Part 3 of a three-part series exploring muscle, metabolism, and what happens to blood sugar after it enters the bloodstream.
Over the past two weeks, we've looked at blood sugar from a slightly different perspective.
We began with a muscle most people rarely think about — the soleus, buried deep beneath the larger calf muscle.
Then we widened the lens and looked at skeletal muscle itself as an important consumer of glucose.
That led us to a simple but important idea:
It's not only about the fuel coming in. It's also about whether the body has a reason to use it.
Which brings us to one more question.
What happens when we give the body very few reasons to use that fuel for hours at a time?
We Were Never Designed to Be Still All Day
Most of us know that prolonged sitting isn't particularly good for us.
But I think we've interpreted that message in a rather interesting way.
We sit for hours — and then we exercise.
Maybe we take a walk in the morning.
Maybe we go to the gym.
Maybe we exercise for thirty minutes or an hour and feel pretty good about having checked the movement box for the day.
And we should feel good about it.
Exercise matters enormously.
But the body doesn't experience movement as a checkbox.
It experiences what we're doing throughout the day.
Muscle contracts.
Then it doesn't.
We stand.
Then we sit.
We walk.
Then we stop.
And each of those conditions creates a different metabolic environment.
Exercise and Sitting Aren't Opposites
This is an important distinction.
Someone can exercise regularly and still spend much of the day sedentary.
A morning walk doesn't make eight or ten hours of sitting disappear.
The benefits of that walk are still very real. But the hours afterward are also sending information to the body.
When skeletal muscle is repeatedly contracting, it requires energy.
When we're sitting relatively motionless for long periods, that demand falls considerably.
And as we explored last week, muscle isn't simply there to move our bones.
It's an important metabolic tissue.
That means long periods of inactivity aren't merely periods when we're "not burning many calories."
They're periods when a major consumer of circulating fuel is relatively quiet.
Perhaps the Problem With Sitting Is What Isn't Happening
This is the idea I find most interesting.
We've spent years talking about the dangers of sitting.
Perhaps we should also talk about the missing signals.
Imagine a person eating breakfast, sitting for several hours, eating lunch, sitting again, eating dinner and then spending the evening sitting.
Several times during that day, nutrients enter the bloodstream.
Insulin responds.
The liver responds.
The pancreas responds.
The digestive system responds.
But one of the body's largest potential users of glucose — skeletal muscle — may spend much of that time receiving very little reason to increase its demand for fuel.
Now compare that with the way human beings moved for most of our history.
Movement wasn't necessarily something we scheduled.
It was woven into life.
We walked.
We stood.
We bent down.
We carried things.
We climbed.
We shifted our weight.
We got up and down.
Muscles throughout the body received small signals all day long.
Our modern environment has removed many of them.
Small Movements May Matter More Than We Realize
This brings us back to the soleus research that started this series.
Researchers weren't asking participants to run five miles or complete a punishing workout.
They found that sustained activation of one highly oxidative muscle while people were seated could meaningfully change glucose and insulin responses.
That doesn't mean a few heel raises are equivalent to exercise.
They aren't.
And it certainly doesn't mean we should stop walking, strength training or doing other forms of physical activity.
It tells us something much more interesting.
Muscle doesn't have to be working at maximum intensity to be metabolically active.
That opens the door to thinking differently about everyday movement.
Maybe you stand up while talking on the phone.
Walk for a few minutes after a meal.
Take the stairs.
Work in the garden.
Carry the groceries.
Do a few squats while waiting for something to cook.
Perform the seated soleus movement we discussed in Part 1 when you're going to be sitting for a while.
None of those things looks particularly impressive.
That's the point.
We're not trying to turn every moment into a workout.
We're trying to put movement back into life.
But Movement Isn't the Entire Metabolic Story
And this is where I want to be careful.
After reading about the soleus and glucose metabolism, it would be very easy to come away thinking:
"Great. I'll move my calf more and I don't need to worry about anything else."
That's not what this research tells us.
Metabolic health is the result of an extraordinarily interconnected system.
What we eat matters.
How much muscle we maintain matters.
How frequently we use that muscle matters.
Sleep matters.
Stress matters.
Hormonal signaling matters.
The liver matters.
Nutrient status matters.
And insulin sensitivity matters.
There isn't one metabolic switch.
There is a conversation taking place among many tissues and systems.
Movement is one of the signals in that conversation.
A very important one.
But not the only one.
