WHOOP

I have my grievances with the algorithm still underreporting strain for functional fitness and always demanding I sleep 9 hours despite full recovery and more than enough restorative sleep at 7.5 hours. I disagree, but fine, I still find the data useful. What I can’t forgive is broken app features that ‘support’ says could be fixed by a future update so just make sure I keep my app up to date. ‘App settings’ tab redirects me to profile. Cannot access app settings, which is very frustrating because I continually need to edit HR zones based on the cardio modality I’m doing. I took a video of this glitch and sent to support after logging out/in, deleting and reinstalling the app, and did all the things. Support responds by saying, we’ve escalated this to our internal team for further investigation. I reached out for an update several days later and have not gotten a response. So firstly it seems when you reach out to support your not actually talking to a whoop agent as they’re self admittedly not a part of the internal team? Secondly, I’m offered zero support or follow up. Can’t even get someone from the internal team to tell me my app is broken and won’t be fixed. Literally zero help. Lastly, Whoop needs to allow different HR zone profiles for various activities. It’s widely known in the sports world that cycling hr zones are 10 bpm lower than running. This is a meaningful difference…

Started using whoop back in 2021 and loved it - but after a year I cancelled my membership. Thought Garmin or Apple Watch would be a nice alternative due to no subscription cost, but I eventually came back to whoop for one reason: how the data is utilized. No one even comes close to whoop in terms of making data useful for the average person and presenting in an digestible way. So instead of just HRV metrics, it’s also how recovered you are. It’s not the most helpful for lifting sessions, but you don’t really need it for those anyway. Much more useful to track lifestyle changes outside of the gym and how they are effecting your health. Utilizing the morning questionnaire (journal) is where it shines. Track a few activities that are important to you or that you would like to evaluate and see if they effect your rest/recovery. East example: for me having a positive outlook averaged a +4% positive recovery as opposed to days where I logged the opposite. Interestingly enough, days where I took my “daily greens” only had a negligible effect of around 1-2%. Expensive, but also one of a kind currently

I've been using Whoop for a year and don't think I'll renew my membership. Let's start with the Hits: good software and app that is both intuitive and easy to use. Whoop does a good job of simplifying the concepts of output (strain) and recovery to guide your effort on a day to day basis. It also enables you to determine impact of specific activities, food, supplements etc on your recovery (albeit you are tied to what Whoop deems important vs being able to create your own categories...a big miss to tailoring the experience to what is important to individuals vs what Whoop thinks you should track). Misses: 1/ the sensor is most effective in static situations (riding a bike) vs dynamic movements that hinder the sensor from accurate readings. The oblong optical shape is suboptimal and is easily disrupted during dynamic (arm movements) exercises. I've tried wrist and arm straps and the arm band and have the same issue. The sensor is finicky and I haven't found optional placement while working out. Ave workout HR is typically 5-10 bpm lower than other sensors. 2/ Also i haven't seen any correlation between recovery and quality sleep. I understand autonomic system but their recovery need to also account for quality sleeping not simoly HRV, resting HR and breathing rate. I've had 95% recovery and been very tired due to poor sleep. 3/ Walled garden... Can't share data with other apps / systems. 4/ no ability to customize categories for tracking impact.