The Problem With Prolonged Sitting

Philip Pape 0:01

It's 3 pm on a Tuesday and you've been glued to your desk since 8 am . Your back is stiff , your energy is crashing and you can feel that familiar tightness setting in from hours of sitting . But here's what you don't realize that prolonged sitting isn't just making you uncomfortable , it is actively blocking your muscle protein synthesis . It's sabotaging your ability to build muscle from the food you eat . There's a recent study that uncovered something that's going to change how you think about muscle building , and it's not just about what happens when you train or even what you eat . Today , you'll discover exactly why sitting blocks your gains , the surprising intervention that reverses this effect , and how to turn every single day into a muscle building opportunity . Welcome to Wits and Weights , the show that helps you build a strong , healthy physique using evidence , engineering and efficiency . I'm your host certified nutrition coach , philip Pape , and today we're looking at a muscle building strategy . That's probably gonna surprise you a little bit and it might be the missing piece in your puzzle . If you have a desk job , if you sit around for hours on end , like many of us tend to do these days , you know that feeling when you think you're doing everything right with your training , your nutrition , but then the progress isn't quite there . Your metabolism isn't quite where you think it should be . Well , there's something in your daily routine that could be working against you significantly , and the solution is so simple . You might think I'm making it up , but it's actually from a study from 2022 . It's not bro science , it's not a theory . It comes from actual research published in the journal of physiology that that reveals how two-minute movement breaks can dramatically increase your body's ability to build muscle from the food you're already eating , from the rest of the lifestyle that you already have . And I actually learned about this from Dr Bill Campbell's latest Body by Science review . He highlighted just how significant these findings are and they kind of are floating under the radar . I wanted to bring them to the fore with this episode . And this works whether you're in a building phase or a cutting phase , whether you're a beginner , advanced . It doesn't require any additional recovery time . It is so stupidly simple to implement that I'm going to be telling everybody about this now , and myself I'm actually creating reminders and systems to make sure that I do this as well .

Philip Pape 2:29

Now , before we get into that science , if you want to see exactly how these walking breaks impact your daily calorie burn and support your muscle building fat loss goals in the numbers . I would recommend . The perfect tool for you is Macrofactor . It is the food logging app that I use . All my clients use it . I talk about it all the time . It adapts to your calorie , or I should say it adapts your calorie and macro targets based on your actual metabolism . And when you start incorporating the walking snacks like we're going to talk about today , you're going to see that reflected in your expenditure tracking . So the sooner you start tracking , the better , so you can kind of correlate how impactful these changes can be . And I would love to hear from you when you do it , when you make the change , when you take action from what we talk about today to see how it affects your metabolism . It should make things easier in terms of how much you get to eat and the responsiveness in terms of fat loss and muscle building . So just go ahead and download Macrofactor . Use my code WITSANDWEIGHTS all one word to try it free for two weeks . I'll include the link in the show notes . But , honestly , just pause right now . Go grab it and start tracking , because you're going to want to start tracking this immediately after today's episode .

Philip Pape 3:27

Now I want to break this episode into four segments . First , I'm going to explain what is happening in your body during prolonged

How Movement Breaks Reverse Anabolic Resistance

Philip Pape 3:34

sitting and why it's blocking your muscle gains . Very , very important , because we think of it as a health issue , but it's actually physiologically completely changing the mechanisms that are occurring in your body . That's first . Second , we're going to get into the fascinating biology behind why these simple movement breaks can be so effective . Third , I'll give you the practical tips , the protocols you can implement . And then , finally , we're going to look out at some compound effects that go beyond just muscle building . So you want to listen to the whole episode to get all of that .

