Cordyceps Sinensis (Tcm) for Exercise Performance

Research suggests that Cordyceps supplementation may support aerobic exercise performance and reduce exercise-related fatigue, with the strongest human evidence coming from a 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of 14 randomized controlled trials involving 528 athletes, which found significant improvements in endurance performance, ventilatory threshold, and peak oxygen uptake. A separate 2025 narrative review similarly found that longer-term supplementation showed dose-dependent benefits for time to exhaustion, though effects on overall aerobic fitness were less consistent across studies, and findings were largely limited to young, active individuals. Several preclinical studies conducted in mice point to biological mechanisms involving energy metabolism, glycogen storage, mitochondrial signaling pathways, and reduced oxidative stress, though these animal findings have not yet been confirmed in human trials. Overall, the evidence leans in a supportive direction, but meaningful limitations remain, including the relatively small number of rigorous human trials, questions about which populations benefit most, uncertainty about whether benefits depend on combining Cordyceps with other herbs or training protocols, and the fact that two of the cited reviews could not be fully evaluated due to unavailable abstracts.