Whoop offers a lineup of wearable fitness trackers, including the Strap 2.0. Find out why athletes like LeBron James and Michael Phelps use the Strap 2.0 today in our review.
What is Whoop?
Whoop is a series of wearable fitness products that work together to provide actionable insights into your health and fitness. As the company’s official website explains, “Your body is your ultimate tool”. By offering a performance optimization system, Whoop combines technology with wearable fitness devices to keep you in top condition.
The company launched its Strap 2.0 last year at a price of around $500 – so the wearable devices are priced higher than your ordinary Fitbits.
Today, Whoop devices are used by professional athletes, sports organizations, and other groups around the world. The Whoop.com official website is filled with testimonials from athletes and pros like Joel White (MLL Defense Player of the Year), Andrew Hauser (Director of Player Health & Performance for the Atlanta Braves), Kyle Lowry (guard for the Toronto Raptors), and Chris Coghlan (outfielder for the Chicago Cubs). The Strap 2.0 has also been spotted on the wrists of Michael Phelps and LeBron James, among other elite athletes.
Benefits of Whoop Strap 2.0
Whoop advertises a number of key benefits you can enjoy after adding the Whoop Strap 2.0 technology to your life. Those benefits include:
- Faster recovery times
- More sleep at night
- Increased heart rate variability
- Reduced resting heart rate
- 60% fewer injuries
- Less alcohol consumed before bed
The official Whoop.com website has a number of metrics and studies to validate all of the benefits listed above. They worked with NCAA teams across every major conference to produce this validation study, for example.
That study showed things like the fact more sleep leads to faster swimming performance, or that a higher recovery time corresponds to better baseball performance in terms of fastball velocity for pitchers.
How Does Whoop’s System Work?
Whoop works using three core concepts:
- Personalized Recovery: Whoop understands that everyone recovers differently. Whoop will measure physiological markers automatically to indicate your personal readiness to perform each day.
- Recovery Determines your Strain: After looking at your recovery, Whoop calculates your exertion based on your workouts and daily lifestyle to ensure you’re training optimally.
- Your Sleep Need Before Bed: Whoop tells you how much sleep you need to recover, then calculates a detailed breakdown of time spent in each wave of sleep.
Overall, these three concepts promise to optimize your performance 24 hours a day. You can measure your strain, for example, to ensure the load from an entire day of activity aligns with what your body can respond to. Then, you can measure your recovery to optimize your activities and workouts to prepare your body for more strain.
In layman’s terms, it means you can avoid overtraining or undertraining. You can perform at your maximum level of effectiveness every day – so you never push yourself too hard, and you never miss an opportunity to work out.
Whoop Recovery Zones
Whoop breaks down all of its recovery information into three zones:
- Green Zone: The Green Zone means your body is likely primed to adapt to a larger training load.
- Yellow Zone: The Yellow Zone means your body can respond to training, but it’s not going to reach its peak level of performance.
- Red Zone: If you’re in the Red Zone, it’s recommended that you prioritize Recovery activities while being cautious of overtraining.
How Does Whoop Track Recovery?
Whoop uses its Band 2.0 to track your recovery. That band measures crucial data about your body, including:
- Resting Heart Rate (RHR)
- Sleep
- Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
Whoop will run all this data through algorithms to make intelligent recommendations on your training – whether you’re overtraining or undertraining.
How Does the Strap 2.0 Work?
The Whoop Strap 2.0 collects over 100MB of data on each athlete per day, and can store up to 3 days’ worth of data. Whoop claims to sample data from its sensors hundreds of times per second to yield 5 key metrics, including heart rate, heart rate variability, ambient temperature, motion (via a 3 axis accelerometer), and on/off wrist via a capacitive touch sensor.
The Strap 2.0 won the Red Dot Design award at CES 2016. It’s available in three colors and can be customized to fit your wrist perfectly. You can also interchange it with different materials.
To charge the Strap 2.0, you simply slide the battery pack onto the strap. This unique charging system means you never have to actually remove the Strap 2.0 from your wrist – you just charge the battery pack, then slide the battery pack onto your wrist. The battery lasts for 44 hours of typical use.
Since the Strap 2.0 is waterproof, you don’t have to take it off when you get into the shower or go swimming.
Whoop Strap 2.0 Pricing
- Whoop Strap 2.0: $500 USD
Your purchase comes with the wearable device, a battery pack, a mini USB cable, a “travel puck”, and a 1 year warranty. You can purchase the device online through the official website at Whoop.com. Shipping is included in your purchase.
Whoop Strap 2.0 Reviews: What Do Customers Have to Say About It?
The Strap 2.0 is generally well-reviewed online – which is what you expect for a $500 wearable fitness tracker. However, certain tech blogs have given the device weak reviews. Wareable gave it a 4 out of 5, for example, while Digital Trends gave it a 4/10 rating. Some of the pros and cons we gathered from those reviews include:
Pros
- Sleek, sexy, lightweight design
- Provides more data than you’ll know what to do with
- Great app, easy-to-use UI, and excellent desktop interface
- Accurate sleep and heart rate tracking
- Can charge the battery without removing it from your wrist
- Waterproof
Cons
- High price, especially in a crowded fitness tracker market where you can get a tracker for under $200
- It’s a bit of overkill for recreational fitness enthusiasts, and may be better used by professional athletes and organizations
- Some people claim the band leads to rashes and irritation
Should You Use the Whoop Strap 2.0 to Track Fitness?
Ultimately, Whoop is best-known for being the device worn by LeBron James, Michael Phelps, Kyle Lowry, Chris Coghlan, and many other top athletes. When the product is used by athletes of this caliber, you know it’s not going to be cheap. Priced at $500, the Whoop Strap 2.0 is more than most recreational users should pay for a fitness tracker. However, you’re paying for a detailed, data-rich fitness tracking experience along with highly-accurate heart rate monitoring and sleep tracking.
The Strap 2.0 is also waterproof, and comes with a battery charger that means it never has to be removed from your wrist. It takes hundreds of readings every second while collecting nearly 100MB of data per day.
Yes, it comes with a premium price tag, but the Strap 2.0 also comes with a premium list of features and build quality. If you want to train like the pros, then the Strap 2.0 may be the right choice for you. Average fitness enthusiasts, however, may be better off with similar options for under $200 that provide more than enough features for their needs.