Philip Pape 4:05

Now I'm going to start with something that's probably going to sound familiar , because it's a pattern that I see a lot with folks that I talk to every day , where you are pretty consistent with all the things right . You're training maybe three , four days a week , with progressive overload . You're nailing your targets , your protein , your calories , you're getting decent recovery and sleep . You know the big pillars , but somehow the muscle building progress either has stalled or you know your metabolism is lower than you expect it to be , or you just want better results than you're getting , and the missing piece often is not the gym or the kitchen . It's in the eight to 10 hours that you are spending sitting at a desk , hardly getting up . Yes , being sedentary and not getting up is its own independent risk factor for health , but also it impacts your muscle building potential in a very surprising way . So if you're just getting up for bathroom breaks , you're just getting up for lunch and not much else , even though you're going to the gym , even though you might be getting eight , 10,000 steps a day in very deliberate walks or movement outside of those hours , the prolonged sitting itself creates a cascade of biological changes that directly interfere with your body's ability to build muscle , and that's what I want to talk about .

Philip Pape 5:20

So let's start with the actual process of MPS , or muscle protein synthesis , and what it is . When it's happening . It's effectively something that goes on all day . Your body's either synthesizing muscle or breaking it down , and prolonged sitting creates what researchers call anabolic resistance . So think of it this way you consume 30 grams of protein and normally your muscles will go ahead and use those amino acids and build new tissue . Right , this assumes you have enough energy overall , but when you've been sitting for hours , some mechanisms actually shut down that process .

Philip Pape 5:52

The first thing is blood flow to your muscles drops significantly . We know about not only the circulation of blood , but also the nutrient delivery slows down when you sit too long right . These amino acids in your bloodstream then can't get to your muscle tissue efficiently because the blood flow in your capillaries is restricted period . That's a huge impact right there . It also has other health impacts downstream , but even just for muscles that's what happens . Second , the mTOR pathway . You've probably heard of the mTOR pathway , which we believe is like the master switch for muscle protein synthesis , and it gets downregulated when you are inactive for a long time . So again , even if you're eating enough protein , your muscles literally lose the ability to respond to the protein as effectively or properly as it could be .

Philip Pape 6:38

The third thing and this is really fascinating is that you develop insulin resistance just from sitting right . This isn't like diabetes level , you know metabolic disease , insulin resistance but it's enough to impair the uptake of those amino acids in your muscle tissue . And you know because we talk about muscle as a sink for glucose . Well , you want that muscle to do its job and you're actually hurting that by sitting too long . Your muscles become less responsive to the anabolic signals that normally tell them to start building new protein .

Philip Pape 7:07

And then where it gets really interesting and this is where we're moving into next is the study from 2022 by Moore et al proved that breaking up sitting time with brief movement completely reverses these effects , like it just completely reverses them . They had participants sitting for a long time for seven and a half hours , which is honestly a typical workday for a lot of people and they measured their muscle protein synthesis response to feeding and the results were actually pretty markedly stunning is what I'll say . As far as research goes , in the sitting group the continuous sitting group that didn't take breaks the muscle protein synthesis was blunted by nearly 50% . When participants took two minute walking breaks every half hour , their muscle protein synthesis increased by 47% compared to sitting . Let me repeat that 47% more muscle building from the exact same food , just by walking for two minutes every half hour .

Philip Pape 8:08

So you might be thinking , okay , how is this working ? How is this doing anything meaningful ? And it surprised me as well , even though I talk about this stuff all the time . We're conditioned to think that only intense movement , only training and only lots of walking is going to create these adaptations . But what's interesting is the data's there . It shows us how our biology works . When you take brief movement breaks , there are things that happen at the cellular level because it's yet another signal . Just like training in the gym is giving you a signal to build strength and muscle , moving around instead of sitting is telling your cells at that level to do something different , to adapt , to be a different type of person . And after I walk you through the mechanisms , we're going to get into the protocols for them to maximize that .

