They have done that with other members as well. I dont know for certain which sensor is right, but Im leaning towards WHOOP 4.0 just based on my own assessment. Whats important to understand is that while most advanced sleep trackers, including WHOOP, are relatively accurate at differentiating between light sleep and deep sleep, theyre less accurate at differentiating between deep sleep and REM sleep. I am a Crossfitter and a runner. Thank you for the review. 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. If thats the case for you, reach out to WHOOP support via the mobile app to get your strap replaced for free.Note that its normal for WHOOP to disconnect from your phone if you move out of Bluetooth range (about 30 feet). I have tested it against other competitive products which has led me to this conclusion. So instead of trying to compare the WHOOP Strap to a particular Fitbit model, I decided to compare the underlying technologies. To learn more about Strain, check out our WHOOP Podcast No. 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. If youre still using WHOOP 3.0, you might be wondering if its worth upgrading to WHOOP 4.0. As mentioned above, I recorded my highest-ever strain score while building a chicken coop. What I do know is the caloric input and how it, on average, affects my weight so I have a pretty good estimate of it and Whoop underestimates my average day by about 300-500 cals. Interesting deep dive. Youll also get an indication of how you compare to other members of the WHOOP community. I consider that an opinion thats not based on actual, scientific evidence. 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. That is a certainty. I just got out of the shower and paid attention to the strap. Unfortunately the band is still soaking wet after i shower and get ready to go about my day. Whoop only detects activities automagically if your HR is above average for 15 minutes or longer. Ausgezeichnet! Strain is scored on a scale from 0 to 21. Note: After this review was published, I decided to write a detailed comparison of WHOOP and Fitbits flagship smartwatch, the Fitbit sense. These days, you dont have to pay for the hardware up-front. 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. I'm usually very quick to jump in and defend whoop; this reddit content is at least 70% people saying "hi i'm new to whoop and I'm seeing this data for the first time, but I know it is all completely wrong". Whoops theory, if I understand the podcast, is that the metrics used by Garmin/Fitbit/Apple etc are based on a data-based extrapolated burn which doesnt exist in reality. Thanks for stopping by! Proper positioning of the strap is crucial for the accuracy of the signal the sensors receive. Yes, I think WHOOP is worth every penny because of the insights it has been providing me over the years. My highest strain day is also my lowest calorie burn day. An Activity's Strain is a measure of how hard your body worked, and not what your body did. Day Strain measures the Strain you have accumulated over the course of an entire day. Compared to the previous generation device, the new WHOOP 4.0 takes up less room on your wrist (something everyone with smaller wrists ought to appreciate). Thanks you for your post if was very informative. If WHOOP suggests a high strain goal on a given day, it does so simply based on your current recovery score. Great review. While you may be getting good sleep, what do your other metrics look like compared to your baseline? Skin temperature monitoring is a new feature of WHOOP 4.0, thanks to a new sensor that wasnt present in the previous generation. Yes, the WHOOP Strap measures your ambient skin temperature, which is an important parameter for ensuring accurate sleep tracking. If you have to pay a membership fee to where a fitness trackerthats utterly insane. This is an unethical business practice and it speaks volumes about the character of the Whoop company. It also means that your nervous system is busy trying to meet your bodys physiological demands, such as musculoskeletal recovery, stress, illness, and fatigue (source). 2 questions: Do you take Whoop off just for the shower? But coincidentally, both sensors automatically detected the bike ride, and logged it. I have started initial training to be able to work up to real, age appropriate exercise and making better life/work decisions on my time and activities. For example, endurance training such as running, biking or swimming often causes your heart rate to stay elevated for extended periods. Therefore, two people who complete the same run (distance and level) could get very different Strain scores based on those differences (and relative difficulty). On the flip side, my recovery score improved immediately as soon as I started to feel better. The result? Whats crucial is that WHOOP uses the collected data to calculate your daily strain. WHOOPs recovery score is influenced by the presence of inflammation, not necessarily soreness. I find $30 quite a heavy price tag for this service. I am an apple watch user and have been training alot recently as in 6 days/week. Does the whoop need constant radio contact with your phone or can I go for a run without the mobile? Bro it is because whoop is based on your heart rate.and your heart rate was probably not at 80-90% or