MOTS-c and Vo2max gains

My Fitbit shows my vo2 max went from 39 up to 42, and I haven't stepped up my running at all since beginning MOTS-C.

Running isn't really my thing — I've just been doing 2 miles daily for 30 months.
 
No clue what my VO2 max is since my bike lacks a power meter. Still, on a typical route I hold about 12.8mph in zone 2 hr. Ahead of the judging, there's a long slow climb at the end that tanks my average speed lol.

Anyway, I took 5mg MOTSC before my most recent ride and averaged 14mph under comparable wind, temp, etc. Single instance, but the rides coming up will show whether it's a one off or the usual with MOTSC.
 
Turbo-Farmer said:

My Fitbit shows my vo2 max went from 39 up to 42, and I haven't stepped up my running at all since beginning MOTS-C.

Running isn't really my thing — I've just been doing 2 miles daily for 30 months.
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My brother in law is 63 years old and has run virtually every day for about 7 years—he skipped just 1 day. Lol, the guy is an absolute machine.
 
It's on the WADA banned list.

Anti-Doping Status

MOTS-c is named specifically on the 2025 and 2026 WADA Prohibited Lists, placed in Section S4: Hormone and Metabolic Modulators.

• Category: S4.4.1 — Activators of the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK).

• Prohibition: The ban applies both in-competition and out-of-competition.

• Reasoning: MOTS-c functions as a "metabolic shield" and exercise mimetic, so it may artificially boost endurance, glucose metabolism, and fatty acid oxidation, giving an unfair performance advantage comparable to other metabolic modulators such as GW501516 (Cardarine).
 
GreenOlives said:

Caught this on a podcast yesterday. Are any runners here taking it?
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Searching Google Scholar, I couldn't locate any human trials that used mots-c therapeutically. There's plenty of research on its concentrations across different situations and health states, plus many experiments where it's administered to rodents, yet nothing involving people that I can find. Should you have a citation showing where that claim originated, I'd be interested in checking it out.
 
lessthanhalf said:

GreenOlives said:

Caught this on a podcast yesterday. Are any runners here taking it?
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Searching Google Scholar, I couldn't locate any human trials that used mots-c therapeutically. There's plenty of research on its concentrations across different situations and health states, plus many experiments where it's administered to rodents, yet nothing involving people that I can find. Should you have a citation showing where that claim originated, I'd be interested in checking it out.
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ClinicalTrials.gov

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clinicaltrials.gov

A phase 2 trial is currently underway
 
Appreciate it — so far there's nothing to report. A phase 1 for this ought to exist, but I've had no luck tracking it down. Some studies simply never make it into print.
 
Turbo-Farmer said:

My Fitbit shows my vo2 max went from 39 up to 42, and I haven't stepped up my running at all since beginning MOTS-C.

Running isn't really my thing — I've just been doing 2 miles daily for 30 months.
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Running isn't something I do — never have, really. These days the only running I did was toward dinner, and even that's over. Still, there's 1 observation of mine that lines up with this idea: how I handle altitude. While "running" Mots-C, I've found that being at 7000' barely affects me. Climbing 3 flights of stairs leaves my breathing almost unchanged, and I bounce back within just a few seconds — something I never manage when I'm off it. On top of that, my resistance training feels stronger, letting me crank out 10-15 extra reps compared to off days. Whatever shifts on those days, I suspect vo2 max is the explanation.
 
Last week I began using 5mg 3x/week (Mon-Wed-Fri) before training, and when you push harder thanks to its "boost", it can certainly leave you feeling a bit light-headed.
 
I've been taking 2.5 mg 3x per week around my runs of 7+ miles, and it appears to be genuinely beneficial, though I've only completed 4 of them up to now.
 
As a trail runner, my routine includes a 5k track session featuring 1000’ of elevation gain. After adding mots-c, I’ve not just been setting personal records on those runs—I’ve also been dominating my daily CrossFit WODs. On this stuff, I feel like a beast! I just reviewed my stats, and they line up pretty consistently with the period when I began mots-c lol
 
lessthanhalf said:

Appreciate it — so far there's nothing to report. A phase 1 for this ought to exist, but I've had no luck tracking it down. Some studies simply never make it into print.
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The compound MOTS-c went by the name CB4211:

Calm Logic said:


In the phase 1 clinical trial of MOTS-c, the subq ISRs were one reason they didn't go forward, but they were doing a whopping 25 mg per day. But "no serious adverse events" from subq injections (pharma grade, not grey). It was a very small study (N=11).

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sidroponix said:

As a trail runner, my routine includes a 5k track session featuring 1000’ of elevation gain. After adding mots-c, I’ve not just been setting personal records on those runs—I’ve also been dominating my daily CrossFit WODs. On this stuff, I feel like a beast! I just reviewed my stats, and they line up pretty consistently with the period when I began mots-c lol
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Is that chart showing your vo2 max? Which protocol do you follow?
 
Is there real scientific proof behind the idea that MOTS-C raises VO2 max? Or is this just talk about something someone picked up from a podcast?

Has a mechanism even been put forward for this?

Medical literature says it boosts glucose uptake, which on its own could easily explain setting personal records on runs
 
exxige said:

sidroponix said:

As a trail runner, my routine includes a 5k track session featuring 1000’ of elevation gain. After adding mots-c, I’ve not just been setting personal records on those runs—I’ve also been dominating my daily CrossFit WODs. On this stuff, I feel like a beast! I just reviewed my stats, and they line up pretty consistently with the period when I began mots-c lol
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Is that chart showing your vo2 max? Which protocol do you follow?
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That chart is mine. My stack is 2mg of mots-c taken 3x/wk alongside tirz at 12.5mg 1x/week. As for training, I get out on my mountain 4-7days/week and also do CrossFit 5x/wk
 
wildweasel said:

Is there real scientific proof behind the idea that MOTS-C raises VO2 max? Or is this just talk about something someone picked up from a podcast?

Has a mechanism even been put forward for this?

Medical literature says it boosts glucose uptake, which on its own could easily explain setting personal records on runs
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No — as of now, there is no direct human evidence that mots-c raises vo2. Anyone asserting that from the current data is definitely going too far. The sole human trials conducted on its development name (or a modified form of it), cb4211, consisted of a phase 1 study showing it was not toxic and might lower liver fat. A phase 2 study is underway. Since it is meant to act as an exerkine — a kind of exercise-mimicking hormone — it could plausibly do so; in rodents it does improve exercise tolerance, though I doubt vo2 was among the measurements taken in those studies.
 
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