Walk to Run Ltd

Feedback request: How are all of our Muscle and Conditioning attendees from last night's final Summer session feeling today? 🤩

Yippee more new Walk to Run Ltd followers this week! 👏🏻

A big thank you and warm welcome to Serena Pavey Michelle Dungar Sharon Plummer and Owen Gibbs 🤩

We always love to hear from you. If you have any questions or want to find out more about the wide range of services on offer here at Walk to Run please reach out ☺️

⬇️ Drop a comment on this post or a DM

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Walk to Run Ltd would love to see you tonight at our final Summer series Muscle Conditioning class at Thorpe Marriott Village Hall 🙏🏻

This intrinsic biomechanics-focused session starts at 7pm and costs £7.50 for 45-50 minutes. All you need to bring is a floor mat, a drink (and maybe a towel as you will sweat!) along with yourself and lots of enthusiasm! Card payments available but cash also gladly accepted 💪🏻

You are welcome to turn up on the night but it would really helpful if you know you’re planning to come along…you can pop a comment on this post ⬇️ or drop us a quick WhatsApp message 📲 07821 355446.

We hope to see you there 🤩

So when someone gives you a whole load of delicious courgettes for free, what do you do with them? 🥒

Well, Lynsey tried her hand at Greek inspired Briam and the result was delicious ~ a Mediterranean style roasted vegetable casserole! 😋

Did you know that courgettes are good for gut health? They contain water and two types of fibre: soluble and insoluble. This combination helps aid your digestion and keeps your gut microbiome positively balanced! The soluble fibre actually feeds the good bacteria in your gut whilst the water and I soluble fibre keep your digestive tract hydrated and prevent constipation.

Want to tackle some health issues by building a comprehensive picture of your gut microbiome diversity and find out how it is affecting many aspects of your body.and wellbeing? Then why not book one of our Complete Gut Microbial Tests today. You can even pay in 3 to spread the cost of this hugely beneficial investment into your health 🤩

Get in touch today to find out more or to book your Test ~ we love to hear from you!

⏬ Drop us a DM or comment on this post

📧 email: [email protected]

📲 WhatsApp or call: 07821 355446 (keep it in social hours please)

🌎 Visit our website: www.walktorunservices.co.uk

Here at Walk to Run Ltd we always love to hear your feedback. Today, we are asking how those of you who attended last night's Muscle Conditioning Class are feeling today? It will help really help Chas Allen to shape next week's session.

[ Don't be shy with your feedback. Lynsey is really feeling the effects of last night's session 🤭 ]

Another successful Walk to Run Ltd Summer Muscle Conditioning class tonight run by Chas Allen at Thorpe Thorpe Marriott Village Hall where all of those attending certainly felt like they'd had a good workout! Thanks to those of you who came along and supported us 🤩

The final class in the Summer series of three is next Tuesday 25th August at 7pm ~ we would love to see you there!

No need to pre-book but it does help with planning if you're able to let us know in advance that you're coming along. We can accept card payments, bank transfer payments or cash. The class costs £7.50 for a 45-minute session. Please bring a floor mat and a drink, and maybe a towel with your enthusiastic self!

We hope to see you next week! 💪

And we're off....the second of our three Walk to Run Ltd Summer Muscle Conditioning classes is now underway 💪

Our last one takes place next Tuesday at 7pm at Thorpe Marriott Village Hall ~ we would love to see you there 🤩

I recently had an in-depth conversation with Mark Thorpe, Gazelles Chair and Sportlink Manager, about metabolic health. He mentioned training he was set by Logan Smith, a professional athlete and coach, focusing on mitochondrial health. That discussion prompted me to revisit older notes and papers on the topic, explore how the science has progressed, and identify any new approaches. What follows is a balanced, peer-reviewed overview of what I found.

Please remember in this overview HIIT can be any form of training at high intensity and not referring to the exercise session specifically called "HIIT".

Intensive Training, Lactate Signalling and Metabolic Health

A peer-reviewed explanation of glucose sensitivity, mitochondrial adaptation and the hormone-like role of exercise-induced lactate

Introduction

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is often promoted as a time-efficient way to improve metabolic health, especially when the goal is to increase glucose sensitivity and support mitochondrial function. The strongest evidence does not show that HIIT is universally “better” than moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) for every person or every glucose outcome; several trials and meta-analyses report similar improvements in insulin sensitivity when exercise volume and adherence are comparable. However, HIIT can create a larger acute metabolic disturbance than moderate exercise, including greater lactate production, stronger recruitment of fast-twitch muscle fibres, and more pronounced activation of cellular signalling pathways linked to mitochondrial biogenesis and glucose handling. For people who can perform it safely, this makes intensive training a plausible and sometimes superior stimulus for improving metabolic flexibility.