Philip Pape 8:55

But let's just talk about them . First of all , we have muscle

Implementing Two-Minute Walking Snacks

Philip Pape 8:58

contraction , even light contraction like walking . Muscle contraction triggers what's called mechanotransduction and this is the process where mechanical stress gets converted into cellular signaling . Interesting , right , because even if you're strong , even if you have muscle , if you're just sitting around not using that , you're not sending that signal . Even the most gentle contractions reactivate the mTOR pathway and its downstream targets . This is why I was asking in our Facebook group if people have experience with those elliptical machines that you put on the ground when you're sitting , and a lot of people said , yeah , I use it just for blood flow , just to keep things moving . There is something to be said there that even that might have an impact . They didn't study that , but you would think logically that just moving like that could at least be a significant improvement over sitting . And so what you're doing is you're literally flipping the muscle building switch back on right and then you're creating the conditions for that signaling to be effective .

Philip Pape 9:51

Getting up walking around , it's going to improve your blood flow . It's going to enhance the delivery of those amino acids to your muscle tissue , right ? Because , remember this muscle protein synthesis is limited by amino acid availability at the muscle level , not just your bloodstream . So if you have better blood flow , it means better uptake into the muscles of those amino acids . And then your movement improves insulin sensitivity , which is why we love walking after meals , for example . It makes your muscles more responsive to the anabolic effects of both insulin and the amino acids . Right , we know that insulin is like a nutrient shuttling signal , and so why not ? Wouldn't you want to trigger it more often ? You can't just rely on having the muscle . You also have got to give a signal so that the muscle can uptake that dose . And this is what researchers call a permissive anabolic environment . Basically , your muscles become primed to use nutrition for building rather than just existing .

Philip Pape 10:47

And then something actually blew my mind . If this hasn't blown your mind already all of this stuff , when I first read this research . It's not just an acute effect , it's a chronic , cumulative effect . These brief movement breaks , these two minutes every 30 minutes , appear to reset your muscle sensitivity to protein feeding for many hours afterward , and so it's like you're constantly refreshing or resetting your muscles ability to respond to nutrition throughout the day . Another reason to get up and just take those breaks .

Philip Pape 11:16

And now this ? This segues us into the next segment , where you know it's great to understand the mechanisms , but then how do you implement this ? And I've already kind of alluded to it . And let's be honest , you know most of us can't just , um , get up and do mile or two mile walks on a regular basis , right ? Because if I said that was the solution , it would probably not be practical or achievable . Um , so this is like super simple . The beauty of this is two minute walks . They compared it to sitting . They also compared it to doing 15 bodyweight squats , and the walking had an edge . So if you're like , oh no , philip's gonna say do squats every 30 minutes like exercise snacks , no , you've actually gotta do just the walks . And the way I would put it practically into place is , I would first make sure you have a foundation of your training and walking anyway , right , we wanna actually have the muscle to use , we wanna have the overall metabolic support and that energy flux , and that's why I like post-meal walks , walking after meals , walking after breakfast , lunch and or dinner for five to 10 minutes , because those can count as your breaks and kind of kill two birds with one stone , right , and it captures really good windows of time right after you've eaten , when your muscle protein synthesis will even be elevated further from the feeding . We know it helps with insulin sensitivity and blood sugar management as well , and if you can't do anything else , just walking after meals is going to make a huge difference . And then the second thing is , of course , the movement snacks . You want to set up movement snacks throughout your workday , every hour .

Philip Pape 12:43

Do something , do something . It could be the walk , it could be going upstairs , it could be squats . I mean really something . The two minute walk , though , around your office or your house or whatever , or even just standing and trying to jiggle around and do some stretching . I mean something , do something . But the two minute walk seems to be a nice benchmark and the key here is being consistent . It's not the intensity , it's just doing it . It's just doing it and you can have . You can make this systematic .

Philip Pape 13:07

So that's my third point here is put a system in place . Don't just rely on remembering to do this . You listen to Philip's podcast and you're like , oh wow , I'm gonna start doing that , and then you forget and you're done . You never get back to it again . So I'm gonna suggest an iPhone or whatever phone . You have alarms or reminders , use an app , use a habit tracker , put sticky notes on your monitor , like whatever it takes , to make this automatic .