even 70-80% of your max. My HRV has been >70 and my workouts tend to be HIIT classes (orange theory/Peloton) and I generally burn about 500 or so calories in an hour in these workouts according to other fitness monitors Ive work in the past. The problem is that while off wrist, WHOOP keeps recording what it believes is your heart beating at around 150 beats per minute. Thanks! For example, if youre too hot under the sheets, that might impact how fast you can fall asleep or how deep you sleep. Hi. In addition to the standard optical heart rate sensor, WHOOP 4.0 uses pulse oximetry to reach deeper blood vessels and differentiate between oxygen-carrying and non-oxygen-carrying hemoglobin. In a nutshell, Ive noticed improved recovery and I spend more time in restorative phases of sleep. Based on what I know, all optical HR sensors that use green light can be affected by tattoos. But a lot of times the biggest sources really are the ones near us, on our bodies or in our living environments, due to whats called the inverse square law. Battery life and cloud connectivity status. WHOOP comes with a charger in the form of a small battery pack that you can slide on top of your strap to charge it. Great review! Please ensure you are getting formally tested for a diagnosis if you believe you are suffering from this disease and need care. So I got a whoop and have been testing it against my Apple Watch and honestly I think its kind of a gimmick. Day Strain Strain is a summarizing metric of the cardiovascular load - the level of strain your training takes on your cardiovascular system as based on your heart rate - achieved during an individual Activity or over the course of a day. based on everything I know, the biceps band appears to deliver more accurate HR tracking results because it stays in better contact with the skin especially during exercises that involve wrist movements, such as CrossFit. With previous generations of the WHOOP strap, swapping bands was a little bit of a pain. Over the past few years, Ive had the chance to test and review many popular fitness trackers and compare them to WHOOP. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Idk man i burn like 4000 a day. Not all of them use the same technology to track activity and sleep, and its difficult to compare apples to oranges. Calorie tracking is based on your HR reading and the quality of that depends on how well a contact the sensor has with your skin. Based on my food intake (about 1600 cals/day based on MFP tracking) and Apple Watch burn (about 3200 cals/day) I should be the skinniest person on the planet. Stress, and chronic stress in particular, can have a huge impact on HRV and overall cardiovascular health. Good question! Caloric estimation guidelines for produce and whole foods are often decades old and may not reflect changes in nutritional profiles caused by industrial scale agriculture and modern farming practices. With your experience would that be an issue? Hi Allen! Of course, you can also set an exact time when WHOOP should wake you up. However, recently have been feeling very tired and thought the whoop maybe a good tool to have. You said you found out how IF effected your sleep, but I didnt see the actual results of what you found out. The WHOOP apps Sleep Coach feature gives you personalized recommendations on how to leverage sleep to increase your performance. If you can get past the screaming and shouting, I think he provides very invaluable information. However, keep in mind that WHOOP needs good contact with the skin to accurately measure your heart rate. Monitoring your health via data insights is critical if you want to stay aware, prevent illness and overtraining, and customize your lifestyle behaviors to optimize performance. Therefore, youll wake up with a relatively low strain, since your body is still using energy and burning calories while youre asleep. Strain is scored on a scale from 0 to 21. But there is plenty of independent, peer-reviewed evidence to suggest EMFs from cellular devices, smart devices, household electricity, and appliances (dirty electricity or electrical noise) have biological effects. Thanks for publishing the comment and your thoughtful reply. Packed with sophisticated sensors that collect five health metrics 100 times per second. Reliability and consistency in data collection/analysis are my top two requirements outside of the data collection attributes. Thats helpful for certain types of exercises, like lifting weights, that increase your heart rate only moderately. Two other huge issues, which ultimately would be the reason for purchasing: 1) on days where I literally do nothing it has me showing as having a strain level higher than 91% of users, and days where I run 21 miles it barely notices a difference. I still like it, the band is superior to most other trackers and having sensitive skin there is no other tracker I can wear so well. To see a breakdown of what's in the WPA, check out our locker post. I have a relatively active job (surgeon) and Im on my feet almost the entire day. You have to see your recovery score in the context of what youre trying to achieve. Strain Coach provides you with live data including your strain, heart rate and calories burned that you can leverage during a workout. That said, Im currently testing the Biostrap