One user reports bad shortness of breath on leg and back days when dosing MOTS-C 20-30 minutes pre-workout at 1-2 mg, which fades later; shifting the dose a couple hours earlier helped. Others at 2.5-4 mg every other day report no issues or even better running endurance and faster recovery. One detailed reply links the effect to AMPK activation from MOTS-C overlapping with training stress, suggesting an upper limit before fatigue sets in.
What this discussion establishesSome experience reduced breathing capacity on MOTS-C while others see clear gains in endurance and recovery.
Still openWhether other compounds being taken at the same time contribute to the breathing issue
Nothing here is advice.
Normally I dose MOTS-C about twenty to thirty minutes before training. During some sessions I hit really bad shortness of breath, mostly on heavy leg or back days. It goes away after a bit, but I wonder if anyone else gets the same reaction. Also curious when others time their MOTS-C. My doses are small compared to some, just one to two milligrams a day.
Tried taking it first thing in the morning?
I run two point five milligrams every other day with no problems at all, and my wife does three milligrams without issues either. Maybe drop the dose and check if it still happens; you might be sensitive to MOTS-C or it could be something else going on.
I use four milligrams every other day and never notice that. I live at altitude and actually recover faster on the days I pin it; I can run up three flights of stairs and feel normal again almost right away.
Opposite experience here. I run every morning with my dog and can go faster than before MOTS-C. My Fitbit shows VO2 max up from thirty-nine to forty-three and I have more wind than previously.
Do you take the MOTS-C right before you run? I stick to weights, not high-intensity cardio, so hard to compare directly. On rest days it never bothers me. The breathing issue only shows up when I dose right before moving heavy weight. Probably need to move the dose earlier away from the workout.
I run daily without missing a day in thirty months; my dog makes sure of that, rain or shine. So everything I do fits around those morning runs. Easier to head up the mountain behind the house than get to a gym.
MOTS-C sometimes killed my workouts even though it is supposed to boost energy pre-training. I looked into the biology and found it acts as an AMPK stressor that overlaps with the stress from training itself. When AMPK gets pushed too far from intense work, calorie deficit, or other factors, mitochondria hit a limit and performance drops instead of rising.
That was an interesting read. The MOTS-C has not actually hurt my performance; I keep hitting PRs with progressive overload. The only problem is shortness of breath after big compound lifts at the start of a session. Moving the dose to a couple hours before training seems to have fixed it.
As someone who tested pre-diabetic I stay careful with anything that can drop blood sugar. My doctor advised against mixing metformin with tirzepatide for that reason. I still have over a year’s worth left because the side effects were too much. Recent work shows metformin can blunt some aerobic exercise gains by acting on mitochondria and cutting oxidative stress, which blocks the mitochondrial adaptations exercise normally produces.
If you have tried it, this topic is still open. Sign in to reply — it takes a minute.