Health Journey: WHOOP
This device has become the foundation of my health efforts. For those who aren't familiar, the WHOOP is an activity tracker unlike any other that I'm aware of. I started using it in May 2019 to help me see what I could learn about my sleep issues but I've found it much more useful as the team has continued to evolve the product and their platform. The focus on Heart Rate Variability as a measure of strain and recovery is so key. And because you don't take it off to charge, it allows me to have nearly continuous monitoring. You can read more about it from their site but here are a few things that I enjoy the most.
It starts with sleep. Both the logging of what I did and didn't do the previous day in the journal and then them correlating it (when they can) to my sleep outcomes have helped me to know ahead of time what kind of sleep I'll likely get for the night. I'm still not a consistent "green" sleeper but I have more awareness of some of the factors I can control. Also, they added a wake-up feature that I use and love. It allows the device to wake me after achieving a sleep goal or at a specific time depending on what I need/want.
Community. Everyone knows I love people...and being competitive means I have those people that I can use to help drive me to achieve. My brothers are all users too and we compete A LOT on our scores. Mostly on the strain aspect given how much we all work out but also to give each other grief on the sleep and recovery side too.
The last feature I'll refer to is the skin temperature. I sleep hot. Not a little hot, like under an African sun hot. Fortunately, my wife found a solution for the temp challenges I have (that's a different post) but I still keep a close eye on the temperature. Between that and HRV, I have the most reliable correlation to whether or not I slept well.
It's not perfect, sometimes it doesn't see my more casual workouts and I have to add them manually or it might decide I worked hard at making dinner, which is NOT a workout but overall, it's a pretty solid "W" in my book.
Referral link warning: Get a free WHOOP 4.0 and one month free when you join with my link: https://join.whoop.com/024D6B
DISCLAIMER: I'm not getting paid for any of this. Just sharing what I've learned and my experience.