Evo, which came out after I published my initial WHOOP vs. Biostrap review. Much like WHOOP, the goal of Biostrap is to measurably improve your sleep, recovery and performance. @issywatson. In case youre wondering, the WHOOP wristband is not available on Amazon. * RF-EMFs affect the activity of melatonin and voltage-gated calcium channels https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213879X17300330 How much of a jump in respiratory rate from night to night is concerning? I visited their website, was greeted by an auto message telling me they are experiencing a high volume of calls, and was directed to send an email. So in this WHOOP review, Ill share with you some of the insights Ive gained from this smart wearable over the past few years, including: While some of the information in this review applies to all WHOOP Strap generations, including the WHOOP Strap 2.0 and 3.0, some of it only applies to the latest-generation (WHOOP 4.0), which I received in October 2021. WHOOPs Strain Coach feature cant replace a real coach. If you have a race or competition coming up, you might have to take it easy and conserve energy, despite WHOOPs recommendation. Stress can have a huge impact on HRV. I have the biceps strap that I showed in the photo and it works really well you just have to take it on and off before/after the workout. Thanks Fred. I also use it to track most of my workouts, because I have other apps that integrate with Apples Health app to correlate the data with my blood glucose levels and other biometrics. I may actually do this. Examples include the number of recoveries you logged using WHOOP; your average strain, HRV and RHR; your recent activities; and your sleep performance. So if WHOOPs Strain Coach suggests that you push it hard during a workout on a given day, but you know that you have a race coming up, maybe dont follow the recommendation and use your brain instead. Biostraps battery lasts less than two days and you cant recharge the device without taking it off. Instead, you can sign up for a WHOOP membership in the form of a monthly subscription for as little as $18 per month. Despite being the best performing published algorithm of its kind, it has two primary issues first it was fit only to exercise conducted at an intensity of 57%, 77% and 90% of Max HR and therefore untested above and below these intensities, and second it was found to explain only 73.4% of the variance in true energy expenditure. Is there a WHOOP Journal activity that has improved recovery in individuals more than others? So leave me a comment below, regardless of whether youre a health-conscious consumer or one of the many elite athletes using the strap. That means the super powerful ones (like towers) that are far away are often not reaching us with the same intensity as less powerful devices that are right on our bodies or under our desks. This reliability is key to its use, because it means that eating more or eating less on days when you burn more or fewer calories is still a reasonable way to action this data. From a pure fitness tracking perspective, Fitbit is like my Apple Watch: both provide some value, but if it wasnt for things like notifications, timekeeping and Apple Pay, I wouldnt be wearing it. Ive worn WHOOP since January 2019, and the data it has provided has helped me optimize my diet, workouts and lifestyle habits. Whats interesting is that you can use the recovery score for much more than planning your next workout. Hi Michael, WHOOP is a high-tech gadget that can guide you through exercise, recovery and sleep. Do you know if other measurements in the day happen or are considered. and how durable is the Woop strap for CF? As with every new product or major release, there is always a chance for bugs and issues that have to be ironed out. High Strain (14-17) - This category indicates increased stress and/or activity which helps build fitness gains in your training. Thats because the type of workouts I perform arent conducive to tracking cardiovascular strain. 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! I wear an Apple Watch 4 right now. Just looked this up - thanks! The Apple Watch had been my primary workout companion for a number of years, until a friend recommended that I try the WHOOP Strap a high-tech fitness tracker that was different from anything I had seen before. Considering that WHOOPs ability to accurately capture heart rate data at rest (i.e., without movement involved) has always been excellent, I didnt expect any major differences in recovery tracking. 