Bryan Johnson said on April 9 that 10 squats can beat a 30-minute walk for blood sugar control after a meal, arguing that short bursts of leg work may do more than a single steady stroll.
The anti-aging entrepreneur, known for his multi-million dollar Project Blueprint to reverse his biological age, wrote on X that doing 10 squats every 45 minutes outperforms a dedicated 30-minute walk by 14 percent. He said the quadriceps and glutes are the largest glucose sponge in the body, and that repeatedly activating them clears more glucose than one sustained effort.
Johnson also said the 30-minute walk is not wrong, but less effective. His post ran against advice doctors have long given patients to help stabilise blood sugar, especially after eating. For readers trying to sort out whether a few squats can really replace a walk, the claim matters because it puts a familiar health habit under fresh scrutiny.
The post pointed to a 2024 study, Enhanced muscle activity during interrupted sitting improves glycemic control in overweight and obese men, which found that interrupting prolonged sitting helped glycemic control. The researchers reported that frequent interruptions with 3-minute walking or squatting breaks every 45 minutes produced greater benefits than a single 30-minute walking break, and that increased intensity of local muscle activation in the quadriceps and gluteal muscles was associated with improved glycemic control across all conditions.
The friction point is simple: Johnson presented the findings as a cleaner, stronger rule than the study itself did. The research was about interrupted sitting, not a universal replacement for walking, and it focused on overweight and obese men. HT.com said it has not independently verified the social-media claims and does not endorse them.
For now, Johnson’s post is less a verdict on walking than a reminder that timing, frequency and muscle engagement may matter more than the old advice suggests. The next question is whether that message changes what people do after lunch, or just adds a new routine to the long list of health habits the internet turns into certainties.
