The Whoop fitness band is a cutting-edge wearable device that provides comprehensive fitness and health tracking capabilities. Because Whoop focuses on stress, recovery, and sleep quality rather than just activity, it is a popular choice among athletes and fitness enthusiasts looking to improve their overall wellness.k
What is Whoop Fitness Band?
Whoop is a fitness tracker that does more than just monitor physical activity. Through the data it provides, it also aids in tracking recovery and, depending on your individual physiological composition, aids in planning your recoveries and your upcoming workout.
For example, Whoop will assist you in fine-tuning your workout, sleep, and recovery schedules so that you’re in “peak” performance for that effort if you know you want to set a personal record on the bike in three days.
In theory, this is a pretty interesting concept, particularly for those who are serious athletes or fitness enthusiasts. However, the real questions are: does it function well enough, and is the $30 monthly membership fee worthwhile?
Why Whoop Fitness Band?
Though I was wary of going down the rabbit hole again as I did with my previous fitness tracker, I had been thinking about getting another one. To decide what I was ready to commit to, I did a ton of research both online and in my local fitness community. I had never heard of this band before, but my friend Melissa had a WHOOP. I looked at prices, read a ton of reviews, abandoned my online cart, read even more reviews, and eventually made the purchase.
The WHOOP felt like it was more about performance than calories and competition, which is what drew me in. The WHOOP monitors the intensity of your daily workouts, sleep, and recuperation. After all those metrics are adjusted, the WHOOP will recommend how much and how hard you should exercise. You are not required to do this kind of training, of course, but the goal is to preserve your energy and body to perform at your best.
The calorie tracking feature is still available in WHOOP, but it seems much less useful now. My fascination lies in how hard a workout is and how my body reacts to it.
Who is the Whoop For?
You’re going to love the Whoop if you’re training for any kind of competition, race, tournament, or serious fitness journey.
How Strain works?
Whoop Fitness Band believes that by excluding steps and utilizing only Strain—which is determined by your heart rate, usually obtained through your wrist—the device is better able to capture the impact of everything that occurs in your life. The goal is to develop a single “grand metric” that sums up all the ways your daily activities affect your physiology.
They contend, for instance, that strain more fully captures the entirety of your workout, your stroll through Walmart, the spike in heart rate you experienced in the office when your supervisor asked you to lead a significant meeting, etc.
Strain is most useful in capturing cardio exercise because it lowers heart rate. However, WHOOP has also created a weight training setting that aims to translate muscular load into strain. Users of WHOOP receive a daily numerical goal for Strain each day. According to the company, it’s the daily “optimal Strain” that you should aim to achieve through normal living and exercise. Scores range from 1 to 21.
The Lack of Screen: Pros and Cons
Without a screen of its own, the Whoop is merely a data tracker, which may or may not be advantageous depending on your objectives.
First of all, since technology has become a part of all of our lives, it is usually a very good thing to be free of additional distractions.
I did discover, though, that I didn’t look at the app very often because I had to actively open it to access data. This works great if you incorporate Whoop into your routine as a useful tool while you’re training for something. However, as a less frequent user, I never really understood it.
Additionally, I discovered that I missed having the data immediately available when working out. Among other things, I can check my heart rate, the time, and my music while running by consulting my Apple Watch. I found that I preferred using the Watch for exercise over the Whoop (I’ve used both at the same time for every workout this month).
How Much Does Whoop Cost?
Depending on your point of view, one of the nice things about the Whoop Fitness Band is that you can join without having to pay a large sum of money upfront. The strap and tracker are free when you commit to a six-month subscription, which is $30 per month.
Thus, for less than $200, you can begin using it straight away. In contrast, testing out an Apple Watch costs more money. The price is reasonable for the right person, in my opinion, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a gadget that helps you track and organize your workouts and recoveries better.
Conclusion
For athletes and fitness enthusiasts looking to improve overall wellness, the Whoop fitness band is an excellent choice because it tracks stress, recovery, and sleep quality. With a subscription model and a distinct emphasis on performance metrics rather than just activity tracking, it offers a complete tool for maximizing workouts and recuperation.
