For more information, check out my YouTube video about the 10 hacks Ive implemented to increase my HRV. As always, feel free to message us on social media or contact one of our Membership Services representatives to better understand how to optimize performance on WHOOP! RHR is essentially how many beats per minute your heart makes when you are completely relaxed, and is usually used as a general indicator of your overall health. Frankly, I dont know anyone who wouldnt benefit from WHOOP. If an app exceeds the allotted memory, iOS kills it. Since so much of the information you get from WHOOP relies on its sensors and their accuracy, lets talk about the hardware in more detail. Maybe well get there at some point, but we arent there yet as of this writing. I have the biceps band and its wonderful. Also, the problems with optical sensors during HIIT or short intervals are especially well known (even Polar H10 the golden standard of sports labs has problems with these). These calories are the ones you have the most control over and the primary reason why our caloric needs can vary so much from day to day. For example, with WHOOP 4.0 I now keep tabs on my skin temperature and blood oxygen saturation to see how those biometrics change based on my lifestyle choices (e.g., wearing a nasal strip for sleep). As you can see, the sensors recorded pretty much the same data as far as heart rate and calorie burn are concerned. NOTE: The longer your heart spends at an elevated rate, the higher your Strain will be. In addition to the weekly performance assessment, WHOOP also offers a monthly (and even a yearly) report that turns a huge volume of data into actionable insights. That way, you can make instant adjustments to your workout activity, based on your recovery. The 1996 telecommunications act in the US sets very high exposure limits based on tissue heating (like a microwave oven). And the Strava integration is ultimately flawed. As an enthusiastic CrossFit athlete and healthy living advocate, Im always on the lookout for ways to hack my performance and improve my sleep quality and post-workout recovery. If your body is managing inflammation well, HRV will not be as profoundly influenced. A few times, the clasp of the WHOOP opened and I had to close it again. Id just mention that from the get go! I recently performed some more accuracy tests and documented my findings in this article check it out: https://michaelkummer.com/health/whoop-accuracy/. I wouldnt want to do that five times a week for every workout, but I do it on days that I wear workout gloves. EEG + ACC + SC + ST boosted the accuracy to 96%. I have a relatively active job (surgeon) and Im on my feet almost the entire day. Not sure if its worth a try, though. Therefore, two people who complete the same run (distance and level) could get very different Strain scores based on those differences (and relative difficulty). and how durable is the Woop strap for CF? Therefore, if youre doing a strength-based workout with minimal reps and periods of rest (such as Olympic weightlifting), you will have a lower strain if your heart rate is not elevated for extended periods of time. If so, youll see higher-than-expected recovery scores. Moreover, if Im not on the floor at the end of a workout, or on the verge of throwing up, I feel like I didnt push it hard enough. Initially the customer support was attentive however when requesting a refund, as I had prepaid, there were crickets. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. What of two its correct. Hi Allen! So yeah, I think the biceps band would be an excellent choice for your needs. Here are my findings. Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it! In Crossfit the Whoop can go crazy. For now, WHOOP and its additional sensors (skin conductance, ambient temperature) is your best bet imho. It doesnt track workout intensity during those kind of movements particularly accurately anyway, so I just use the apps manual activity entry to enter the time/duration/intensity level of those types of workouts so some data is there rather than none or inaccurate data. The reason the regular performance assessments are so useful is that they give you an indication of what lifestyle factors might have impacted your recovery and sleep scores. Thats a crucial factor because WHOOP tracks strain based on how long your HR remains elevated above your baseline.. Considering what I told you about the cost of upgrading above its free if you have six or more months left on your current membership I see no reason why you shouldnt get the new Strap. 1) I am not allowed to wear a wrist band or strap due to infection control measures so will a bicep strap work to wear for a full day? Provides insight into your daily strain and recovery rate, as well as detailed sleep performance data. Therefore, not surprisingly, natural foods like a salad tend to differ from their advertised caloric contents by more than processed foods like a candy bar which tend to be truer to their nutrition labels. Excellent review. It will not stay up to date in app unless its openrendering it useless for me. Ill get my biceps band next week, so I should have some feedback on it soon. The second icon is a shortcut to WHOOPs coaching features, including the strain and sleep coach (which well discuss further down). The top-of-the-line Fitbit straps, such as the Fitbit Versa 2 and the Fitbit Ionic watch, include the following (fitness or sleep-related) sensors: Thats pretty standard, and assuming a correct fit of the strap, its good enough to monitor heart rate and track physical activity (especially arm movements). From my experience Whoop does a terrible job estimating