Hey folks,
What are peoples thoughts on whoop trackers? I few of the team use them and they seem good, however at the £17 a month cost I’m wondering if people who use, have used them think they are worth while?
I have no issues with my sleep as a full time athlete, I’m always knackered so sleep and plenty of it is not a problem. I realise it gathers data, but how do you use that data to become better athletes etc etc and has it changed the way you train?
Cheers
Steve
Not tried it but to me it doesn’t seem to give me anymore than my Garmin watch does and I wear that more or less 24/7.
Garmin have their morning report which gives you your sleep quality and that can be interesting as it isn’t all about time in bed. Then you get HRV, training readiness score.
TBF it is just another reference point to how I might feel. So if I’m not feeling great and it might back up that I might consider missing a training session but I wouldn’t go purely off the data.
FWIW I’m an Apply Watch/Health user, but I don’t wear my watch to bed. I’ve ordered an Iris ring (like Aura - could be spelled wrong too!). Whoop was fine for me, recovery score was questionable sometimes. Issue is that it often gives irrelevant data (at least for athletes with other jobs).
I didn’t like the recovery score because it would often tell me I needed rest when I had an opportunity to train and then a rest day. I think they could do something cool with it, it if factored in availability to train.
Given you’re a pro, @stevebatembe, I think you’ll find value. Surely you get it for free anyway??
My experience has been mostly positive. The trade-off with the subscription cost is offset a fair amount by the hardware being no cost. Also, the hardware is replaced at no charge if there are ever any technical issues or upgrades (ie. 3.0 to 4.0 version in Whoop’s case).
The biggest change, that I have found it makes for me, is the sleep coaching. I realized for years that even though I thought I was getting enough sleep…I was not. When I average 80% sleep according to Whoop, I feel generally a bit sluggish, but when I get a few 100% days in a row, I feel great.
I do find that sometimes the recovery score seems out of whack to how I feel, but, I do believe that that could be the difference between the objectivity of the Whoop vs the subjectivity of how I feel. I have had a few conversations with Whoop about this as well as the phenomenon of delayed fatigue (similar to how your HR only elevates AFTER you finish a short intense interval) where the day after an intense session your recovery will still be high, but then the following day low.
Whoop has essentially said that the more information for a longer period of time they get, the better the feedback will be and my experience agrees. You start to be able to predict your recovery numbers. You don;t get any feedback for Whoop until you have worn it for 28 days straight.
One downside is the HR accuracy during some activities. I have had HR spike readings erasing a white board or coasting over a bumpy road rattling my wrist around. Whoop has adjusted the algorithm for my band (the customer service is stellar) and I have not had an HR spike from whiteboard erasing since. It still doesn’t understand wood chopping…but maybe one day. 
Whoop does have some other options for straps and clothing that apparently are more accurate, but I have not tried these. If you are looking for accurate HR for an activity then a cheststrap is going to be the thing.
There are ways to get the cost down; buying longer terms, referring friends, and occasional promotions.
Hope this helps.
What you say there is what I generally find with any wrist based HR. Yes these days they are very good and accurate but there are a lot of factors especially when exercising which lead to bad readings.
This for one is why I’ve enjoyed my Garmin watch as I wear a chest strap on the bike or running for better readings but with the same device get the sleep tracking and daily HR data.
Recovery scores/status depending on the system you’re in to me is always a guide. Also you need to remember that it to be back to fully recovered and often the aim is to be back out a training when you’re not fully recovered. Like you say you’ve a training session today but whoop is guiding you to not doing it but you know you’ve a rest day the following day.
Data is a great guide and addition but really its about looking at the trends in the data.
For me if I don’t see perhaps once a week that Garmin has my Training Readiness in the green or blue then perhaps I’ve pushed things a bit far that week or so. Equally perhaps I am getting sick and the body is using the resources to fight that. Or has it been life stress that week adding to the training stress.
I know Garmin will also notify me if I’ve managed to improve my recovery time estimate due to having a more restful day for example or better sleep.
Perhaps these tools are better suited to telling you to pull things together and put your big boy pants on and get training when you’re perhaps not feeling it. Rather than pushing you to not train if you’re feeling good and wanting to get out or giving you permission to dial it back if how you are performing once once out isn’t where you should be and the guidance from the data was already indicating you might need more rest.
Some good notes here. For me, it really wasn’t worth the price. But I can see why people would pay the subs.
“I’ve been using WHOOP for nearly three years now. I don’t rely on it all the time, but when something feels off, I check the data and try to analyze it. One thing that really impresses me about WHOOP is how accurately it detects when you’re starting to feel unwell.”
You can try it for couples of month and decide to continue or not