What if the simplest way to lower your blood sugar after meals was a tiny seated movement you can do at your desk? In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and I’m walking you through the science of the soleus push-up, a research-backed exercise that targets a deep calf muscle uniquely built to pull glucose straight out of your bloodstream while you sit.

We sit for ten or more hours a day, and most of our muscles are doing almost nothing during that time. But there’s one outlier: the soleus, a small, flat muscle deep in your calf that is roughly 88% slow-twitch endurance fibers, the highest ratio of any muscle ever measured. A 2022 University of Houston study found that activating this muscle through a simple seated heel-raise dropped post-meal blood sugar spikes by up to 52% and cut insulin demand by 60%. An early replication in people with prediabetes showed a 32% reduction. The science is still early, but the muscle biology is well-established, and the early lab results are hard to ignore.

What you’ll learn:

* Why the soleus muscle is uniquely designed to burn blood sugar without fatiguing

* How the soleus push-up reduces postprandial blood glucose and insulin spikes

* The exact technique for performing soleus push-ups at your desk

* Why bending your knee at 90 degrees is the key to activating the right muscle

* What the research actually shows, and what we still don’t know

* How to build this micro-movement into long stretches of sittingI am running a few minutes late; my previous meeting is running over.

Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/your-body-has-a-built-in-blood-sugarA Big Thank You To Our Sponsors:

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