range of motion more than just the rate. But I also explained that the quantity of time is where you need to make serious goals and remain committed to it every day.
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You are welcome! As far as the time YOU GET TO CHOOSE to do SPUs habitually, think of it this way. The muscle metabolism is elevated IMMEDIATELY once you start doing it. So when you sit down, start doing SPUs if even for just 2 minutes. I bet that you will find it hard to stop at 2 minutes. The high soleus metabolism can be SUSTAINED at an elevated level for as many minutes AS YOU CHOOSE. How many people in the world do you think will one day say it is really odd to ask someone like me, "how LITTLE may I do something that is safe, free, and good for me?" For me personally, I want to spend as much time doing things that are good for me, so long as I don't have to stop doing something else that is good for me. But with SPUs, I do not have to give up anything else; I still exercise as much as possible. But I must spend at least 7-10 hours/day awake and sitting like everyone else. It is fascinating to witness millions of people in diverse cultures around the world who have begun to understand why and how to replace unhealthy sitting with a very healthy special kind of soleus metabolism. Here is what happens frequently. It is not uncommon for people to at first make a goal of finding just one place they know they will sit every day for 30-60 min, and decide they can and will comfortably do SPUs in much of that hour. Within just a week, they realize they can keep this up and eventually spend more time raising their metabolism with SPUs than any other exercise as they get older. They also start to realize just how many hours they needlessly were living with a low rate of muscle metabolism. They start to appreciate the undeniable scientific fact that no matter how much they exercise or manage their nutrition, muscles do not need much fuel (from either fat or glucose) to make energy when the muscle is resting with a low energy demand (like your car not needing much fuel when it is parked). Then finally, most people who over time learn how to do SPUs better and better each week, end up finding it an automatic habit that fills up 25%, 50%, or even more of the time they are sitting throughout the week.
I noticed that when I was doing SPUs the “wrong” way my heart rate went up over 100 bpm and when I did. SPUs correctly my heart rate did not increase . Is this an indication that I am doing the exercise correctly now ?
Yes there should not be either a large heart rate (HR) or blood pressure (BP) response. We reported that the heart rate barely increased in our first published research study. Blood pressure and heart rate can remain at normal resting levels in most people. One reason that HR and BP go up during most kinds of exercise (like hand gripping or standing heel lifts) is because there a metabolic stress inside the working muscles that stimulates tiny nerves embedded in muscles that lead back to the brain. What we need (and working on) are tools to help everyone like you learn how to optimize Soleus activity with SPUs (“the right way”).
What can be done to select that the fuel burned would be glucose? My diabetic mil is underweight and is transitioning to glucose control through diet and exercise rather than meds. She can not afford to burn any fat but the diet to control her sugars has her burning fats. Would this not cause the Soleus muscle to also burn fat?
Many people ask about our research related to aging. In some ways it’s even MORE important for elderly people to spend a lot of time living with muscular activity (so long as it’s safe and achievable like sitting to do SPUs). Here is one basic fact that you and everyone will want to know. I can not address any persons individual specific medical problems but this concept is useful to know. There are different kinds of fat that can fuel muscle (“body fat” under the skin which we have lots more of and “blood fat” that is more dangerous for poor aging). We discovered a long time ago that the INactive soleus muscle loses the ability to bind and break down the blood fat in old age. It’s been known a long time that as people age, the regulation of different kinds of blood fat (also called “lipids) is associated with many disease processes. It is interesting to know that depending on the specific muscle type and the specific way it is made to work, muscles may sometime not use any blood fat and sometimes lots of blood fat. The soleus is a special muscle and SPUs are a unique way to use it safely while sitting (ie you don’t risk falls, the need to leave home, etc). In agreement with what our research studies are showing, SPUs work by a very different energetic process than most exercises or any medicines. If you eat high carbs, the soleus will tend to burn more blood glucose for a short while, until the body wants it to switch back to using a kind of blood fat. We learned that SPUs in the fasted state (no eating for just a few hours) burn up the kind of fat that is in the blood. Here’s why. Because this unique muscle is very enriched with an enzyme called LPL that binds to and breaks down the more dangerous VLDL blood fat (the kind that causes heart disease and/or inflammation), we learned the soleus uses this kind of “bad” fat preferentially. We study this enzyme LPL and VLDL fat because it is known to be difficult to “turn on” this kind of fuel use during normal exercise. There are not any drugs that help to burn up this fat by muscle anything close to as well as soleus activity either. People with diabetes and prediabetes and some kinds of cardiovascular disease (for genetic and other reasons) have too little LPL activity. That is just one reason why people like myself do SPUs whenever I’m sitting. I want to take advantage of the natural processes of muscle metabolism that the body has in it to help avoid the common problems associated with sluggish VLDL fat metabolism (cardiovascular disease and inflammation are common causes of things like dementia and other age associated problems).