Supporting the Terrain
This is also why I don't approach metabolic wellness by looking for one magic food, exercise or supplement.
I want to support the terrain in which healthy metabolic signaling takes place.
That starts with the basics.
Protein sufficient to help maintain muscle.
Whole foods that provide nutrients rather than simply calories.
Fiber and plants.
Adequate hydration.
Regular movement.
Strength work appropriate for the individual.
Restorative sleep.
Periods of recovery.
And fewer hours spent completely motionless.
Then there are times when nutritional support may make sense as part of that foundation.
For those who ask what I personally look at, there are several Young Living products that fit into this conversation — not because they replace these fundamentals, but because their ingredients are intended to support some of the same metabolic systems we're discussing.
Balance & Burn is one I consider when the goal is broader metabolic support. Its formula includes ingredients such as berberine, green tea extract, citrus polyphenols and black ginger — compounds that have been studied individually for various aspects of glucose metabolism, insulin sensitivity, energy metabolism and body composition.
Master Cellular Nutrition approaches the conversation differently. I think of it less as a "blood sugar product" and more as nutritional support for the cellular environment — providing micronutrients and plant compounds involved in antioxidant defenses, cellular signaling and normal energy metabolism.
NingXia Red fits into yet another part of the picture. Rather than thinking of it as something that lowers glucose, I look at it as antioxidant and phytonutrient support in a body where oxidative stress and metabolic health are closely connected.
And depending on the individual, I may also think about liver support, because the liver is deeply involved in glucose storage and release, lipid metabolism and overall metabolic regulation. That's where something like Liver Tone may enter the conversation for me — not as a treatment for high blood sugar, but as part of a broader strategy when supporting normal liver function makes sense.
The distinction is important.
Products can support physiology. They don't replace physiology.
You can't supplement your way around never using your muscles.
And you can't exercise your way around everything else the body needs.
Maybe Metabolic Health Isn't About Finding the One Thing
We like singular answers.
What's the best food?
What's the best exercise?
What's the best supplement?
What's the one thing lowering my blood sugar?
The body rarely works that way.
Metabolism is happening everywhere.
The pancreas is sensing.
The liver is storing and releasing.
Muscle is using fuel.
Adipose tissue is communicating.
Hormones are carrying messages.
Cells are responding — or sometimes becoming less responsive — to those messages.
And our daily choices continually influence that conversation.
Which means metabolic health may be less about discovering one miraculous intervention and more about restoring the conditions in which the body can do what it was designed to do.
The Signal Beneath the Surface
That's what this little three-part journey through the soleus has ultimately been about.
It started with a muscle hidden beneath another muscle.
But it led us somewhere much bigger.
The body is constantly responding to signals.
Food provides signals.
Insulin provides signals.
Sleep provides signals.
Stress provides signals.
Nutrients provide signals.
And movement provides signals.
When muscle contracts, it sends a message:
We need fuel.
And the body responds.
So perhaps the question isn't simply:
"Did I exercise today?"
Maybe another useful question is:
"What signals did I give my body today?"
Did I nourish it?
Did I move it?
Did I challenge my muscles enough to give them a reason to remain?
Did I give them opportunities throughout the day to use the fuel I provided?
Did I allow the body time to recover?
Did I provide the nutrients it needs to carry out the work I'm asking it to do?
Those are very different questions.
And they're questions that take us away from chasing one number, one food, one exercise or one supplement.
They bring us back to the whole system.
Because when we begin paying attention to the signals beneath the surface, we stop asking the body to simply make a symptom or a number disappear.
We begin asking what it needs in order to work better.
And that may be one of the most useful metabolic conversations we can have.
Research Behind This Conversation
Hamilton MT, Hamilton DG, Zderic TW. A potent physiological method to magnify and sustain soleus oxidative metabolism improves glucose and lipid regulation. iScience. 2022;25(9):104869.
Richter EA, Hargreaves M. Exercise, GLUT4, and skeletal muscle glucose uptake. Physiological Reviews. 2013;93(3):993–1017.
Sylow L, Kleinert M, Richter EA, Jensen TE. Exercise-stimulated glucose uptake — regulation and implications for glycaemic control. Nature Reviews Endocrinology. 2017;13:133–148.
A note about nutritional support: The products mentioned above are nutritional supplements and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent diabetes or any other disease. If you use glucose-lowering medication, talk with your healthcare professional before making significant changes to supplements, diet or activity, particularly if your glucose is closely managed.
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