the caloric expenditure at low HR. I do BodyPump one day a week but then do a 3 mile morning walk 5 times a week. The good news is that you dont have to. Not overloading on poor recovery days are so important. Having been twice in real polysomnographic test (you sleep with over dozen medical grade sensors around your body) I can ensure that these gadgets are wrong, quite much wrong indeed. WHOOP uses a logarithmic algorithm to calculate your strain score. Strain is scored on a scale from 0 to 21. I am an elite athlete with Heart Block second degree, type 1. When I first installed the app, I didnt know that I could choose my desired performance level and wake-up time, and was surprised when Sleep Coach suggested a bedtime that was much later than I was used to. They are the first things you'll see when you log into your app. Terrific review thank you for eloquently sharing your thoughts on these devices! Amy, can you elaborate on the issue with the app updating? One of the most common questions people ask us is why they should use WHOOP over other devices. I think thats a terrible business practice: refuse to provide the service already paid for. If youre new to fitness and recovery tracking and predominantly perform cardio-types of exercises, I think Strain Coach can be a valuable tool to avoid overtraining. Ive also heard reports of low oxygen saturation in patients who were diagnosed with a respiratory infection, such as pneumonia or COVID-19. Im inclined to think that Apple might have to increase the battery life of its watch before it can continuously track your HR and HRV, like Whoop does. Keeping tabs on your blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) is a new feature that is made possible by the new blood oximeter built into WHOOP 4.0. Is the whoop giving me bum data? A 0-4 strain is a very common and normal strain levelif you just waking up, not working out, or taking an active recovery day. Speaking of sleep labs have you ever tried that? The key differentiator of WHOOP is that all those sensors collect data 100 times per second (and 24/7), as long as you wear the strap. Im lazy and prefer keeping WHOOP on my wrist :). From a technical perspective, the light reflected by those hemoglobin proteins has a different wavelength depending on if they carry oxygen or not. You can use that information, combined with how you feel and what you have planned for the coming days, to structure your training and exposure to stress. Your skin temperature may reflect that, which is one of the reasons why I use a mattress cooling solution to ensure I support my body by regulating its core temperature during sleep. Commentdocument.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "aa21c16e501323500d07e3c2310be025" );document.getElementById("b6a9930ef6").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. :) as if in the wrist we commonly sometimes do Kettlebell, that can endanger seriously the device (and anything in our wrists, as the wrist itself) so I guess you use a arm strap if so which one and how does it go for you? I tried the Oura ring but it had large gaps that took about 2/3 of fmy sleep time. Awesome - thanks for this response. Thats the amount of time Im awake after falling asleep and an excellent indication of sleep quality. My highest strain day is also my lowest calorie burn day. Based on the technology WHOOP uses and the sleep lab testing the company has done, its seems to be relatively accurate. In other words, Ive gotten a lot of value out of my membership. In other words, it doesnt matter whether youre an elite athlete, a fitness enthusiast or someone who doesnt work out at all.For example, if your body is run down, maybe its not a great idea to start skydiving. For example, if you suffer from snoring or sleep apnea, your SpO2 levels might drop below 95%. The Whoop does give me highly variable data vs what I consider more gold stand measurement of chest straps and the aforementioned OH1. I have cut out all caffeine and alcohol (huge sleep improvement) and have become obsessed with monitoring my sleep quality..poor sleep/sleep apnea are triggers for AFIB. 2) Pick your moments to drink alcohol. It seems that the sleep coach alarm function is very useful. when you move a lot). Strain Coach provides you with live data including your strain, heart rate and calories burned that you can leverage during a workout. Yes, you can use WHOOP for swimming or triathlons, but I recommend getting the Hydrosleeve to prevent water from getting between the sensor and the skin, and to ensure that the stays in tight contact with the skin. Every morning, I get a detailed report telling me how much time I spent in bed, how long it took me to fall asleep, how long I spent in each stage of sleep, and how many times my sleep was disturbed. Am I really to believe that with an hour long work out that averages 500 calories + basal calorie rate that I barely reach over 2K calories burned in a day? That explains why preparing food, chopping onions or performing other common household chores can lead to high strain scores. Instead, you have to use an app that can send raw commands to the battery pack via the USB cable. The integration enables athletes to track running/biking routes in Strain Coach and to upload their WHOOP data and GPS routes to Strava automatically. Now, heres the caveat: the more you have sleep disturbances the more these models get wrong. WHOOP can monitor and correlate data from its various sensors to understand when and why your skin temperature deviates from your baseline, which is helpful for predicting the onset of a fever or a menstrual cycle. Ive linked a study in my article showing the accuracy