Ten squats every 45 minutes

Blood sugar rises after you eat because carbohydrates are broken into glucose, and insulin acts like a key that helps that glucose move out of your blood and into your cells. When muscles contract, they can pull in glucose for energy, which is one reason even short bouts of activity can change what happens after a meal. (niddk.nih.gov) (diabetes.org) That is the logic behind Bryan Johnson’s new claim that 10 bodyweight squats every 45 minutes can beat one 30-minute walk for post-meal glucose control. He posted the idea on April 9, 2026, and multiple outlets picked it up on April 10. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) (ndtv.com) The study behind the claim was published in 2024 in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, and it tested 18 overweight or obese men in a randomized crossover design. Each participant tried four conditions, which let the researchers compare the same person under different movement patterns instead of comparing different groups. (converis.jyu.fi) (juku.okinawa) One condition was mostly uninterrupted sitting. Another was one 30-minute walk, while two other conditions broke the day up with frequent short activity breaks, including walking breaks and 10 squats every 45 minutes during about 8.5 hours of sitting. (juku.okinawa) (economictimes.indiatimes.com) The result was not “squats are magic.” The result was that short, repeated interruptions to sitting improved post-meal glucose control more than doing the same total walking time in one block and then sitting the rest of the day. (juku.okinawa) (mdpi.com) The paper also found that higher muscle activity in the quadriceps and gluteal muscles tracked with lower post-meal glucose response. That fits the squat idea, because squats repeatedly recruit some of the largest muscles in the body, but the study’s own conclusion says frequent walking breaks also worked. (juku.okinawa) This is not a brand-new concept. A 2012 Diabetes Care study found that breaking up sitting with brief bouts of light- or moderate-intensity walking reduced post-meal glucose and insulin compared with uninterrupted sitting, and later reviews have found the same pattern across multiple experiments. (diabetesjournals.org) (springer.com) Public-health guidance already points in the same direction, even if it does not tell people to do squats on a timer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says physical activity helps manage blood sugar and gives “a 10-minute walk after dinner” as one simple example, while the American Diabetes Association says muscle contractions can take up glucose during activity and improve insulin sensitivity afterward. (cdc.gov) (diabetes.org) There is one important limit on the headline claim: the 2024 trial was small, acute, and done in overweight or obese men, so it does not prove that 10 squats every 45 minutes is the single best rule for women, older adults, lean adults, or people with diabetes on medication. It shows that in one controlled setting, frequent movement breaks outperformed one continuous walk for post-meal glucose. (converis.jyu.fi) (juku.okinawa) There is also a safety catch for people who use insulin or medicines that can cause low blood sugar, because extra activity can push glucose down for hours after exercise. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases says people taking insulin or certain diabetes drugs should ask a health professional how to adjust food or medication around activity. (niddk.nih.gov 1) (niddk.nih.gov 2) So the clean version of the story is narrower than the viral line: one long walk is good, but sitting still for the next 7 or 8 hours may erase part of the benefit. The strongest takeaway from the research is that your body seems to care not just how much you move in a day, but how often you stop being still. (springer.com) (diabetes.org)