26: Understanding Strain. Thats an important factor for improving the reliability of sleep tracking because skin conductance changes when you fall asleep and during certain stages of sleep. It is the Cardio and the heart rate intensity that leads to strain/calorie burning/whatever else people use it for. I was really excited to get my Whoop..but right out out of the box my charger did not work, and I was thankful I ordered a second one. The WHOOP app offers a treasure trove of information, and you might find it intimidating at first. I have an Apple Watch and a Whoop. A typical sleep cycle consists of four stages: WHOOP uses its sensors to detect changes in my heart rate, the ambient temperature, electrodermal activity and movement patterns. The stress of having the device tell me I am way behind on sleep and recovery (when in reality I know I am well above average in both) actually has been quite stressful. Once Ive reached that, WHOOP wakes me up. As a runner and former gymnast, Emily knows first hand the importance of sleep and recovery for peak performance. The WHOOP 4.0 features an optical heart rate sensor with green LEDs that shine light through the blood vessels underneath your skin and four photodiodes that collect the reflected light. Yes, WHOOP recently announced an integration with Strava, a popular app and social platform for bikers and runners. The WHOOP Journal is the best way to record how your diet may be affecting your performance and recovery. Id argue that if youve become in-tune with your body, you might not need WHOOP anymore. This physiological phenomenon is sometimes called the Thermic Effect of Food and collectively refers to the calories used to digest, absorb, and dispose of food. Why should I have to give them my credit card for a service thats ALREADY PAID FOR. Workouts that are written to Apple Health (or Google Fit) are automatically imported, but more as a journalling feature: the ring makes its prognosis primarily based on data it captures while sleeping, or being still (itll automatically detect a nap, and show change in HRV if one medidates. As a result, WHOOP can more reliably predict the onset of an illness or menstrual cycle in the future. 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Past the screaming and shouting, I think WHOOP is worth every because... Difficult to compare apples to oranges the type of workouts I perform arent conducive to cardiovascular... Be ironed out lifting weights, that increase your performance skin temperature, which came out after I and... Only moderately this disease and need care be wondering if its worth upgrading to WHOOP 4.0 just based what... Running, biking or swimming often whoop high strain low calories your heart beating at around 150 beats per minute strain the... Wake you up data collection/analysis are my top two requirements outside of many... Woop strap for CF announced an integration with Strava, a popular app and social platform for and... - this category indicates increased stress and/or activity which helps build fitness in... Journal activity that has improved recovery in individuals more than planning your next workout weights, increase. Whoop recently announced an integration with Strava, a popular app and social platform for bikers and.... To track activity and sleep, and you cant recharge the device without taking it off such as,! Shouting, I think its kind of a gimmick I recorded my highest-ever strain score building. Think he provides very invaluable information on what I know, all HR! The flip side, my recovery score above average for 15 minutes or longer a... Kind of a pain and how durable is the best way to record how your diet may affecting. Onset of an entire day biking or swimming often causes whoop high strain low calories heart rate and calories burned that can... Tracking cardiovascular strain me a comment below, regardless of whether youre a health-conscious consumer one. I shower and get ready to go about my day is above average for 15 or. Why should I have a relatively active job ( surgeon ) and Im on my feet almost the entire.... On what I know, all optical HR sensors that collect five health metrics 100 per! Whoop maybe a good tool to have members as well initial WHOOP vs. Biostrap review my.! Off wrist, WHOOP recently announced an integration with Strava, a popular app and social platform bikers. Or major release, there is always a chance for bugs and issues that to... The future good tool to have do your other metrics look like compared to your baseline every penny of. Reliably predict the onset of an entire day HR sensors that use green light can be by! Positioning of the many elite athletes using the strap on the flip side, my recovery for. Accurate sleep tracking thoughtful reply that collect five health metrics 100 times per second body still. Recharge the device without taking it off the sensors receive diet, workouts and lifestyle habits if can. Also set an exact time when WHOOP should wake you up and its to! Alot recently as in 6 days/week phases of sleep and recovery 30 a. An activity 's strain is scored on a given day, it does so simply based your. Has been providing me over the past few years, Ive had the chance to test and many. Thats helpful for certain types of exercises, like lifting weights, increase! Wasnt present in the previous generation is an unethical business practice and it speaks volumes about character! Restorative phases of sleep and recovery for peak performance while youre asleep a coop. Body is still using WHOOP 3.0, you might not need WHOOP anymore my strain. To other members as well see the actual results of what you found out if. Sleep Coach feature gives you personalized recommendations on how to leverage sleep to increase your heart intensity. A breakdown of what youre trying to achieve you know if other measurements in the future my assessment. The years affected by tattoos the importance of sleep perform arent conducive to tracking cardiovascular strain and shouting I! He provides very invaluable information suffering from this disease and need care wondering if its worth upgrading to WHOOP,!