Hope this answer is both thorough enough to help you learn something new and useful about how the human body works?
For how long should we do the soleus push ups ?
As much as you want to increase your health. Please when you have the time, read all the many comments I’ve responded to other people. You will see hundreds of tips. Many deal with the TIME issues. One tip here is for example this easy one to remember EACH TIME you sit down. Sitting inactive (muscles turned off) does not do your body any good. But keeping Soleus blood flow and metabolism is a feasible way to keep those direct health benefits on many times each day and with a safe comfortable way to fit your own lifestyle.
Thank you for your great work on this. Can SPU be done while standing? I tried doing the same movement while standing for about 15min alternating my legs and very less fatigue. Do you think this will work?
I need to make a video of this and write a more detailed explanation. It’s a common question. For now I’ll just give you a quick answer. Do the standing heel lifts as a method to make stronger muscles. Do that for brief amounts of time to minimize injury and maximize strength training. But that’s the “wrong gear” for being able to sustain a high Soleus muscle metabolism like you can do with SPUs at a few periods of the day you want to while sitting anyway. It adds up such that by the end of the week you’ve been able to maintain a healthy muscle metabolism for many hours with SPUs (as opposed to minutes of most activity).
@@marchamiltonphd thank you for the response. I look forward to a detailed video whenever you post.
Your recording volume is too low :(. Very hard to hear
Thank you sir namaskar love from India ❤
You are welcome. Make it a habit and I’ll feel even more proud of your commitment and glad for your accomplishments. Feel free to make it a goal to see if in 1 month you can do some SPUs each and every time you sit down for one day. Share your success to encourage others if you want.
Hello Dr. Hamilton, I had an abnormal experience today. I checked my sugars first thing in the morning and it was 103 mg/dl.. I did about 10 mins of SPUs, and just rested for about 45 mins. Didn't eat anything or exercised. Just had a glass of water. When I checked again, it was still at 103. What do you think could be the reason?? Usually my levels are lowered by 20-25 points with 10 mins of SPU, but not this time.
We should probably discuss this off-line via email. Here I’ll make a general comment that is very important for everyone to know for certain. In my research findings, the soleus sometimes uses mostly fat for fuel, and sometimes mostly blood glucose. We have never assumed that SPUs always decrease blood glucose concentration each moment of activity. We did find that after ingesting a 75 g load, people who were doing SPU activity correctly all reduced the rise in glucose that takes place beginning after about 30 min of the sugar test drink. A huge issue to consider in all studies of various exercises in general, is asking “how long after stopping exercise will the metabolic rise last?” That is complex and depends on several factors. But in general, the blood glucose lowering after stopping activity is “less certain” than the blood glucose lowering DURING thr momentary activity. Makes sense? I hope so because not enough physicians and scientists seem to appreciate this; so I suppose the real world patients have not been taught this frequently.
I’ll add one major point that is good logic everyone maybe can understand. When you turn off any engine, it is self evident the fuel use plummets back down. So it is for muscle metabolism! That is ONE big reason WHY we developed the SPU activity; it is a rare way to keep muscle metabolism humming at healthy levels throughout the day.
@@marchamiltonphd Thank you so much for the elaborate explanation, Dr. It all makes sense now. You are a godsend!
Is there any risk of overuse injury by doing SPU's. A lot of people have problems from doing repetitive tasks daily even if they don't feel demanding.
