MOTS-C, NAD+, glutathione: do these belong in an injury conversation at all?

You are mostly rationalizing. The steelman argument is that tendon repair is metabolically demanding and oxidative stress is present in tendinopathy. But the jump from 'oxidative stress exists in pathological tissue' to 'exogenous antioxidants improve clinical tendon repair' is massive, and we lack the in vivo data to bridge it. Plus, blunting oxidative signaling can actually impede necessary mechanical adaptations, much like chronic NSAID use blunts muscle hypertrophy post-training. Where these agents actually belong is general energy support and overall systemic tolerance during a heavy rehab block. That has real value, but it is not tissue healing.

Appreciate the honesty. I use them for endurance training, but honestly neither did a thing for my two tendon issues.

I take glutathione because night shifts leave me completely cooked, not for my shoulder. People just call it injury recovery because of where they happen to be posting.

That is a great point. Context heavily dictates reporting. If you are on an injury board, any boost in general energy or systemic baseline gets credited to your tendon rehab, even when the underlying loading progression is doing the actual heavy lifting.

This is exactly why I track 'tendon rehab' and 'overall systemic energy' in separate columns in my spreadsheet. They diverge all the time.