Philip Pape 13:31

And some people are going to say , oh my gosh , I'm so busy . I'm constantly working all day . I'm on my computer 10 hours a day . I'm a busy parent , I'm working from home . I can barely find time to eat lunch . Okay , you got to find what works for your specific situation , be consistent with it . And I'm literally asking you for two minutes every 30 minutes . It is not that much time at all . It's kind of like taking bathroom breaks . In fact , use it to take a bathroom break , use it to get a glass of water , have it stack , use it to catch up on a personal email or two , or to return a phone call right Go , walk . While you're doing that stuff , you don't need to overhaul your entire life . This is actually one of the simplest , easiest things I've ever recommended . So that's the mechanisms what to do . And now here's where things get really exciting , and I wanted to save this for the end , because the muscle protein synthesis piece is just the beginning .

Compound Benefits Beyond Muscle Building

Philip Pape 14:15

When you start implementing walking snacks , you might get other benefits like more stable energy levels , no more crashes in the afternoon , blood sugar regulation improves , fewer cravings , more stable hunger cues , and then sleep quality usually improves because you're not dealing with that restless , tight feeling that comes from prolonged sitting as well . You also have the better insulin sensitivity , which means improved nutrient partitioning . More of your food goes toward what you want , including the muscle building , instead of fat storage , so it improves fat loss . It enhances your blood flow throughout the day to improve recovery from your training sessions , faster recovery , and then I think I alluded to this it appears to enhance the muscle building response to your post-workout nutrition as well . Your muscles become even more responsive to the protein feeding across the board , not just when you're doing the intervention because of everything we talked about . So this could be one of those things , just like eliminating alcohol , for example , or just starting to train when you didn't train before . That can be a huge game changer .

Philip Pape 15:10

And most people are obsessing over the few hours in the week that they spend in the gym and then they ignore the other . What ? 160 waking hours of the week where they can do these simple things that are actually going to make a huge difference and compliment your muscle building , compliment your training , your fat loss , your food . All of that Because really what we're trying to do is create a system , create an environment where your body can effectively use the nutrition to be fit , to build strength , to build muscle throughout the day . And so these walking snacks , I mean , come on , they're super easy . You're not just preventing the blunting of that muscle protein synthesis , you are enhancing it beyond normal levels . That's incredible . Think about the compound effect of that over time . It beyond normal levels , that's incredible . Think about the compound effect of that over time .

Philip Pape 15:56

If we were to go with the number , the 47 improvement in response , which I agree , is going to have a large fluctuation based on the individual and based on how the study was performed , but if you're doing that multiple times a day , every single day , it should have a major effect down the road before long . And this requires zero additional recovery time , zero additional training stress . It can be implemented by anyone , regardless of fitness level or schedule constraints . It's a pretty easy hack to do here . You're hacking your physiology with two minute breaks every 30 minutes , that's it

Key Takeaways and Action Steps

Philip Pape 16:22

Okay . So we're gonna recap today . Prolonged sitting creates anabolic resistance that reduces your muscle protein synthesis by up to 50% . But brief , frequent movement breaks , as simple as two minute walks every 30 minutes , can do the opposite , can actually increase it by 47% . Nothing else changing Training , nutrition steps , and the mechanisms are pretty clear .

Philip Pape 16:43

It's improved blood flow , enhanced amino acid delivery , reactivating mTOR signaling and improved insulin sensitivity , and it gives you a permissive anabolic environment . We love anabolic environments , don't we ? Take those post-meal walks , add a reminder , do what you need to do and optimize your system . And , of course , if you're ready to start tracking how these walking snacks impact your daily energy expenditure to support your physique goals , download Macrofactor . Use my code WITSANDWEIGHTS for two weeks free . You're going to love it . You're going to love how it gives you that clarity and gives you the calorie macro targets you need , and then you can see how these small movements add up to benefits for your metabolism because it calculates your expenditure , your daily expenditure , and you can see how that changes , based on the walking snacks . So click the link in the show notes or search Macrofactor in the app store . Download , use my code WITSANDWEIGHTS . All right , until next time , keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember that every movement snack you take is a step toward better muscle building . I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights podcast .