There have not been overuse injuries in research my lab has supervised. Your question is good and raises several issues we haven’t had time to comment enough about. Even elderly people in their mid-90s or people who have never done any previous exercise have not had side effects. Part of this is hopefully that they get good expert supervision. Part is good technique (more videos to come). A big part is also fortunately the human anatomy itself! We documented some of this in the published article. SPUs move the ankle in the normal range of motion as in walking but without holes or uneven ground to cause twisting. The weight lifted during an SPU is only 25% of body weight. The soleus is naturally built stronger than other muscles, and the Achilles tendon is also remarkable. Ankles don’t get arthritis or need replacement as much with age like knees, hips, vertebrae, shoulders, wrists, etc. So yes, “it’s the right movement for the right muscle” for prolonged contractile activity.
Important general point: anything done incorrectly can cause problems. So keep learning and I’ll try to offer explanations of what we learn through research. If pain occurs, then stop, get advice, and evaluate how to safely do it best. As with many things, people have to be their own life coach and become educated by only genuine experts. This RUclips channel and the website are largely in RESPONSE TO observing for the past 8 months millions of people trying it on their own.
So what about the high dose of muscle metabolism we emphasize in our studies? Is it “fanciful” to think there would be any practicality to it, as one respectable PhD once described this line of research? The recent public enthusiasm after the first SPU paper from my lab was unexpected. We set out on this research path decades ago simply because we took a physiological perspective to learn how the body works. SPUs are obviously unique from other popular types of muscular activity. This surely isn’t about taking short-cuts or a quick fix. Benefiting from muscular activity over the whole day takes commitment. Gimmicks aren’t focused on physiological methods as much as they are lowering the bar to the point of ineffectiveness. We all know the popularity of watches giving people a reminder to stand up at the end of each hour, even though it’s proven impotent. There have always been a lot of public health messages focused on “how little time each week can we advise people to be active”. That kind of attitude is not driven by human physiology as much as it is marketing.
how long should one do the SPU daily?
As much as you choose to elevate your muscle metabolism. We see fat and/or glucose metabolism and cardiovascular responses start to appear quickly (minutes, immediate). You’ve heard the expression “where there’s a will there’s a way”. The SPU was developed to give you and other people in need of “a way” to benefit more from your own soleus muscles health promoting effects. It’s no secrete that muscular activity is key to aging better, and achieving better health at any age. So now we can think about your question a little differently. Notice researchers used to focus mostly on answering if there was any effect of brief amounts of activity. They didn’t try to develop an innovative type of muscular activity well suited to optimizing health by sustainable activity (fatigue resistant and safe in high doses). My lab is more enthusiastic about the more novel question than the minimal benefit by the minimal dose. That is necessary for people who truly want to combat diseases difficult to prevent/manage and to age optimally. We asked what can we provide people like you as one potentially potent solution that is actionable by anyone/anywhere. It’s also important that this can be continued all the way until the end of the natural lifespan (to extend the benefits of muscular activity when you need it the most in old age). It’s best to make it a habit before those last years, but we find it helps the elderly significantly even if they start at old age.
Band and orchestra students everywhere are able to do the “ toe tapping” exercise for many minutes at a time. Lol
Correct you are. But now we have a way to increase the physiological responses much more without any more effort. Thanks for your comment.
I wonder how a weighted SPU push changes things?
It generally reduces the intended benefits. Adding load induces fatigue. This isn't intended to replace strength training. And strength training soleus contractions are done so briefly, that strength training is a poor substitute for SPU activity (AKA "soleus endurance training" if you want to call it that). SPU activity is what you do within the dozens of hours each week that you are sitting at otherwise too low of a rate of muscle metabolism to sustain health generating processes underlying the contribution of optimal muscle physiology.
@@marchamiltonphd Thank you for replying much appreciated.
So then, Dr Hamilton, would rocking in a rocking chair exercise the Soleus muscle?
It doesn't work for me, sadly.