Glucose sensitivity: why intensity matters

Glucose sensitivity refers to how effectively skeletal muscle, liver and adipose tissue respond to insulin and remove glucose from the blood. Skeletal muscle is central because it is a major site of post-meal glucose disposal. During intense exercise, muscle contraction increases glucose uptake through insulin-independent mechanisms, including contraction-mediated movement of GLUT4 glucose transporters to the muscle-cell membrane. After training, repeated bouts can increase the abundance and efficiency of proteins involved in carbohydrate oxidation, lipid oxidation and mitochondrial respiration. This is why I chose to weight train more as I age.

A randomised trial in adults with obesity found that both HIIT and MICT increased insulin sensitivity by approximately 20% the day after the final exercise session, with no significant difference between the two modes when body mass was maintained. This is important because it prevents an overstatement: intensive training is not automatically superior in every controlled comparison. Its advantage is more likely to arise when the higher-intensity stimulus improves adherence, increases cardiorespiratory fitness more efficiently, or produces stronger mitochondrial and lactate-mediated signalling per unit of time. Better for those with busy work and responsibilities as takes up less time in the day.

Mitochondrial health and metabolic flexibility

Mitochondria are the cellular structures responsible for oxidative phosphorylation and ATP production. Healthy mitochondria support metabolic flexibility: the ability to switch between carbohydrate and fat oxidation depending on nutritional and exercise demands. Intensive training places a high energetic demand on muscle, rapidly increasing ATP turnover, AMP/ATP ratio, calcium flux and reactive oxygen species signalling. These signals activate pathways involving AMPK, p38 MAPK, CaMK and PGC-1α, a major regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis. Animal data also show that HIIT can up-regulate PGC-1α, p53 and citrate synthase, markers associated with mitochondrial adaptation, with shorter recovery intervals sometimes producing stronger responses.
Lactate: from “waste product” to hormone-like signal
During intensive exercise, glycolysis accelerates faster than mitochondrial oxidation can initially process pyruvate, increasing lactate production. Lactate was once described mainly as a fatigue-related waste product, but modern exercise physiology views it as an energy substrate, transport molecule and signalling metabolite.

Peer-reviewed reviews describe lactate as a molecule that participates in communication between cells and tissues, and as a “myokine” or “exerkine” because it is produced by contracting muscle and influences metabolic processes elsewhere in the body.
Lactate can act through several mechanisms. First, it is shuttled from glycolytic fibres to oxidative fibres, heart, brain and liver, where it can be used as fuel. Second, lactate changes cellular redox state by influencing the NADH/NAD+ balance. Third, lactate can bind to receptors such as HCA1/GPR81, triggering downstream signalling. Fourth, lactate may influence gene expression through lactylation, an epigenetic mechanism in which lactate-derived groups modify histone proteins. These effects mean lactate behaves in a hormone-like manner: it is produced in one tissue, transported through circulation, detected by receptors or intracellular pathways, and associated with coordinated physiological adaptation.

The knock-on effect for metabolic health

The metabolic value of intensive exercise is therefore not limited to calorie expenditure. A bout of HIIT produces a cascade: high ATP demand increases glycolytic flux; glycolytic flux increases lactate production; lactate is circulated and oxidised or sensed by target tissues; signalling pathways related to mitochondrial biogenesis, substrate transport and inflammation are activated; repeated exposure increases the capacity to clear lactate, oxidise fuel and dispose of glucose. Over time, this can improve glucose control, cardiorespiratory fitness and mitochondrial resilience. A 2026 meta-analysis in type 2 diabetes reported that HIIT was more effective than MICT for reducing fasting blood glucose and increasing VO2 max, although both exercise forms reduced HbA1c and the authors cautioned that more high-quality research is needed.
Balanced interpretation

The evidence supports a nuanced conclusion. Intensive training can be a stronger stimulus for lactate production and mitochondrial signalling, and it may improve fasting glucose and aerobic fitness more efficiently than moderate exercise in some populations. However, moderate exercise remains highly effective, safer for many beginners, and easier to sustain for people with cardiovascular disease, joint limitations or low training experience. The best practical claim is not that HIIT replaces moderate exercise, but that carefully prescribed intensive intervals can provide a potent additional stimulus for glucose sensitivity and mitochondrial health when recovery, progression and medical suitability are respected.

Conclusion

Intensive exercise is metabolically powerful because it challenges the body beyond steady-state demand. This higher demand increases lactate production, and lactate is now understood as more than a by-product: it is an energy carrier and signalling molecule with hormone-like effects. Through lactate shuttling, receptor signalling, redox changes and gene-regulatory pathways, HIIT can promote adaptations that improve mitochondrial capacity and glucose handling. Moderate exercise remains beneficial and often produces similar insulin-sensitivity improvements, but intensive training may offer a more concentrated stimulus for mitochondrial and lactate-mediated adaptation, particularly when safely integrated into a broader exercise programme.

