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If you’re a mouse who loves to feel fit but hates to exercise, the Health Blog has good news for you: There’s a drug that can give you the endurance of a champion, even if you never leave the nest.

In a study published online today by Cell, mice who were given a drug called Aicar for four weeks improved their running endurance by 44% — even though the mice didn’t exercise at all during the period.

“It’s a little bit like a free lunch without the calories,” Ronald M. Evans, one of the senior authors on the paper, told the New York Times.

Mice who both exercised and received a different, related drug, GW1516, improved their endurance by about 70% compared with mice that exercised and received a placebo. (In the absence of exercise, GW1516 didn’t show any benefit.) The study’s funders included the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the NIH.