Whoop 3.0

In this Whoop 3.0 review, we discuss what the health and fitness tracker can do for your golf game, as well as your general wellbeing

Whoop 3.0 Review

Whoop is the brainchild of Will Ahmed, a former captain of the Harvard men’s varsity squash team, who describes this wearable technology as a “24/7 life coach”. By collecting physiological data around the clock, it provides an accurate insight to help the user better understand their body.

The Whoop Strap 3.0, which can be worn on the wrist or around the bicep, syncs with a free app, and gives wearers daily reports on three key areas: sleep, strain and recovery. In short, it will give you specific insights into what are the personal factors that keep your body in balance; the more you do that, the better your recovery; the better your recovery, the better your potential to perform.

One of the most impressive features is the recovery score, which tells you what kind of shape your body is in to take on ‘strain’, be that a round of golf, a heavy workout, or a busy day in the office. Life is tiring and technology that encourages you to prioritise rest so you can perform to your maximum potential is highly undervalued.

It’s easy to understand why so many of the world’s best golfers wear Whoop, as well as business leaders and the military. For golfers, they know that if they are well rested, they’ve got a better chance of playing well.

“I’m almost a year in and I never take it off,” says Justin Thomas. “I’m always learning about myself and things my body does and doesn’t respond well to, which is huge for me to perform my best on the course.”

Some of the feedback will come as no surprise, but it’s not your typical fitness tracker and it hasn’t been designed to tell you off. It can’t make you not have an alcoholic drink or go to bed early, but the insight it offers is incredible and, ultimately, it gives you more accountability.

The insights around sleep are especially eye-opening. In a nutshell sleep drives recovery so the better your sleep (duration and quality) the more able you are to perform the next day.

With Whoop’s Sleep Coach you learn how much you need to reach your desired performance level the next day and gain genuine insight into what promotes or impacts good sleep. It’s up to you to action those insights but Whoop gives it to you straight in black and white. For me, eating my last meal at least two hours before bedtime, taking a CBD supplement, avoiding or at least limiting alcohol and reading a book - not looking at my phone - are the key things I can do to improve my sleep.

Related: What Is Whoop And Why Are The Best Golfers Wearing It?

To gain this insight you track behaviours in the Whoop Journal - it's a simple two to three minute process to undertake thanks to the simple yes/no sliding scale functionality.

To determine how much strain you are putting your body under you can log all your activities in the app too – anything from golf (including caddying) and commuting, to CrossFit training and household chores.

Two words of advice: Firstly, don’t expect immediate insight. Whoop will give you information from day four of wearing it but I’d say you need a good month under your belt in order to establish a genuine personal baseline and from there you’ll begin to get the insights from which to make changes.

Secondly don’t get demoralised by your recovery scores. There will be times when you wake up feeling great, but your recovery score is low. Whoop is measuring what you can’t feel, so trust the science and you can really reap the rewards.

From the moment you get started, Whoop’s customer service is second to none, and you’ll receive plenty of updates and information to help you make sense of the data and improve your understanding of how to increase your potential to perform. Meanwhile the free podcast and the online resource centre, The Locker, are amazing sources of information and inspiration.

A word on the subscription model, too… it’s excellent! It’s a bit like when you enter a phone contract, where there’s no upfront cost and you get rewarded if you sign up for longer, which is good, because it encourages you to keep on using it.

That said, some might see it as expensive, especially for those who already have gym membership or another fitness tracker. However you’re paying for the insights, and the insight really is next level. 

As a tech company Whoop is always looking to the future and Whoop 4.0 has just been released.

The tracker is 33% smaller than 3.0, has an easier-to-change strap, can be charged even when you are getting wet (ie in the shower, pool or ocean) and can be worn in different locations other than the wrist or bicep when used with the new range of Whoop Body clothing.

More importantly it will give another two new metrics - skin temperature and blood oxygen levels that combined with the existing ones of HRV, resting heart rate and respiratory rates delivers you with what is effectively a daily medical. I’ll provide a review of that once I have had the chance to experience the new features.