Published Feb 17, 2026 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Feb 17, 2026 | 8:00 AM
Soleus muscle exercise for diabetics to lower blood sugar. (OrthoIndy/YouTube)
Synopsis: Interrupting seven hours of prolonged sitting time with either walking or simple resistance activities reduced hyperglycaemia by 22 hours. The glycaemic benefits extended beyond the laboratory period and persisted throughout the night, and into the following morning.
Getting off the chair to stand up, performing a few half-squats, raising the heels, contracting the glutes and lifting the knees for three minutes every half-an-hour could slash the risk of diabetes.
A review published in Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews revealed that people who interrupted sitting with three-minute bursts of lower-body movements every 30 minutes reduced their insulin response by 26 percent and insulin-to-glucose ratio by 23 percent.
The research, led by Raju Vaishya from Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in New Delhi, examined evidence on exercises people could perform while seated. The team looked at resistance activities, soleus push-ups, and stretching routines that require no gym, no equipment, no standing.
Twenty-four people with type 2 diabetes participated in a trial that tracked them for 22 hours. Researchers asked them to break up seven hours of sitting with three-minute movement sessions every half hour.
The participants performed half-squats, calf raises, gluteal contractions, and knee raises. Continuous glucose monitors tracked their blood sugar through the laboratory session, through the evening, through sleep, into morning.
The breaks lowered blood sugar levels that persisted overnight and into the following day. The benefits outlasted the movements themselves by hours.
“Interrupting seven hours of prolonged sitting time with either walking or simple resistance activities reduced hyperglycaemia by 22 hours. The glycaemic benefits extended beyond the laboratory period and persisted throughout the night, and into the following morning,” the researchers noted.
Another trial measured what happens during those breaks. Nineteen people with obesity performed the same three-minute routine every 30 minutes for a total of 27 minutes across the session. Their post-meal glucose levels remained unchanged, but their insulin levels dropped by 26 percent.
The soleus muscle sits in your calf. It makes up one percent of your body weight. It contains 88 percent type I muscle fibres, the kind that use oxygen and resist fatigue.
Researchers tested what happens when people perform seated heel raises, targeting this muscle, for three hours straight during an oral glucose tolerance test.
The movement cut post-meal glucose excursion by 39 to 52 percent. It reduced insulin response by 41 to 60 percent compared with sitting still. The effect kicked in within 30 to 45 minutes and held for the full three hours.
Hamilton and colleagues, who conducted the experiments, found that the soleus muscle doubled energy expenditure with minimal fatigue or glycogen depletion. The muscle burned circulating glucose rather than stored sugar.
“SPU (solus push-up) movements doubled energy expenditure with little fatigue or glycogen depletion, indicating sustained activation of oxidative muscle metabolism. During a three-hour oral glucose tolerance test, continuous SPU contractions significantly lowered postprandial glucose compared with sitting, beginning at 45 minutes and lasting up to 180 minutes, with maximal reductions of about 30 to 50 mg/dL versus control,” the researchers reported.
A pilot study in 10 people with prediabetes confirmed the finding. When participants performed the soleus push-up continuously during a two-hour glucose test, their post-meal glucose excursion dropped by 32 percent.
Another study followed 43 patients with coronary artery disease for three months. The group doing soleus push-ups raised their HDL cholesterol, lowered their LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol, and reduced inflammation markers.
A single 40-minute session of passive lower-limb stretching lowered blood glucose by 24 to 28 mg/dL in one randomised study. The participants did nothing but allow their legs to stretch.
Another trial ran for 12 weeks. People who stretched their lower limbs passively increased their femoral blood flow by 30 percent and improved their flow-mediated dilation by 25 percent. Their arteries softened. Their blood pressure fell.
In a study of older patients with peripheral artery disease, four weeks of daily passive calf stretching improved how well their blood vessels functioned. Their six-minute walk distance increased. The gains in walking ability matched the improvements in vascular function.
The mechanisms involved AMPK-dependent GLUT4 translocation, increased carbohydrate oxidation, improved endothelial nitric oxide activity, and myokine release. The soleus muscle acts as a metabolic sink despite its size because it can contract for hours without depleting its glycogen stores.
The research team identified the people who gained most from these interventions: those who sit for long periods, those who cannot walk or run due to joint problems or breathing difficulties, older adults, people with obesity, people with type 2 diabetes.
Data from prospective cohort studies showed that people with moderate lower-body strength face 32 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes over 8.3 years. One study of 4,681 adults without diabetes at baseline found that moderate combined upper and lower-body strength linked to a hazard ratio of 0.68 for incident diabetes.
The chair rise test, one-leg stance test, and leg press dynamometry can screen for lower-body strength in clinics. These tests cost little and predict diabetes risk.
“Lower-body non-weight-bearing simple resistance activities, soleus push-ups, and stretching exercises are accessible, low-intensity interventions that can be performed while seated, offering the potential to significantly improve glucose regulation, insulin sensitivity, and vascular function in otherwise sedentary individuals or those unable to perform gravity-based exercises,” the authors said.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
