A low cost, safe hack, to get the benefit of exercise without moving

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How to get the benefits of exercise with actually MOVING MORE

You can hack the biology of exercise, to get the benefit of better sugar control, without spending a fortune. All you need is a hot room and an hour, 3 times a week.

Getting your sugar delivered is imperative, if you want to keep your sugar levels, within the normal range.

Failure to do this, is at the heart of metabolic issues.

Now a lot of the time, insulin is blamed.

He’s NOT there.
He’s there, but the cells he is meant to whip into shape, don’t care.

So, who is insulin meant to “whip” into shape ?

Sugar deliveries

Insulin is in charge of sugar deliveries to liver, muscle and fat cells, of the three…..

Muscles are the biggest sugar users.

It is estimated that around 80 % of the sugar you munch on, should find it’s way into the muscles.

So what your muscles are doing, matters.

Muscles on the couch

Unfortunately, if you’re sitting on the couch, they’re NOT doing much.

And, often are not in the mood for a sugar delivery.

Which becomes a problem…………the sugar has got to go somewhere ! Fat cells are the next option, until they become bolshie. And then all hell breaks loose.

We call this insulin resistance !

And, if it goes on long enough………… it brings on a health crisis.

Muscles are health

So, now you understand why health gurus are always encouraging you to….

MOVE MORE.

They know, an active muscle, will help clear the sugar. And people with metabolic issues, typically don’t have enough, active muscles.

It’s not always practical

The move more advice, is standard health advice, and it’s good advice.

But, sometimes, the MOVE MORE advice, is NOT practical.

There are myriad of reasons why moving more, can be challenging.

You’re frail.
You’re broken.
You’re snowed under.
You’re snowed in.

So can you hack the move more story, a little ?

Hacking move more

The short answer is yes, it’s been done for years. Electrical wiggles and cooking your muscle, in a sauna, both can “activate” a muscle, improving sugar delivery.

The catch : they require specialized equipment.

This requires MONEY. And time ! Both of which can be in short supply. Eish !

No worries……….

The move more hack

A team from Liverpool have described a way to hack the biology of exercise…………..

Without the need, for any SPECIAL equipment.

You do need something, but odds are you have access to these items. So what do you need ?

A room, a heater and an hour, 3 times a week.

Time is NOT an issue

Don’t let the 3 hours put you off !

You can do something constructive, in those hours………………the only limitation, whatever you do, MUST BE DONE, in the hot room, your hands and your brain are free to do whatever.

Let me explain…..

The experimental set up

So what these dudes did, is they took 20 young male couch potatoes and put them to “work”….

For 3 hours a week, for 6 weeks.

Group 1

Now, half of their volunteers, really did work. They had to push the pedals on a bike, wheeling along at 65 % VO2 max, for 50 minutes.

NOTE : This pace is considered to be moderate intensity exercise. So it’s work, but not HARD LABOUR.

Group 2

The other lot, just sat around for 50 minutes, but the room they sat around in was HOT. NOT sauna hot, just uncomfortably hot. The researchers had turned a heater on, in a small room and allowed it to heat the room, to 40 degree C. They kept it at this temperature for the 50 minutes, maintaining the humidity at 40 %.

So these guys were hot, not sauna hot,effectively, they were having a tropical jungle experience, minus the jungle!

Measuring up

To establish what was happening, the team took looked inside the vasus lateralis muscle, alongside their body’s ability to handle sugar.

Before and after the 6 weeks of “training”.

The muscles got FITTER

Both sets of muscles had more capillaries, following the “training”. This can be seen here……….

Increase in capillary density of muscles following sitting in a hot room

If you’re thinking what’s this got to do with fitness ?

Well, more blood vessels, means oxygen delivery to the muscle is improved. Since when muscles “run out of oxygen”, their get up and go, leaves…………. more blood vessels, allow muscles to go for longer i.e. THEY’RE FITTER.

The actual improvements in capillary density, clocked in at 11 % for the guys cycling and 21 % for the guys, just sitting. Yes. The sitting guys actually had more blood vessels.

How could this be ?

Well, when muscles get hot, they make everyone in their immediate vicinity hot too.

Basically they act like hot water bottles.

The hot muscles, make cells in the blood hot too.

And these guys, then make the brain hot.

Captain of the SHIP

Now, brain cells are RULERS. And as such, they can tell the rest of the body, what to do. Hot neurons, arrange for the body’s air conditioner to be turned on………..

More and more blood, is diverted to the body surface.

At the body surface, a heat exchange process, transfers the heat, from the inside, outward.

You’re RED, HOT and sweaty………… on the outside.

But, the cells deep inside are cool as cucumbers.

Sort of.

A hot room is HOTTER than Hades

It turns out, cooling off in a hot room, is a little bit harder to do………… the difficulty arises, because the difference between the outside and inside, is not as big.

So, this requires blood flow, inside to be ramped up, a notch.

Instructions are given to maximize blood flow and install more blood vessels……………….it doesn’t happen overnight. But, 6 weeks later, capillary density has increased. A little for exercising muscles, a little more for muscles sitting in a hot room doing nothing.

So does it make a difference ?

Yes, more blood vessels, means better deliveries, PERIOD !

This translates into ……

A fitter you

In this particular study, the VO2 max, which is a way of quantifying fitness, increased in both groups. For the cyclers the increase clocked in at a 7 % improvement, while for the hot sitters, it was marginally less, clocking in at 6 %.

Adaptions in fitness (VO2 max) following moderate intensity continuous training
and passive heat therapy. Copyright 2019 American Physiological Society

More muscle more helpful

The difference, between the two groups, is probably a reflection of the fact that the exercises…..

Not only got more blood vessels, they also got more muscle.

Pushing peddles around……………. requires MORE muscle than sitting around, doing nothing. So HOT SITTING, is not quite the same as real physical activity.

But, it is enough to improve deliveries ?

Improved deliveries PERIOD

Since oxygen is not the only item delivered by blood vessels, more blood vessels allow for better delivery of EVERYTHING ELSE ………….. and this includes SUGAR .

The team confirmed, there was better sugar delivery to the muscle.

Glucose tolerance following moderate intensity continuous training and passive heat therapy. Copyright 2019 American Physiological Society

The improvement to the hot sitters is smaller, than to the cyclists, but there is an improvement.

Don’t be fooled by the smallness of the improvement. Remember, these guys weren’t in trouble to begin with, so we’re not expecting huge improvements. An extra 7 % could be all that it takes for sugar deliveries to fall into “NORMAL”.

Insulin resistance is a delivery problem

The point is………….

Insulin resistance is at it’s core, a delivery problem. Insulin is not being delivered, efficiently. And so sugar is not being taken up optimally, either.

By spending an hour or so, in a hot room, a couple of times a week…

you can improve deliveries.

So if you’re having delivery problems – give it a try.

NOTE : An hour or so of HOT, won’t feel fabulous in the moment, but it is not a high risk activity and something that is do-able, for most people. Just make sure if you do it, you’re adequately hydrated.

Passive Heat Therapy in Sedentary Humans Increases Skeletal Muscle Capillarisation and eNOS Content but Not Mitochondrial Density or GLUT4 Content. (2019)Katie Hesketh, Sam O. Shepherd, Juliette A. Strauss, David A. Low, Robert J. Cooper, Anton J.M. Wagenmakers, Matthew Cocks.