My blood sugar doesn't lower. I tried for 20, 30 minutes and 1 hour 😢
If you want to learn don’t be discouraged because from what you’ve said it appears you are still early in the learning curve. But I can give you and everyone a general comment about biomedical research vs self experimentation: people in the public should not be warned to not listen to anyone who tells them to do a quick experiment in the themselves without lots of careful planning and understanding of how to test a treatment.
I can guess for example from what you’ve said that with further thought you would agree to a couple things. We obviously do not know what methods you used, including doing the movement correctly without sufficient practice and more expert lessons.
However it appears you made a general incorrect assumption that shouldn’t be done with any kind of potential treatment (whether that be a drug, supplement, exercise, etc). Given the way glucose regulation works in the body, it’s virtually impossible to do an activity and take a blood sample 20-60 min later and determine from that whether or not the exercise did or didn’t impact glucose regulation. You are welcome to read the research methods we used but that’s unlikely what you want to do. Sort of like you can also read an automobile repair manual but most likely you’d say it takes more education and experience than just reading.
The “bottom line” is not to be “sad” but trust something you can be more certain about. 1. When you work a muscle it needs fuel. When it’s not working it needs negligible fuel. 2. The soleus is enriched with metabolic machinery better than other muscles. 3. We did our best effort to study it during SPUs, and learned with the best possible methods that compared to inactivity on one day, other days that people where fed the exact same amount of a high glucose load there was a consistently smaller increase in blood glucose within the next 3 hours in everyone tested. Blood samples were obtained each 15 min. Generally the rise in the first hour was blunted already by about 45 min and the glucose in the SPU day stayed at a lower level than compared to the inactive day as long as they kept doing SPU activity.
One other comment. The goal of this or ANY treatment is not to lower glucose at each moment of the day. For example your body wants to burn fat sometimes instead of glucose. That’s not a bad thing, of course. In the same research paper we actually showed this with SPUs. Think of it like “metabolic flexibility” (not my term but one widely used by researchers). I for example have been doing SPUs the past hour this morning and my blood glucose has been steady, because obviously my body is sensing what kind of fuel to use is best for me at the moment.
@@marchamiltonphd
Thanks for the reply, probably people commenting that it worked for them within just 20/30 minutes (these people claimed to wear a CGM) or other doctors spreading the news saying that the effect is immediate got me confused. I watched your videos on how to do the exercise.
Still, after 5 days of trying the exercise my blood sugar, tested 3 times a day doesn't bulge. I use Metformin and Ozempic.
I don't even eat carbs at all.
Probably I'm the odd one out ...
But my blood sugar lowers if I get a 15 minutes fast walk, after the meal or fasted.
I'll keep trying. 🙏🏻
It looks like now that you’ve said this in follow up (you don’t eat carbs and take those meds) that we understand. In agreement with what our research studies are showing in other people, SPUs work by a very different process. If you eat low carb, or are in the fasted state (not eaten in a few hours), we learned the soleus will focus on burning fat. But here is what’s a good key to that to know. Because this muscle is very enriched with an enzyme called LPL that binds to and breaks down the more dangerous VLDL fat (the kind that causes heart disease and/or inflammation), we learned the soleus uses this kind of “bad” fat preferentially. We study this enzyme LPL and VLDL fat because it is known to be difficult to “turn on” this kind of fuel use during normal exercise. There are not any drugs that help to burn up this fat by muscle anything close to as well as soleus activity either. People with diabetes and prediabetes and some kinds of cardiovascular disease (for genetic and other reasons) have too little LPL activity. In fact, most people like myself don’t have diabetes and don’t want my glucose to go down lower, but do SPUs whenever I’m sitting. That is so that I can avoid the common problems associated with sluggish VLDL fat metabolism (cardiovascular disease and inflammation are common causes of things like dementia and other age associated problems, albeit worse if you have diabetes too).
Hope this is now a more complete but clear explanation?
@@marchamiltonphd thanks 👍🏻
It's clearer.
But now I wonder, why is everyone presenting this as a great help for diabetics to lower the blood sugar?
Thank you doc 🙌🏻
@@DebbieTDP because it is! The body doesn’t want to always use one kind of fuel.
Thank you
You're welcome