A tablet that tricks your cells into behaving as if you're a daily jogger must be the holy grail for the morbidly obese, injured and immobilised.

Not to mention the chronically busy.

Scientists are targeting a metabolism suppressing protein that switches off during exercise.

Scientists at Deakin Medical School are a step closer in the race to create an elusive exercise pill that can mimic some of the health benefits of the real thing.

They targeted a metabolism-slowing protein that switches off when we're active, and were able to artificially turn it off, in mice at least, by introducing a virus.