I first tried the strap on my wrist (where Whoop recommends it) and now I wear it on my bicep (where Whoop recommends when it doesn't work well on your wrist). Well, I am skinny, and the strap would definitely read better if I had a little more meat on my bones, but aren't most endurance athletes relatively thin? I have had numerous email conversations with them and they always say the same thing: the strap isn't adjusted right. Whoop has very attentive, nice customer service, they know me well. My Feb 27 and Feb 28 Whoop Strap Screenshots. How the heck does that happen? I'm super recovered when I wake up, I take a nap (more recovery) and do little or no exercise (low strain) I sleep well and the next day I have overreached? Often, that green day with a nap and very light exercise is followed by a red day (red means I was overreaching). On green days (when I am above 75% recovered), I usually feel tired and need to take a nap. WHAT IT STINKS AT: Tracking my recovery! It's like an opposite tracker. As a heart rate monitor, it seems pretty good and it connects to workout tracking apps like Strava which is nice. It does a decent job of tracking strain, but it only uses heartrate data for strain, so a hard weight workout with rest between sets shows nearly no strain (see Dec 16 Screenshot below). The Whoop Strap tells me I slept and how much time was spent in REM, deep and light sleep. I often wonder, did I actually fall asleep or did I just lay there. The sleep tracking works for naps too, which is a nice feature nice because naps are so weird. WE WILL START WITH THE GOOD: Once you get it adjusted on the correct part of your arm, it does a good job of tracking your sleep (as far as I can tell) and breaking it down to how long you were in bed, how many total hours of sleep you got, how much time was spent in deep sleep, how much time was spent in REM sleep and how much in light sleep. Every morning it asks you a bunch of questions: Did you meditate? Did you take a calcium supplement? Did you masturbate? (What, why?) Did you use marijuana? (but no alcohol question, odd) Did you stretch? etc. It also has a built-in, digital training diary. What I have learned is that Whoop is a good sleep tracker and a decent strain monitor but a terrible recovery tracker (the main feature it advertises). I'm glad I did it because I have learned a lot. I signed up for 18 months at $294.00 plus tax. I was so excited when two of my students told me about the Whoop strap, it was going to eliminate the guesswork but tracking my strain and recovery! Much more scientific than my training journal (which I stopped using when I stopped competing nearly a decade ago). Mental and emotional strain also wears us down and requires recovery just like physical strain does. Not enough strain and we stay stagnant and don't improve our fitness. How recovered am I? If you know a little bit about training, you'll know that riding and working out (strain) wears us down while rest and good nutrition build us back up (recovery). Should I train hard today or back off?Įver wonder if you're just being a wuss and just need to toughen up? Ever had a day when you felt tired, decided to go on an easy ride, and 30 minutes into the ride you felt awesome and just started hammering?Īll of those scenarios have happened to me and I find it to be one of the most frustrating parts of mountain biking. For example I'm 190 pounds 6' 1" and let's say I was going to do a 4 hour bike ride at 65% HRM.Have you ever questioned yourself regarding your energy recovery level? I slept well but I feel kind of tired. Even using more accurate means of estimating carbohydrate timing and quantity don't work for some people. I guarantee elite athletes aren't using fitness wearables to tell them when or how much to eat. So I ignore the calories Whoop tells me and eat what I know works. My BMR is low in Whoop personally, because I have a lower body fat percentage than average. This is purely the calories from the elevation above your BMR. Keep in mind this 25 calories doesn't include your BMR. Walking isn't exercise (as evidenced by how little your heartrate was elevated), and 15 minutes is not a very long time. When I woke up, I took my dog for a 15 min walk, and during that casual walk whoops strain coach says I burned 25 calories. I think if you bought this device to track calories, you're basically missing the whole point of the device and should have bought something more basic aimed at average people and not athletes.
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