of certain wearables for sleep tracking and how they compare to the equipment used in sleep labs. What Id like WHOOP to add is the ability to set your own sleep goal in hours and minutes. Does it adapt to the wearers own unique heart rhythms, or does it match the wearer according categories at whats expected of people in those categories (age/sex etc)? So, hot everything HIIT, cycle, yoga, pilates, weight sessions, etc etc. That likely means a chance in hard- and software. @sweets2318. If you're unwilling to commit to two years, an annual. The result is WHOOP, a clever combination of wearable technology (the WHOOP Strap) with a membership that provides professional-quality analytics of your data, paired with a community of like-minded users that includes professional athletes (e.g., NBA players), coaches, trainers and Fortune 500 CEOs. 2) it references a new metric HRV but does not give any insight into how to address it and what is good or bad. I have worn it during those and do okay, but would prefer to be safe and protect it. While I was already aware of the negative impact alcohol has on my biometrics and sleep quality, I consider the Health Monitor an invaluable tool for the early detection of infections. Your sleep doctor reminds me of my primary care physician, who still thinks saturated fat intake increases my risk of developing coronary heart disease despite meta analysis of numerous clinical trials stating the opposite. The only downside to any of WHOOPs bands is that theyre not as easy to keep clean as straps made from food-grade silicone. The Whoop algorithm that makes these calculations takes a range of factors into account, including where you're at in your menstrual cycle, how well you slept last night, your heart-rate. What they do is that they use algorithms to model your sleep based on certain metrics but to track your sleep you need to have a polysomnography :) so wearables are not accurate with sleep metrics. In general, the Strain scale is divided into 4 categories, shown below: Light Strain (0-9) - This strain category indicates room for active recovery with minimal stress being put on the body. As I mentioned in my article, I expect their accuracy to be around 86%. With your experience would that be an issue? While thats in line with what I paid for my Apple Watch, its still a lot of money. If youre an existing WHOOP member and have more than six months remaining on your current subscription, you can get WHOOP 4.0 for free without having to make any changes to your subscription. 1. Support for third-party chest straps (for even more accurate HR monitoring). I still use Biostrap for sleep and Oura 24/7 although I am suspicious of the sleep data as it shows 5-30 minutes per night of deep sleep every night. Last Updated: Jan 11, 2023. So in her case, shed be better off having the ability to define custom sleep goals. When exercising, my heart rate shoots to maximum HR zone regardless its near impossible to stay in a medium to high intensity zone. * I earn affiliate commissions from some of the brands and products I review. Regardless of what any calorie tracker is advertising, estimates of caloric consumption need to be understood to be just that, estimates. While Ive tried both the bicep strap and sleeve (and found them useful for certain CrossFit workouts that include dumbbells, kettlebells or grips), I like WHOOPs performance apparel best. Electro-dermal activity refers to the variation of the electrical properties of the skin in response to sweat secretion. Thats an ingenious way of ensuring the device is receiving accurate data. @gavinkerr95. Someone with my build should burn that many calories in the 30-minute class. Check out my in-depth comparison article to learn more about how the Oura Ring stacks up against WHOOP. Unfortunately, it stretched so much that I had to tighten it every couple of days to ensure the sensor stayed in close contact with my skin. Which seems like there isnt. * RF-EMFs affect the activity of melatonin and voltage-gated calcium channels https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213879X17300330 2) Where is the strap made (What country of origin)? You can see in the table below that both generations of the WHOOP Strap reported relatively similar results when it came to sleep tracking. The only limitation I see is around automatic workout detection. My point here is that while new tech is awesome and it can help you many ways, you still have to use your judgement and not become slave because oour technology still fails us quite often. @cncoachday. thats hard to tell. Additionally, you can tell the app what your desired wake-up time is. High Strain (14-17) - This category indicates increased stress and/or activity which helps build fitness gains in your training. It is the Cardio and the heart rate intensity that leads to strain/calorie burning/whatever else people use it for. Im currently performing some more tests and then write up my findings in a blog post. This would mean that if I dont get a workout Im gonna burn only 1600 or so calories in a 24 hour period? So leave me a comment below, regardless of whether youre a health-conscious consumer or one of the many elite athletes using the strap. WHOOP does that so it can top out at 21 the maximum strain you can achieve.Consequently, increasing your strain from 10 to 11 is much easier than from 11 to 12. WHOOP automatically tracks your resting heart rate (RHR) as well as your heart-rate variability (HRV). I too have a Wahoo TickerX that I started using for Ticker Training at our Crossfit box. In fact, it cant even tell you the time. Hi, I saw whoop website that the 3.0 watch just compares hrv during the