Yes, I had it happen one time, but has not occurred again. Agree with others to call customer service.

After having the WHOOP Strap for a week I do have a few questions for you guys...

1. When should I activate "Strain Coach" before doing a workout versus just going for a run and letting it sync when I return?
2. What exactly is HRV and how is it calculated? I don't have a full grasp of that metric.
3. What data is it using to calculate recovery? I know it's factoring in sleep, but what else?

I only activate the Strain Coach if I am trying to hit a certain # in a workout. Generally, I am tracking something on Strava anyways or I keep up with the time and add the activity afterwards. I can see a scenario where you're lifting or on a run and your goal is just to hit x strain before finishing or if you're trying to real-time monitor your heart rate.

Whoop describes it way better than I could: https://www.whoop.com/thelocker/heart-rate-variability-hrv/

I'm still understanding the recovery part, but it SEEMS like it's attached to sleep + hydration. I've had times where I've been in the green after sleeping ~6-7 hours and times where I've slept 8-9 hours and been in yellow. Drinking has a HUGE effect on recovery (I've gone from 1-2 drinks/night at dinner to almost completely cutting out drinking since I got the band). I'm also drinking a ton of water

The strap seems to auto-detect when I go for a run or when I play a match of tennis. So I wasn't going to worry about the app and beginning workouts. Then the other day I did a workout on the Peloton bike and it never detected the workout. Did I do something wrong? This morning I manually started the "Cycling" workout before the Peloton ride.

I would start a couple of activities so that the whoop learns you heart rate in those activities. Then you won't need to begin an activity. It will detect elevated heart rate and "guess" your activity based on past performance.

So I've had the strap for 2 weeks now and my HRV has been very low (it hasn't been out of the 20s and I'm 37). I've been trying to figure out why that might be the case and don't have any good answers yet. I work out consistently, drink around 100-150 oz of water per day, haven't had any alcohol, follow an IF diet and eat pretty clean. My sleep has also been good (avg over 8 hrs and sitting at 100%)

I've also been wearing an Apple Watch since January, which I just realized has been taking HRV measurements randomly around 3-4x/day. While I see a lot more variability in those measurements (range of 9 to like 180), my average over the past 9 months is still in the 20s. Based on that, I think the Whoop data is likely correct, which has me concerned (esp with articles like the guy who had a heart attack above).

Have any of you seen improvements in your HRV over time? Did you do something specific to improve? I don't think I can realistically work out or sleep much more.

Are you that thirsty? That is a hell of a lot of water.

Yeah, I get pretty thirsty on days I sweat a lot. I weigh 215 though, so I'm still not at Whoop's recommended 1oz per lb of body weight.

Have you taken a few days off? I'm coming off a very slow week for me and my HRV shot up big time. Rest days & slow weeks can make a huge difference.

That's a good point. I haven't taken a lot of rest days lately.

HRV is pretty unique per person, but I'm curious as to what time y'all are eating vs your sleep schedule. My dinner time seems to effect my HRV more than anything.

Makes sense. I ate dinner around 10pm last night after running 9 miles. Recovery today is 19% and HRV is 28. But I don't feel tired. Some days when I wale up I feel like 2 more hours of sleep is needed.

I'm having hell getting my recovery score up this week. I've played a lot of tennis everyday so I wonder if that has something to do with it. I've been in the yellow and red the past 6 days. Any tips on getting back in the green? Is it just more sleep and more water?

I've also seen that when I read before bed (book vs phone) it makes a big difference in my HRV. I think the phone in bed/netflix etc can have a huge impact on HRV as well.

97% recovery today.

I've had a good of amount of time with low strains due to an injury and I've been having some incredible recovery scores.

my recoveries have been pretty awful lately. ive been doing some sort of work out 6 days a week just out of routine. wondering if i need to add an extra rest day.

My nutritionist recommends 2 recovery days per week. They said just give it a month and see how you feel. I'd say it's been beneficial overall.

so when yall do days off do you legit do nothing or do you get some stretching in or like low impact stuff like a walk?

StringerBell said:

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so when yall do days off do you legit do nothing or do you get some stretching in or like low impact stuff like a walk?

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i am supposed to swim Monday and Friday. I usually just do nothing.

My bedtime routine is to watch shows on Netflix in bed on my iPhone. It's probably a really bad habit but it sure is enjoyable.

Worth seeing if it makes a difference.

String, I try to take the dogs on a walk for a while and spend ~10 minutes stretching. I'll do 1-2 of the Peloton stretches based on where I feel stiff (typically hips/lower body). My rest days are also typically when I try to run errands (I WFH) so laundry, dishes, groceries etc so I'm still on my feet quite a bit.

gotcha.

i think im gonna add one more rest day, but im still gonna get my stretches in and what not. thanks for the advice yall.

StringerBell said:

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so when yall do days off do you legit do nothing or do you get some stretching in or like low impact stuff like a walk?

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I still will walk. One of my "off" days usually ends up being lawn day which might be cheating a bit.

What's a recovery day? Lol. Haven't seen one of those in a while.... I work on my feet entirely, so even on the rare occasion that I choose not to workout, I typically still have a strain of 18+...

I'm enjoying the Whoop Strap so far. All the data it gives is very helpful. Am I missing something or does it not give you any strain goals or recovery goals? It would be helpful if it knew how much weight you wanted to lose and recommended how much strain and recovery you needed to achieve that.

easttexasaggie04 said:

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I'm enjoying the Whoop Strap so far. All the data it gives is very helpful. Am I missing something or does it not give you any strain goals or recovery goals? It would be helpful if it knew how much weight you wanted to lose and recommended how much strain and recovery you needed to achieve that.

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dont think you are going to get that. It's purpose isn't to help lose weight. It's goal is to help you get your body primed to perform when you want. For example: if you go to the sleep coach you can identify the days you want to get by, perform, or peak. All based on the workout or training you are doing. Your sleep and recovery is in part based on how prepared your body is for taking on additional strain associated to those days.

If you are trying to lose weight, I think the best way to use the Whoop strap to would be to look at the approx calories that it tells you burned in a day, and build a diet based on a deficit from that. So maybe take your per day calorie average from a normal week, subtract 15%, and there is your target caloric intake for losing weight. Because you know what they say- you can't out train a bad diet.

It will give a strain goal for the day based on your prior recovery. If you tap on the circle icon on the dashboard with your recovery and strain bars on it, or open the Strain Coach, it should give you a target strain for the day.

Has anyone seen or had 100% recovery? Yesterday I had 98% and 99% today. Just wondering.

I think the highest I've seen is 97% after a day of minimal strain and 9hrs sleep.

Wow

Update - doing well, ran a very high fever all day Saturday, but that has come down and was almost non-existent yesterday. Outside of Saturday I've felt like I could do about anything I needed to do, but my back has been super tight and sore. No chest our coughing issues at all.

The whoop data is fairly cool to me.

This is night of Wednesday the 4th through over night last night. Looking back there were some signs Thursday morning and Thursday night but I just brushed them off as fatigue/not sleeping well for a night. Saturday morning so far was height of my issues

Respiratory Rates - 14.9, 15.2, *17.3, 17.2 and 16.2
RHR - 57, 67, *86, 67 and 62
HRV - 52, 38, *23, 34 and 45
Recovery - 64%, 22%, *1%, 17% and 54%

Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was also a 28% recovery which was completely out of left field with a 38 HRV but RHR was 57.

*is the day I tested positive for Covid.

Man, glad you are doing better! 1% recovery and 86 RHR is no joke at all - it's definitely one of the big reasons I got the Whoop for myself (and a week later for my wife)