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'Soleus pushup' fuels metabolism for hours while sitting

stories.uh.edu

81–90 of 206 posts

Re: 'Soleus pushup' fuels metabolism for hours while sitting

#81

Sounds amazing at a first glance, but I was hoping to at least see them attempt to describe how the move is performed. Seems like a trailer for something that needs to be unlocked with money.

> In brief, while seated with feet flat on the floor and muscles relaxed, the heel rises while the front of the foot stays put. When the heel gets to the top of its range of motion, the foot is passively released to come back down. The aim is to simultaneously shorten the calf muscle while the soleus is naturally activated by its motor neurons.

Fair enough. I'm guilty of skimming the article, but I saw this: "The soleus pushup looks simple from the outside, but sometimes what we see with our naked eye isn't the whole story. It’s a very specific movement that right now requires wearable technology and experience to optimize the health benefits”, and some statements that made it sound like something requiring specific tech not available to the public.

Thank you, gotta say with that description of the move now it doesn't sound that hard.

Re: 'Soleus pushup' fuels metabolism for hours while sitting

#83

If the muscle can be activated only by specific equipment, how it survived the evolution? Why is it still in our bodies?

The muscle is activated constantly during walking and running for example; I once strained mine and it took a long time to heal because it fires so frequently.

The point here is that it’s non-trivial to activate it on command while sitting. The special equipment is likely meant to activate the muscle for all users on command, making their research far more reliable.

Re: 'Soleus pushup' fuels metabolism for hours while sitting

#84
post #54
post #18

At the end of the video, the researcher says that it's not as simple as just tapping your foot, you need some technology to isolate the motion. Could anyone with a better understanding of anatomy/muscles explain how that works and how they get people to perform this motion?

First, they get the university to publish an article making their claim seem credible. They then get an investor to give them $300,000 and make a custom order with a factory in China to add another piece of plastic and some branding to an existing device. They wait 3 months and then receive 30,000 "magic" gizmos in the mail. Then, they sell people a $250 electric muscle stimulator that you wear while sitting. Then th…

This is very mean! But I did laugh out loud, thank you

Re: 'Soleus pushup' fuels metabolism for hours while sitting

#85

"It's not as simple as simply doing a heel lift or raising your legs when you're sitting or shaking your leg or fidgeting. It's a very specific movement that's designed where we use some technologies that aren't necessarily available to the public unless you're a scientist and you know how to use it." This has a bit of a 'smell' that I can't quite put my finger on.

They also say though that the end goal is to teach people how to do the movement with no equipment.

So maybe not so BS

Re: 'Soleus pushup' fuels metabolism for hours while sitting

#86
post #60
post #2

Curious if anyone here had additional context around this. Do calf raises have a similar effect? Do people with a habit of bouncing their calves while seated (essentially a soleus pushup as described in the article) have higher metabolisms on average? It makes sense that a part of a calf muscle could have exceptional endurance, given the importance of walking in humans, but the article seems to say walking doesn't us…

Standing calf raises train the gastrocnemius and the soleus. Many gyms also have a seated calf raise machine which is meant to isolate the soleus. I don't think I ever felt anything special after using it.

You'd know if you had isolated the soleus. It feels weirdly (but noticeably) different to activating the gastroc. Much deeper and more centralized.

Re: 'Soleus pushup' fuels metabolism for hours while sitting

#88
post #9

So if I activate this tiny muscle in my calf for a while my metabolism will be up for hours? And where all that added energy will go? I don't know a thing in this area but I know that when something looks too good to be true, it probably isn't.

No I think what they’re saying is if you do this exercise for hours while seated, you will have the increased metabolism and its benefits the whole time without getting tired.

Re: 'Soleus pushup' fuels metabolism for hours while sitting

#89
post #37

This is just leg bouncing right? Like sitting in a chair and moving your leg up and down? The thing that people yell at you for because it's annoying and rumbles the table and the car and the chairs? edit: yes it is. it's shown in the first ten seconds of the video.

“The soleus pushup looks simple from the outside, but sometimes what we see with our naked eye isn't the whole story. It’s a very specific movement that right now requires wearable technology and experience to optimize the health benefits”

This statement applies to pretty much every form of physical activity though

Re: 'Soleus pushup' fuels metabolism for hours while sitting

#90

The "Strengthening Exercises" for the soleus muscle would be a way to target it? Unless it needs a specific interval to get it into some sort of oxygen deficit or something? (From the linked page[1]) Some exercises to strengthen your soleus may include: * Bent knee plantar flexion with a resistance band * Bent knee heel raises (as per the Alfredson protocol[2]) * Seated calf raises Again, the bent knee position keeps…

> The "Strengthening Exercises" for the soleus muscle would be a way to target it? Unless it needs a specific interval to get it into some sort of oxygen deficit or something?

They specifically perform a concentric contraction of the soleus _and_ "passive drop" of the heel.

So without more detail of the paper it's difficult to tell but it seem that the benefit is in performing concentric contractions _without_ eccentric contractions of the soleus.

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