Harvard reference list should you wish to dive in further. Would love to hear what your thoughts are.

Brooks, G.A., Osmond, A.D., Arevalo, J.A., Duong, J.J., Curl, C.C., Moreno-Santillan, D.D. and Leija, R.G. (2023) ‘Lactate as a myokine and exerkine: drivers and signals of physiology and metabolism’, Journal of Applied Physiology, 134(3), pp. 529–548. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00497.2022.

Delfan, M., Vahed, A., Bishop, D.J., Juybari, R.A., Laher, I., Saeidi, A., Granacher, U. and Zouhal, H. (2022) ‘Effects of two workload-matched high intensity interval training protocols on regulatory factors associated with mitochondrial biogenesis in the soleus muscle of diabetic rats’, Frontiers in Physiology, 13, article 927969. doi:10.3389/fphys.2022.927969.

Khalafi, M., Ravasi, A.A., Malandish, A. and Rosenkranz, S.K. (2022) ‘The impact of high-intensity interval training on postprandial glucose and insulin: a systematic review and meta-analysis’, Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 186, article 109815. doi:10.1016/j.diabres.2022.109815.

Lee, T.Y. (2021) ‘Lactate: a multifunctional signaling molecule’, Yeungnam University Journal of Medicine, 38(3), pp. 183–193. doi:10.12701/yujm.2020.00892.

Nalbandian, M. and Takeda, M. (2016) ‘Lactate as a signaling molecule that regulates exercise-induced adaptations’, Biology, 5(4), article 38. doi:10.3390/biology5040038.

Ren, P., Zhang, J., Li, S. and Li, T. (2026) ‘Comparative effectiveness of high-intensity interval training versus moderate-intensity continuous training in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis’, Frontiers in Endocrinology, 17, article 1833684. doi:10.3389/fendo.2026.1833684.

Ryan, B.J., Schleh, M.W., Ahn, C., Ludzki, A.C., Gillen, J.B., Varshney, P., Van Pelt, D.W., Pitchford, L.M., Chenevert, T.L., Gioscia-Ryan, R.A., Howton, S.M., Rode, T., Hummel, S.L., Burant, C.F., Little, J.P. and Horowitz, J.F. (2020) ‘Moderate-intensity exercise and high-intensity interval training affect insulin sensitivity similarly in obese adults’, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 105(8), pp. e2941–e2959. doi:10.1210/clinem/dgaa345.

You may have heard the term "leaky gut" being referred to online more recently and within the health and wellbeing world. As always, we like to be at the forefront of providing factual information to our followers to enable informed choices 😊

Inside our bodies we have an extensive intestinal lining covering more than 4,000 square feet of surface area. When working properly, it forms a tight barrier that controls what gets absorbed into the bloodstream.

An unhealthy gut lining may have large cracks or holes, allowing partially digested food, toxins, and bugs to pe*****te the tissues beneath it. This is known as "Leaky Gut". This may trigger inflammation and changes in the gut microbiome (normal gut bacteria) that could lead to problems within the digestive tract and other health issues.

This lets bits of food, toxins, and germs pass through the wall and into your blood. Mainstream medicine views it as a symptom of existing problems rather than a standalone disease.

Common symptoms of leaky gut include gas and bloating, stomach pain, frequent diarrhea or constipation, feeling excessively tired even after resting or skin conditions including eczema and psoriasis.

We can help you identify if any of your symptoms that are commonly associated with leaky gut are due to an imbalance in your Gut Microbiome by undertaking one of our Walk to Run Ltd Complete Gut Microbial Tests.

Our test will provide you with a detailed insight into the health of your gut microbiome and how this is having an impact on your overall health. The detailed findings report includes an axes with 10 indicators providing a comprehensive insight into how your gut health is affecting core functions including your heart, lungs, skin and more. It provides a detailed overview of good and bad bacteria levels in relation to the function of 20 further health areas including how well your body is absorbing nutrients, the effect on your fitness/performance, inflammation, histamine production and many, many more.

If you wish to find out more or book one of our tests, as always just get in touch! There are plenty of ways you can contact us and we love hearing from you ☺️

⏬Drop a comment on this post or send us a DM

💬 WhatsApp or call us on 07821 355446
(keep it in social hours please)

📧 email: [email protected]

🌎 Visit our website www.walktorunservices.co.uk

Walk to Run Ltd With over 30 years team experience in biomechanics, physical therapy and deep tissue massage we look forward to providing a professional service for you.