I haven’t tried Whoop but if the major benefit is understanding your sleep and recovery, a strong alternative which doesn’t require a subscription is the Oura ring. I love my Oura ring and the sleep and recovery is great and the company has a strong backing within the longevity/health community like Peter Attia (he’s connected as an investor/advisor FWIW).
I looked at the ring previously. Do you golf with it on?
No. Sometimes I forget and start hitting with it but I worry a bit about getting calluses/blisters with it. It is solidly built and not too bulky. FWIW, I also have an apple watch so I do get things like steps recorded during the round so the biggest benefit for me personally is the sleep and recovery stats
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Those are a big part of the Whoop but it also monitors workouts and reports how those workouts affect your “Strain” score, which is tied into the recovery data. For example it might say you need to achieve a Strain score of 16 today in order to help your body recover. Achieve a score of 18 to make fitness gains.
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This is a good article about how Whoop can help detect things such as a heart attack in this example. I have also heard from others who got sick and went back to look at their data and noticed some of the numbers had risen or fallen. If you pay attention to the data regularly it can really be beneficial.
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I believe the Whoop has a lot of health applications. Unfortunately, they are not allowed to do a lot to inform about these uses because it would turn the Whoop into a medical device which would require testing and FDA approval.
Give me a year and I’ll let you know if I figure anything out (I have a 1-year-old at home) 
I am a fitness professional for the past 10 years and I’ve used it. Personally, I didn’t find it super useful and ultimately not worth the cost.
I am pretty in tune with my health so I try and do the basic things right (sleep enough, eat relatively clean, de stress, recover from whatever) and when I don’t I can feel it.
For people who have never really paid attention to that or people who just love data, I can see some benefit.
I saw that article. Absolutely crazy - he is one lucky guy.
I’m an Apple Watch user and I think there is a ton of value in tracking your baseline numbers. I can always tell when I’m getting sick because my resting BPM will be out of whack. In an extreme case it can definitely save your life!
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It can’t be too long before we move from wearables to implanted chips. There is just too much value to monitoring heart rates and other vitals.
I’m a bit of a fanatic around wearables as a startup hacking guy and I agree that we are just at its infancy. The implantable chips aren’t exactly here yet but continuous glucose monitors are pretty darn close and are an amazing tool for controlling blood sugar and understanding how food and exercise impacts your glucose levels. I don’t doubt the millions of people who suffer from diabetes will end up using them as the prices come down.
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And the new O2 sensors add a lot of potential new functionality.
Love the article @jon posted today about the Whoop. It has changed my life, both the way I sleep and how I workout. But the biggest benefit is the comfort I feel knowing that it is constantly monitoring my heart and my health.
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Was close to ordering a Whoop even though I have a Galaxy Active 2 watch, but then I was able to get an early buy on Amazon’s Halo so I tried that. No fee for the moment (I think it goes to < $10/month) and it was $65 where the Whoop is $360/year.
So far it performs well. It seems to track my heart rate and sleep better than my watch. I used to work for Polar so I have a really good chest strap HR monitor I compare other devices too. I haven’t really gotten into all the data yet. I was curious if CBD would really help my sleep so that’s something I’m starting to track.
Please report back on your sleep with the CBD.
I did put a few posts in the CBD topic, but not sure I have enough data yet. I went a week with the min dosage and both my watch and Halo said my sleep improved significantly ~ 25%. Last night I increased the dosage just a bit and I didn’t wake up at all which is rare, but my overall sleep rating was back down. Any sleep quality increase could have been just a fluke with only a week’s worth of data. I will track it for at least a month and see if there are any real changes.
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Just put in my order for a Halo this week. Does anyone know the hardware differences in the sensors between them? I get that they’re quite different in the information that they’re reporting at present, but I’m wondering if the Whoop has sensors that the Halo lacks, or if future Halo app updates might include some of this data.
I’ve heard Whoop has better HR tracking, but I’ve only read some reviews that say that and I don’t know if Whoop has better hardware or better software or really is the same. I felt $30/month was a bit high considering I’m not a pro athlete wanting every ounce of data I can get. I also know that if you want the best HR data, you still want a chest strap as the farther away you measure from your heart the less accuracy you have.
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@mpatrickriley
I wrote about my experiences with the Halo in the thread above last month. I was very unimpressed. It really doesn’t seem to be much of a Whoop competitor at all.
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