Every winter, in the weeks before the Tata Mumbai Marathon, the same two studies get passed around running groups on WhatsApp. One is from 2017 and measured VO2max on a cycle test. The other is from 2010 and measured breathing thresholds in people aged 50 to 75. Both are real, both are small, and neither one timed a race. This is a plain reading of what each study measured, in whom, for how long, plus when the participants took it, where cordyceps sits with WADA, and what a certificate of analysis should show.
Why runners ask about it
Cordyceps militaris is a bright orange fungus grown on grain. Runners did not find it by reading mushroom biology. They found it because two human studies used exercise tests, and those studies get quoted and re-quoted until the numbers drift from the papers.
So, expectations first. The 2017 study had 28 people at the start and only 10 in the three-week group. The 2010 study had 20 people, all between 50 and 75. Neither used a militaris fruiting-body extract. One used a multi-species mycelium blend that contained militaris among other species, not a fruiting-body extract. The other used Cs-4, a mycelium product from the sinensis species, a different cordyceps altogether, compared in wild versus cultivated cordyceps.
The two studies, one card each
The line-by-line reading of both papers is in Cordyceps militaris and cordycepin research. Here, one card each, figures as published.
Hirsch et al. 2017: a militaris-containing mushroom blend and a cycle test
Human trial, n=28 (10 in the three-week group), 4 g/day of a multi-species mushroom blend containing Cordyceps militaris, 1 and 3 weeks, cycle test
After three weeks, VO2max rose by 4.8 ml/kg/min in the blend group against 0.9 ml/kg/min on placebo, and time to exhaustion improved in the study (Hirsch 2017, PMID 27408987). One-week results showed little difference.
Plain reading: in Hirsch 2017, young adults on a mushroom blend, not a militaris fruiting-body extract, measured higher on a cycle test after three weeks than the placebo group.
Chen et al. 2010: Cs-4 and exercise thresholds in adults aged 50 to 75
Human trial, n=20, ages 50 to 75, Cs-4 (a Cordyceps sinensis mycelium product) at 333 mg three times daily, 12 weeks
The metabolic threshold rose by 10.5 percent and the ventilatory threshold by 8.5 percent in the Cs-4 group, while VO2max did not change (Chen 2010, PMID 20804368).
Plain reading: in twenty older adults, twelve weeks of a sinensis mycelium product moved the two threshold measures and left the maximum where it was.
What VO2max and thresholds actually mean
VO2max is the most oxygen your body can take in and use in one minute of very hard exercise, written per kilo of body weight. A lab measures it on a bike or treadmill. The work gets harder every minute and a mask reads the gas you breathe out. In Hirsch the blend group's number went up by 4.8 points over three weeks and the placebo group's by 0.9 (PMID 27408987). Whether a bigger number on a lab bike changes how a Sunday long run feels, the study did not ask.
Thresholds are different. As the work gets harder there is a point where your breathing changes gear, and a point where lactate builds in the blood faster than the body clears it. Chen measured the ventilatory and metabolic thresholds, two ways of finding roughly that point. In the Cs-4 group those points moved later by 8.5 and 10.5 percent, and the maximum did not move (PMID 20804368). One study reported a change in the ceiling (Hirsch 2017, PMID 27408987), the other in the thresholds (Chen 2010, PMID 20804368). The products, the ages and the lengths of time were all different.
The three-week detail in Hirsch matters as much as the number. At one week the two groups looked about the same; the difference only showed at three weeks, in the ten people who kept going. Chen ran for twelve. Whatever these studies measured, they measured it after weeks of daily use, not a single dose.
- Two small human trials used exercise tests and reported measurable changes (Hirsch 2017, PMID 27408987; Chen 2010, PMID 20804368).
- Both used daily dosing for weeks, not a single pre-exercise dose.
- Neither product was a Cordyceps militaris fruiting-body extract.
- That cordyceps makes anyone a faster runner. No study timed a race.
- That a militaris fruiting-body extract does what the blend or Cs-4 did. Not tested.
- That any of this treats, cures, or prevents anything.
How the participants took it
Runners ask this most. Nobody in either study took it before a race. In Hirsch, participants took 4 grams of the blend every day, a smaller group for three weeks. In Chen, participants took 333 mg of Cs-4 three times a day, with meals, for twelve weeks. The tests came at the start and the end. Nobody swallowed a capsule and ran an hour later.
What the studies describe is daily use with food. Breakfast is the easiest slot to keep. A dose 30 minutes before a run, the way runners use caffeine or a gel, has not been studied.
Neither study tested a race-day dose. A jar opened the night before Mumbai has no evidence behind it. One opened in November matches the daily, weeks-long pattern the two studies used. That is a description of the studies, not a prediction about your race.
How much to take, what an 8:1 ratio means for a serving, and how extracts sit next to other things people take are in how to take functional mushrooms. The recommended usage level is on the label. Follow it rather than scaling up to a study dose from a different product.
Cordyceps and WADA
Cordyceps is not named on the WADA Prohibited List, and neither is any other mushroom. The list is revised every January, so if you compete under a federation, check the current list yourself before you rely on this paragraph.
That is the easy half. The harder half is contamination. When a supplement fails a drug test, the cause is almost never the mushroom on the label. It is something that was not on the label, usually a stimulant added at the factory or a residue from a shared production line. The cordyceps did not fail the test. The batch did.
A per-batch certificate of analysis gives the heavy-metal and microbial lines for the jar in your hand. It does not screen for WADA-prohibited substances unless it says so in writing. Ask any seller: is this batch tested, and is it tested for banned substances specifically. If the second answer is no, you carry that risk yourself.
