Whoop - wearable activity, sleep, and recovery tracking device
https://join.whoop.com/#/022FA8
I have been wearing whoop for the past 4 months and have had quite a few patients ask me my opinion on it so I’ve decided to write a blog to tell you my thoughts.
What is it?
Whoop is a really cool device that is worn all day and night and monitors your heart rate and a few other metrics. Then it uses its algorithms and user input to give you a ton of data about your body and its level of readiness to take on stress. It pairs with your phone and the whoop app to tell you all kinds of metrics around your stress levels, recovery, sleep quality, effects of different habits on recovery etc. The idea is that this device will give you incite on how much to train and when to do it. Some days you feel like “you just don’t have it”, feel fatigued, or feel like you’re ready to take on a big training load - the whoop will tell you more precisely what your body is feeling. This is super helpful for a lot of people we see in the office who have a disconnect between what their mind wants to do vs what their body is up for. If you’ve ever been guilty of over training or not listening to your body - this device can help. If you are interested, use the code at the bottom for a free month.
Here are the cool features:
Sleep tracking - to help learn a bit more about how your sleep was the night before, which phases of sleep you spent time in, and how ready your body is for future strain.
Activity tracking - how hard was a certain workout on your body? This feature tries to objectify the strain load that your run, bike, weightlifting session, etc had on your body.
Habit tracking - a very cool feature that allows you to see how certain habits affect your recovery. In the morning your whoop will ask you a series of questions about your day yesterday to find out how it affects your sleep. Did you ever wonder how much of a difference caffeine, alcohol, CBD, intermittent fasting, meals before bed, magnesium supplements etc have on your sleep? The whoop will track your habits and give you a report at the end of the month to clearly objectify each habits effect.
Sleep coach - how much sleep do I need? Based on your recent sleep and your recent activity strain, the app will tell you how much sleep to get each night. It will tell you if need 8:34 of sleep or if you just need 7 hours tonight. It will keep track of your sleep over a series of days and adjust the recommended amount of time based on a series of factors each day.
Strain coach - based on your recovery each day, whoop will recommend a certain amount of strain. This can keep you from overdoing it or it will give you the green light for a bigger than normal workout.
The device itself: it is an optical heart rate sensor that is attached to a fabric wrist strap. It looks similar to a fitbit without a screen. It is comfortable, waterproof, and hardly noticeable after a few days of wearing. It is designed to be worn 24/7 to gather all of your data.
Things I learned from WHOOP:
Wearing whoop allowed me to realize that I was over training on a regular basis. Factoring in work stress with training stress is a tough equation. As someone who is always filling free time with cycling, running, weightlifting, etc - I found that if work stress has an uptick, my recovery and performance in sport declines. With whoop, I’m able to see that a tough session on the bike is better on some days than other. The accumulative data - it realizing that you’ve had 3 bad nights sleep in a row with two workouts and high life stress keeps me in check.
Another thing I always noticed was that the first night that I sleep in the mountains, I would wake up tired. Recently WHOOP told me that I had one of the lowest recovery scores ever when we slept at 9,000ft in Breckenridge. It was reassuring to see objectively how much my REM and slow wave sleep was definitely decreased that night.
I also love the ability to track certain habits. I learned that meditation, magnesium supplements before bed, and staying well hydrated all have huge positive impact on my sleep quality and my recovery. I learned that life stress, alcohol, and late in the day caffeine really have a negative impact on my sleep.
If you are a data driven or analytical person, you will love being able to quantify your feelings and get real data on habits by using whoop.
The cost: the device itself is free with a subscription. You must sign up for 6 months minimum and each month is $30. If you use this code, you will get a free month and I will get a free month - click here: https://join.whoop.com/#/022FA8