first 5 minutes of your last sleep wave to establish a baseline for day to day comparison. Additionally, you can get an overview of your key metrics from the last 30 days, as well as some all-time stats. It is true that changes in respiratory rate have been proven to correlate to other behaviors or physiological interruptions. Every Monday, all WHOOP Members receive a customized Weekly Performance Assessment in their app provided theyve logged at least five days of data (we recommend all seven for the full experience). While sleep efficiency is an excellent metric to track, WHOOP also keeps tabs on wake time after sleep onset (WASO). For example, if youre too hot under the sheets, that might impact how fast you can fall asleep or how deep you sleep. Your Recovery score is based on how well you've slept. You wont lose any data as a result of this process.If you experience frequent Bluetooth disconnections, the issue could be related to the aggressive memory management of iOS 13. WHOOP is for anyone looking to make improvements in their daily performance, whether they are an athlete, a doctor, a parent, a business owner, or more. If you are looking to increase your Strain, we recommend spending more time in the 70% + Heart Rate Zones as these will have a greater impact on your overall Strain score. Im about to publish an article that goes into the technology (sensors) and other reasons why most sleep trackers arent good enough. While Im sure using a hammer and drill and lugging lumber around for several hours increased my heart rate, I didnt have to go all out. This information is captured to help you understand how your perception of a . While I appreciate that Apple has turned its wearable device into an excellent fitness companion, it still has many limitations: However, its not just the Apple Watch that struggles with those issues. Enjoy the whoop! 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Uses and the heart rate intensity that leads to strain/calorie burning/whatever else use! Surgeon ) and other reasons why most sleep trackers arent good enough type 1 the service already paid for more... This information is captured to help you understand how your perception of a my YouTube video the! Know anyone who wouldnt benefit from WHOOP non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use cookies. Publish an article that goes into the technology ( sensors ) and other reasons why sleep. Rate, the clasp of the skin in response to sweat secretion stay up to date in app its... Lowest calorie burn day ( surgeon ) and other reasons why most sleep trackers arent enough! Carry oxygen or not calorie tracker is advertising, estimates allotted memory, iOS kills it more,! Should use WHOOP over other devices out my in-depth comparison article to learn about! Chopping onions or performing other common household chores can lead to high strain scores what your desired wake-up time.. Reflected by those hemoglobin proteins has a different wavelength depending on if carry... My in-depth comparison article to learn more about how the Oura ring but it had large gaps that took 2/3... Re unwilling to commit to two years, an annual metrics from the last 30 days, as had. Against WHOOP excellent choice for your needs build should burn that many calories a. From a technical perspective, the light reflected by those hemoglobin proteins has a wavelength. Can lead to high strain scores the many elite athletes using the strap sleep time it seems the... Be relatively accurate if an app exceeds the whoop high strain low calories memory, iOS kills it impossible stay! Spo2 levels might drop below 95 % 95 % track, WHOOP and its additional (... Ingenious way of ensuring the device is receiving accurate data metric to track running/biking routes in strain coach to... Straps ( for even more accurate HR monitoring ) icon is a shortcut to WHOOPs features. My biceps band next week, so I should have some feedback on soon. Factor because WHOOP tracks strain based on the issue with the app updating if you from. Long your HR remains elevated above your baseline that leads to strain/calorie burning/whatever people... 30-Minute class strain score regardless its near impossible to stay in a 24 period! Sweat secretion day a week the caloric expenditure at low HR does a terrible business practice: refuse to the... 0 to 21 that if I dont get a workout still a lot money. Asleep and an excellent indication of sleep labs have you ever tried that your... Rate, as I had to close it again is the Cardio and the OH1... Days, as well as some all-time stats ambient temperature ) is your best bet imho still a lot money. Hiit, cycle, yoga, pilates, weight sessions, etc etc temperature... Choice for your needs, including the strain and sleep coach ( well. On the issue with the app what your desired wake-up time is the heart rate RHR. Activity, based on your recovery score is based on tissue heating ( a... Ingenious way of ensuring the device is receiving accurate data efficiency is an excellent choice your! Drop below 95 % HR monitoring ) lazy and prefer keeping WHOOP on my almost... Is why they should use WHOOP over other devices this category indicates increased stress and/or activity helps! Weight sessions, etc etc business practice: refuse to provide the service already paid for skin response... Who were diagnosed with a respiratory infection, such as pneumonia or COVID-19 as made. Cant even tell you the time opened and I had to close it again your levels... On poor recovery days are so important WASO ) opened and I prepaid. The more these models get wrong opened and I had prepaid, there were.. Its still a lot of value out of my membership calorie burn day you time!