Batch testing is the point, not the species. A product tested once, years ago, on some other batch, tells you nothing about the jar you bought. Every batch of our Cordyceps militaris extract is lab-tested in India. Ask us the same two questions before you buy, the way you would ask anyone.
What a runner checks on a COA
A certificate of analysis is a lab report for one batch. Three lines matter more to a runner than the rest.
| COA line | What to look for | Why it matters to a runner |
|---|---|---|
| Polysaccharides | A percentage for this batch (ours is standardized above 50 percent) | Shows real fruiting-body extract, not ground grain sold as mushroom |
| Heavy metals | Lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, each within limit | Mushrooms take up metals from what they grow on; a daily habit adds up |
| Microbial | Total plate count, yeast and mould, E. coli, Salmonella, all within limit | A powder taken daily for weeks should be clean every batch |
| Batch number and date | Matches the jar in your hand | A COA for a different batch is a brochure, not a test |
| Cordycepin | A percentage for this batch (ours is standardized above 0.3 percent) | Do not buy on a number you cannot see on the COA |
Beta-D-glucans are the marker for militaris because they are the cell-wall compound a real fruiting-body extract concentrates and grain powder does not. Our extract is standardized above 25 percent; the detail is on our beta-D-glucans page.
On cordycepin, be careful. Militaris carries more of it than wild sinensis does (see wild versus cultivated cordyceps), but a lot of marketing copy quotes a figure that never appears on any lab sheet. If the COA has a cordycepin line, read it. If not, the number in the ad is a number in an ad. Either way it says what is in the jar, not what it does in you.
Marathon season in India
The Indian road-running calendar runs roughly October to February. The Delhi half marathon lands in October, Kolkata and Bengaluru follow, and the Tata Mumbai Marathon in January is the race most of the country trains for. So the heavy training block sits in the monsoon and the humid weeks after it, when a 6 am run in Mumbai is already warm.
None of that changes what the studies say. It only changes when runners search. Interest spikes in November, which happens to be when a daily habit would have to begin to run as long as the three-week and twelve-week windows in the papers. That is a calendar fact, not a claim about training or race outcome.
One point matters to many Indian runners, and it is not about running. Cordyceps militaris is grown on grain with no insect at any stage. Wild keeda jadi grows on a caterpillar. For a vegetarian runner who read "caterpillar fungus" and stopped there, militaris has no caterpillar in it. More in is cordyceps vegetarian; price context in cordyceps militaris price in India.
What is not shown
No marathon-time study. Nobody has given half a group of runners cordyceps through a training block and timed a race. Both papers measured on a lab bike, which is not 42 kilometres on a Mumbai road.
No elite-athlete study. Hirsch tested recreationally active young adults. Chen tested healthy people aged 50 to 75. Nobody has tested a sub-three-hour marathoner or a national-level runner.
No human dose-response study on cordycepin. No human study has given people rising amounts of cordycepin and watched a measure change with the amount. A higher cordycepin number on a label has no human evidence attached, one way or the other.
No militaris fruiting-body extract study in exercise. Hirsch used a blend, Chen used a sinensis mycelium product. The form most people in India buy, a militaris fruiting-body extract standardized to beta-D-glucans, has not itself been through an exercise trial. Better to say that plainly than let a runner assume the jar is the study.
Why Alchemy Dose
We sell a cordyceps extract. You should know that before weighing anything above.
The Cordyceps militaris extract is a dual extract at 8:1, fruiting body, grain-grown, beta-D-glucans above 25 percent, lab-tested per batch in India. See today's price on the product page. It is not the product from either study.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does cordyceps improve VO2 max?
Two small human studies measured it, with different results. Hirsch 2017 (PMID 27408987) gave 4 g/day of a multi-species mushroom blend containing Cordyceps militaris and reported VO2max up 4.8 ml/kg/min after three weeks against 0.9 on placebo, in 10 people. Chen 2010 (PMID 20804368) found no VO2max change with Cs-4. Neither tested a militaris fruiting-body extract.
How long before a run should I take cordyceps?
The studies did not test a pre-run dose at all. Participants took it daily, with meals, for three weeks in Hirsch 2017 and twelve weeks in Chen 2010, and were measured at the start and end. There is no evidence for a dose 30 minutes before a run. The studied pattern is daily use; breakfast is the easiest slot.
Is cordyceps banned by WADA?
No. Cordyceps is not named on the WADA Prohibited List, and neither is any other mushroom. The list is revised every January, so check the current list yourself if you compete. The real risk is contamination: supplements fail tests because of undeclared substances in a batch, not the mushroom. Buy batch-tested product and ask whether that batch was screened for banned substances.
Can I take cordyceps with my morning coffee?
Yes, and many people do, since the studied pattern is daily use with food. Cordyceps militaris is one of the five mushrooms in our MycoSynergy 5-Mushroom Coffee, which also contains Suntheanine. Taking the extract alongside a normal coffee is fine too. Follow the recommended usage level on whichever product you use; do not double up to reach a study dose.
How much cordyceps did the studies use?
Hirsch 2017 used 4 grams per day of a multi-species mushroom blend containing Cordyceps militaris, for one and three weeks. Chen 2010 used Cs-4, a Cordyceps sinensis mycelium product, at 333 mg three times daily, about 1 gram a day, for twelve weeks. Neither is a militaris fruiting-body extract dose, so neither maps onto an 8:1 extract label.
