No. Just the opposite. You will find Nih reports and others showing rapamycin protects aging muscle thru Akt dependent short term activation of mTor1c but Akt Independent chronic activation of mTor1c appears to be detrimental to cells. At least in mice. Rapamycin directly stimulates muscle strength.
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Following up on last year’s sprint triathlon, I did another triathlon recently. I did a similar timing of dosage, 10 weeks on rapamycin and then 8 weeks off. The big difference was last year I was on a compounded version of rapamycin, This past year I have been on either Biocon or Zydus at levels of 3-8 mg weekly taken with fats. My presumption is that I have much higher blood levels of rapamycin this past year versus the compounded pharmacy capsule version without enteric coating.
This year’s triathlon was a bit longer and in a different location. So rather than compare times, I will use results placement to compare events.
Last year I had exceptional gains in my training and triathlon results. Placing 65th of 180 m/f finishers
This years results as follows:
Placed 89th of 153 m/f finishers - a lot worse than last year’s result, but more to the mean as to how I typically do in a sprint triathlon. I had trained well (but raced poorly-swim in particular). But as a broad measure I wanted to see if my rapamycin usage could be seen as a performance enhancing substance.
Last year:
Resting heart rate went down in a linear fashion during training from 50 bpm to 42 bpm
This year:
Resting heart rate gains were less and more erratic. Measuring anywhere from 55 to 45 to 50. Definitely some gains in endurance but not the dramatic gains from last year as far as bpm
Last year:
Excellent sleep 8+
This year:
Sleep 6-7 hours. It got to the point where I was considering using a dose of rapamycin to enhance my sleep. Some irony as I used to complain about rapamycin messing with my sleep. Over time this has changed to an sleep enhancement. My sleep wasn’t bad, but not what is needing to excel at a higher training level.
Annual Physical: Had my annual physical before the event. Normal blood measures, with the exception of free testosterone levels above normal range. Not taking trt and only have last year’s blood test to measure against. And that was somewhat high also.
Conclusions: At a higher dose of rapamycin and taking a break during training, I did not see anything suggesting it helped or detracted from my training and placing in the triathlon. As far as the year before, maybe it did at lower dosage.
Future dosing: I plan on taking smaller doses of rapamycin. 2-3mg Zydus every 10 days or so in the coming year. I will also consider 1mg a day for a week/then off rapamycin for 7 days. I will use subjective measures of sleep, energy levels, etc to gauge how to dose. If I do the triathlon in 2024, I will use a low dose regiment during training and see how it goes.
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I’ve used 6 mg rapa for 4 Mo’s now and I exercise 6 days weekly. I’m making nice progress in strength and size but I also wonder if it inhibits my muscle protein synthesis beyond the age related anabolic resistance at 72.
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It probably does which is why it is a good idea to take it infrequently. I assume you are taking it weekly. I take it every 21 days, but may increase that number probably only to 28, however.
It has a 60 hour half life so if you take it weekly it is still likely to have some effect after the week.
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Yes. I’ve switched to a 2 week cycle with an extra week off every month (approximately). I’m not increasing my dosage as I was probably doing too much on a weekly basis. 4mg w/gfj
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Above a certain fitness level, I find I need cycles to progress. I’ll do 8 to 12 weeks focused on strength where I maintain cardio, then 8 to 12 weeks where I focus on cardio and maintain strength, etc.
I’ve played a lot with different rapamycin regimens, but currently this is my approach: During my RT cycles, I take rapa every 2 weeks at a lower dose. During cardio cycles I move to once per week.
My programming is made complicated by doing Brazilian jiu jitsu 4 to 5 times per week, which forces me to decrease my supplemental training due to recovery limitations. But for me, strength focus means 3x per week RT, with 1x per week long hike, Z2 cardio, etc. BJJ covers my the rest of my cardio. Cardio focus means 5x per week supplemental Z2 (on top of BJJ), with 1x per week RT for maintenance.
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Brad Stanfield just announced that his rapamycin+ exercise clinical trial just got funded! The microvitamin supplement he created must be a great success. Looking forward to seeing how the study goes and what the eventual results are!
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Where did you see this?
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I have looked on twitter and youtube and there is nothing there.
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The trial says $100k of $500k funded as well, where it has been stuck at.
He sent out a short video to members of his Patreon channel.
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Thinking of investing in this - do you know works with any wrist strap or arm strap that are good?
Answered on separate thread as well, Scosche Rhythm 24 is the only arm strap that works with Morpheus. I highly recommend this instead of the Morpheus chest strap.
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I’d love everyone’s feedback on my tentative rapa + exercise schedule. I do concurrent training (strength + cardio) and typically run microcycles of 9-10 days, rather than planning exercise on a weekly schedule). I’m trying to decide where to best fit rapamycin.
It seems like it might be a good idea to do strength training first and then take rapamycin to avoid negatively impacting adaptations through mTOR inhibition. With this in mind, here’s my tentative plan:
9 to 10 day cycle:
- Day 1. Lift: A (Lower body)
- Day 2. Lift: B (Upper body)
- Day 3. Easy (less freq.: Moderate or hard cardio); Rapa later in the day
- Day 4. Easy cardio
- Day 5. Easy cardio
- Day 6. Lift: C (Lower body)
- Day 7. Lift: D (Upper body)
- Day 8. Hard cardio
-
Day 9. Easy cardio or rest
…and repeat.
Notes:
- I plan to take the standard dose, working up to 6mg once every 9-10 days, starting with 2mg, then 4mg, and finally 6mg.
- I usually work out in the morning.
- Easy cardio typically involves one hour of zone 1-2 activity.
- The hard cardio day usually consists of HIIT (high-intensity interval training), for example, 3 sets of 5 minutes with 2.5 minutes rest.
- Moderate cardio would be sweet spot training, but I’ve been opting for the polarized approach lately (just easy + hard; no moderate)
- I try to avoid taking rapamycin before lifting and before HIIT, as HIIT is quite challenging and I really don’t want to blunt adaptations, that’d be a bummer to go through this pain for no gain :). But if there’s no risk of blunting HIIT adaptations, as it’s a form of cardio, perhaps I could try: lift, lift, easy, lift, lift, HIIT (with rapamycin later in the day), easy (or rapamycin later this day), easy, easy."
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Can you share a bit more about your overall objectives for the exercise program, and perhaps a general age range? For example, are you seeking to improve VO2 max, increase strength and muscle, or maybe just to maintain your current fitness level?
(Reposting as a reply)
Objectives: all of the above, but with more emphasis on cardiovascular improvements these days (VO2 max, stroke volume, capillarization, mitochondrial function, etc). I’m fine with maintaining or gaining slowly in terms of hypertrophy/strength, hence only ~3 days a week of lifting on average (4 / 9.5). Does anything stand out to you in terms of potential improvements?
One improvement would be to plan one day of a longer zone 1-2 cardio, 1,5 to 2h in you schedule
Yeah, one I thing I haven’t noted is that I have this rule: “if it’s (1) a weekend, (2) an ‘easy’ day, and (3) I have time, do a long session, e.g. 2 hours”
I like the 24 hr break between the last lift and before rapamycin, and then the long break before the next lift. If I were just interested in maintaining I might do something very similar.
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