Get Rid of Inflammation (While You Sit)

Introduction to the 8-Minute Sitting Exercise 0:00

What if I told you that a new ground breaking research study shows that this simple 8 minute sitting exercise can reduce inflammation markers in your body by 60%. This is really shocking right? I was shocked too after reading this study which showed that this simple exercise which anyone can do while sitting at their desk even while watching television or doing their zoom meetings and this still can help in reducing inflammation levels in their body. So that's the reason I wanted to share with you today this exact exercise and how to use it in your daily life so you can reduce inflammation quickly in your body.

Hi, I am Dr Anshul Gupta, a former Cleveland Clinic functional medicine physician from US.

Why Chronic Inflammation Matters 0:48

I help people improve their chronic diseases by making personalized functional medicine plans. Here's what most people don't realize. This chronic inflammation is destroying your body from inside. New research shows chronic inflammation is the real cause of various chronic diseases like diabetes, heart diseases, cancers, autoimmune diseases and thyroid problems. And what triggers this chronic inflammation is our modern day lifestyle. And one of the biggest thing in our modern lifestyle is sitting for extended hours.

Research shows majority of the adults spend more than 10 hours sitting down during the day. In fact, sitting for extended hours has been called the new smoking because it has been shown that by sitting for extended hours, we increase inflammation levels in our body. But for most people, their jobs or their current lifestyle involves sitting for extended hours. So this is where researchers has been looking for a solution for this exact problem and they found this particular muscle in our body. This specific muscle can keep our metabolism alive while we are sitting as well as it can help in also reducing inflammation even when you are sitting down.

The Soleus Muscle and Its Health Benefits 1:57

This muscle is the soleus muscle in our body. This specific muscle is located in your calf area. It runs just below your knee all the way to your heel. It is not your calf muscle but a smaller muscle which is present along your calf muscle. And it is a very small muscle, only 1% of your body weight. But this particular muscle is what I call as a super power muscle because it is totally different from any other muscle in your body. The health benefits of this muscle was discovered in 2022 with a research study which was published in Journal of Eye Science.

which showed that a simple exercise of this muscle which they called as soleus push up which you can easily do while sitting down also showed amazing health benefits. This simple exercise which only takes few minutes which anybody can do sitting down showed in this research study that it was able to reduce the insulin spike by 60%. Also it was able to reduce the postprandial blood sugar by 50%. This was the first time a research study worked on a particular muscle and showed its health benefit. But then came this research study which was recently published in 2025 in the Journal of Medicine, which showed that this simple soleus muscle push-up

Research on Inflammation, Blood Sugar, and Cholesterol 3:18

after your meals for only 8 minutes was able to reduce inflammatory markers in those people by 60%. This was a groundbreaking research because first time it was showing that this simple exercise can literally activate your body's metabolism as well as activate the anti-inflammatory pathways in your body. In this research study, not only people's inflammatory markers were reduced but it also showed that it improved their good cholesterol and lowered the bad cholesterol of these people. So this exercise is literally boosting your metabolism, reducing inflammation in the body as well as improving your cholesterol profile altogether.

So that's the reason this simple exercise should be a part of your regular routine that can help improve your heart health as well as reduce inflammation for you. Alright, so now let me share with you how to do this exercise properly. The step one of this exercise is sitting properly. That means you are sitting on the chair with your feet flat on the floor. Your knees should be bent at around 90 degrees angle and try to keep your posture upright and relaxed. Now let's come to the step 2 which is starting the movement.

So to start this exercise, you keep the front part of your foot and your toes on the ground and then start raising your heel up as far as they can go.

How to Perform the Soleus Push-Up 4:39

And when your heel reaches as high as they can comfortably go, Then here's the key. You just relax and let your heel passively drop down. Don't force your heel down but just release them. This whole movement should feel effortless. The goal is not to flex hard your heels. You are just simply lifting your heel and then you are letting them go so they come down slowly on their own. Let me share with you this timing trick which these researchers use in this particular study. So you lift your heels up for one to two seconds.

Then you hold your heels at the top for one second and then you let them drop down or lower down the heels for the next one to two seconds. Then you take a brief rest and then you repeat it. Now here's some important points over here. You do both the legs simultaneously. You don't have to do one leg at a time. The second important thing is that keep your toes planted on the floor all this time. And it is not a calf workout. So try to be easy with it and then flow it into the rhythm of it. And then how long do you have to do it?

You do it for 8 minutes. And if you can do it three times a day, that gives you the maximum benefit. What is the best time of doing it? The best time of doing it is 30 to 45 minutes after your meals is the best time of doing this exercise because it works the best in that way.

Best Timing, Frequency, and Everyday Use 6:09

The best part about this exercise is that once you get used to it, you can do it anywhere. Literally watching your TV while doing your meetings or even sitting at your desk doing your work. So that's the beauty of this exercise that you can easily do it anywhere you want. It doesn't make you feel tired, but it works internally by boosting your metabolism and reducing inflammation. Now you might even ask what is special about this muscle and what is exactly the mechanism behind this exercise. So let me share that also with you.

So most of your muscles in your body use glycogen as the molecule to burn energy and use it for their muscle contractions. But this soleus muscle is unique in the way that it doesn't use glycogen as the main source but it can actually pull sugar and glucose and fatty acids directly from your bloodstream. And by utilizing the glucose and fatty acids from your bloodstream, it activates a metabolic cascade in your body which activates your anti-inflammatory pathways.

How the Exercise Works and Final Takeaways 7:03

and that ultimately reduces inflammation in your body but also as it is activating your metabolic pathways, it reduces the insulin spikes, it improves your blood sugar control and thereby also improving your heart health by reducing your bad cholesterol and improving the good cholesterol. The research study showed that it did not improve the inflammation levels in a day or two. It took them at least a month of doing this exercise on a regular basis after eating their meals for it to show the benefits.

Combine this exercise with other anti-inflammatory lifestyle so that you can see significant benefit in improving your overall health. I hope you liked this video. If you do, please like and subscribe to my channel as well as share this with others who can benefit from this great information. Until next time, take care, bye bye.