It is still far from clear. But it also depends on how you define “some benefits”. Are you thinking purely in short term performance metrics, or are you talking healthspan metrics, or longevity metrics?
Different people will define “benefits” differently.
Any benefit, for example we know that rapamycin seems to help to reduce chances of URIs… but so does exercise. Name any benefit conferred by rapamycin and chances are exercise will achieve it as well… except for one, and this is the reason I am potentially looking at rapamycin for myself, although I am dissuaded by the some of the athletes experience with it.
If hrv4training’s ftp estimates are accurate I managed to get to 4.1-4.3 W/kg @ 49 y/o. To be honest I don’t think I could have reached that without rapamycin but rapamycin does seem to inhibit performance but not training effects
If you do any type triathlete, road cycling an MTB racing you know the most competitive guys tend to be in their 40’s - as they usually have more time to train, they are more regimented and have money for equipment and coaches… and expensive race entry fees. I know plenty of strong riders that never even heard of rapamycin.
Without some sort of cross over n1 study you would never know, although it would be hard to tease out the placebo effect since you are so convinced that it’s has helped.
But I have a full time job, small kids, no coach and I’m a cheap ass, so no extraordinarily expensive equipment 
“Without some sort of cross over n1 study you would never know, although it would be hard to tease out the placebo effect since you are so convinced that it’s has helped”
I will need to test this more. I took 4 mg with grapefruit juice last week and my performance (power to heart rate and normalised power / heart rate) dropped big time, need to test more but maybe others can try too. Below my power curse , so actual performance, no estimate. The performance increase is real . My theory is rapamycin forces fat oxidation by shch bettee at burning fatsutting down glycolysis and it makes you much bettee at burning fats
The effects of rapamycin are long lasting - you would need a long wash out period and 6 months or more of testing to really see the difference.
And don’t discount the placebo effect, how many times do you see athletes become “faster” because they got a new “faster” bike ? Endurance is probably 50% mental game.
Ultimately I would expect a longer term delay in degeneration of athletic performance but not an increase. At least that’s my reading of the research.
I would love to see some animal studies to evaluate this hypothesis.
My view reading anecdotal reports on this thread and elsewhere is that rapamycin generally adds a veneer of stress within an athlete training for an endurance event. Everyone has their own way of mitigating that stress, but for quite a few people, rapamycin has an anti-inflammatory impact that seems helpful. I would also add Dr. Green’s assessment that he has some outrageous older athletes as patients.
So if “long term delay in degeneration of performance” is your goal, then taking rapamycin should be seriously considered. I think delays in muscle atrophy and aerobic conditioning are very possible. But the key one that determines the ability to continue an impact sport (like running) into an age above say 65, is preserving joint function. My own running shows a lot of slowing recently at 69. But ironically, that slow running has preserved my joints (I think), and allowed me to still run at a fast pace when I am rested and primed to do so. In other words, my 5k race times haven’t atrophied much.
If you look at the table below, you will see the infamous hockey stick drop-off for participation in 5k races starting at 60. You can also see data @ Summary of statistics for all 5k running races by Meteor.run for longer event, so pick your poison, but the drop off is staggering. I would love to hear from folks that are still participating in an endurance sport beyond 65 as the participation data strongly suggests this is not possible for most people.
I remember reading about this runner; Stefaan Engles, who seems to have developed a running technique that minimizes risk of joint injury. Have you reviewed his technique? I wonder if he’s still running, and how his joints are now… perhaps reach out and check with him. Here is his personal website: http://www.marathonman365.be (in French), here it is in google translate, to English: Marathon Man
Here is another runner with a similar technique, it sounds like: I've been doing the Cliff Young Ultra Shuffle — Chris Abraham
At the age of 49, Stefaan Engels of Belgium ran 365 marathons — the equivalent of 9,563 miles, or 15,390 km — in 365 days. Almost as impressive as the number of kilometres the self-proclaimed Marathon Man logged in a single year is that he managed to do it without being hobbled by injury.
Armed with data, they compared the Marathon Man’s unique running form to a group of runners with similar gait patterns. What they discovered is that Engels’s running style is lower to the ground, with a shorter flight time, longer contact time and more pronounced heel strike.
“His centre of mass doesn’t go up and down while running,” said David Pearsall, associate professor of kinesiology at McGill University, whose specialty is in locomotion mechanics. “He sticks his foot out, lets it hit, then drops it down.”
That up-and-down motion typical of most runners is what increases the impact of every footfall, says Pearsall. And with data suggesting a 10 per cent reduction in impact stress results in a 100 per cent increase in the number of strides it takes to fatigue the body’s running-related soft tissues, Engels’s adapted stride is part of what makes him resilient to injury.
Also noted is that Engels purposely slowed his pace to accommodate this non-traditional running style, with his average marathon clocking in at four hours, 30 minutes. Yet despite his slower pace, his stride frequency was similar to other runners, which means he was matching them stride for stride. And that wasn’t the only discovery: Engels’s bone density is similar to that of a 30-year-old. Not bad for someone who was 55 at the time of the study. (Engels is now 60.)
Case study
An extraordinary distance runner completed 100 marathons in equal days.
The marathoner had remarkably low loading-related magnitudes, for example, peak ground reaction forces and loading rates, that were associated with a remarkably high duty factor. The low vertical loading rate can be partially explained by a pronounced rearfoot strike.
*Monitoring of the case revealed an increase in bone mineral density while the loading-related magnitudes showed no clear change.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254621000442
Wow - very interesting. I haven’t seen this before.
I haven’t looked at his technique yet, but it reminds me of the following video comparing a western runner vs a bushman who runs quite differently given the environment he is adapted to.
Half-life is only around 60h so in 2 weeks less than 1/16th is left. I don’t know your dosing schedule nor how well you monitor your cycling performance but I suggest you take a rapamycin break and observe your power numbers
Hi Dr. Bart. I ran the Boston marathon and right after became the sickest I’ve ever been. To be fair, it was a hot day for racing and I was a dehydrated but I didn’t bounce back like I should have. Took me weeks to recover. I ended up taking 2 months off rapa and just took a lower dose last night. I now question whether the rapa negatively affected my immunity as my training hadn’t changed. Not much had changed in terms of my training and health – except I did run the race with a cough that I had been fighting for a month leading up to the race. Regardless, I shouldn’t have been that sick!
My partner was also sick (and still is) for as long as me - and it’s just out of character for both of us to not bounce back sooner. We’ve both been on rapa since January of 2023.
Hard to know what to do.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s hard to know whether being ‘that’ sick was caused by my own heath issues, the rapa, getting the vaccine for covid, getting covid itself, or just a bad year for flu, RSV, and other viruses!
How did you do in the marathon? Have your marathon times continued to decrease while on rapamycin? Did you continuously take rapamycin every week or change your dosing around the marathon?
