Fitness trackers are a valuable tool for monitoring your fitness progress and clearly visualizing how adjustments in your workout routine or in your daily routine affect your metrics. Tracking exercise can fuel motivation to meet fitness goals and continue advancing your physical fitness level. Studies have found that using wearable trackers could be linked to increased levels of physical activity, suggesting they are a valuable addition to a consistent workout program.
While the desire to measure movement and other fitness efforts has a long history, modern, functional fitness trackers haven’t been around that long. Credit for the first official fitness tracker goes to Dr. Yoshiro Hotano in 1965 with a pedometer named the “10,000 steps meter”.
Since then, many types of wearable exercise technology have hit the market, each claiming to track specific metrics and provide its own benefits. WHOOP is unique compared to other fitness trackers in both how it’s been designed, and what it measures, which includes not only fitness but also sleep, stress levels, and more. Here is an overview of the wearables market.
Accuracy is a top concern when searching for the best fitness tracker. If a wearable can’t collect accurate data, it doesn’t belong on your wrist.
WHOOP is unmatched in data accuracy. With five LEDs and four photodiodes built-in, WHOOP samples your data more often than most competitors, and provides feedback and reports on your data with tested and proven accuracy. Compared to the gold standard ECG for heart rate and heart rate variability or HRV metrics, WHOOP was found to have over 99% accuracy, outperforming other leading wearables.
Many other wearables start comparisons and computations with a data set pulled from the overall population, or one that is fairly arbitrary, like 10,000 steps. However, the best wearable tech provides insight specific to your workouts, health, physiology, and individual situation. This kind of insight can’t be provided with a generic data sample.
Over the first 30 days, WHOOP will calibrate to understand your unique baseline, and then tailor personalized recommendations and coaching specifically to your and your physiology.
As privacy concerns continue to grow, WHOOP never sells personal data captured from members. Research into WHOOP performance and future product and feature developments rely on understanding trends in member data, but identifying information and individual data is never up for sale. Your data remains yours.
Most fitness trackers can only be worn one way, typically on the wrist or the finger. However, that might not be comfortable or applicable to every person or activity.
WHOOP 4.0, wearable tech, including WHOOP Body with Any-Wear Technology, is designed to allow members to wear WHOOP device in different, lab-tested smart garments.
The WHOOP sensor can easily be removed from the wrist and slipped into a discrete pod in any WHOOP Body apparel, which includes leggings, sports bras, compression tops and shorts, where it seamlessly collects data from the skin. For those who play specific sports, have certain occupations, or even physical limitations, WHOOP offers more ways to accurately and effectively track data.
The CEO of WHOOP, Will Ahmed, states, “I’ve always said that wearable technology should be either cool or invisible. WHOOP 4.0 has achieved both.”
WHOOP is committed to continual innovation, and a deep investment in research supports this mission. WHOOP Labs, a full-time research facility, conducts studies and protocols that help inform human performance research, product development, and so much more. Studies include participants of all fitness levels and abilities to capture comprehensive data that will provide valuable insight and continual product evolution.
The WHOOP Scientific Advisory Council also partners with top researchers and healthcare providers for guidance on product updates, and to conduct studies and publish relevant research. Specific focus areas of the council include cardiovascular health, mental health and stress, sleep and circadian rhythm, women’s health, and functional medicine.
Unlike most exercise wearables on the market, WHOOP doesn’t base its readings on counting steps. Pedometers that only count steps miss out on essential aspects of physical activity, like the intensity of the workout. One hundred steps while sprinting should be measured differently than 100 steps while walking, and pedometers are unable to account for these differentiations.
Movements outside of steps are also unable to be captured by pedometers. Activities like swimming, rock climbing, weightlifting, yoga, push-ups, and manual labor are all forms of physical fitness that would not be counted by a wearable that solely counts steps. WHOOP uses a different kind of metric called Strain.
WHOOP looks at how any given physical activity puts demand on your cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems to provide a comprehensive look at the demands you place on your body.
Most wearables only measure the demands you put on your cardiovascular system by measuring your heart rate. However, a lot of important data is left out in this case. Weightlifting sessions and other workouts can place enormous demands on the musculoskeletal system – something that can’t be fully measured by heart rate.
WHOOP is the only device on the market that provides a comprehensive view of how both of these workout types affect your body and training efforts. The Strain metric calculated by WHOOP evaluates both the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular load of your training for a complete view of the demands you put on your entire body so you can adjust your sleep and recovery accordingly.
Just like other memberships, WHOOP is committed to releasing new and regular updates constantly without requiring the purchase or use of a new device: All updates are available within the app for all members to enjoy. Additionally, instead of purchasing new hardware every time an updated model is produced, WHOOP members receive the next-generation device for free after having been a member for six months or more.
WHOOP is an ideal fitness tracker because it does it all. WHOOP calculates multiple different scores, from sleep to strain, and from stress and recovery, providing personalized information that can positively impact several areas of everyday life.
WHOOP Sleep provides an in-depth look at sleep performance and lets you know how much sleep you need. WHOOP Recovery tells you how ready you are to face the day, while WHOOP Strain lets you look at the mental and physical demands you put on your body daily. WHOOP also measures your stress levels in real time to help you evaluate your stress in the moment, and provides scientifically validated breathwork protocols to help you manage it.
WHOOP also monitors critical vital signs, including blood oxygen levels, heart rate, respiratory rate, and skin temperature.
Smart rings are fitness wearables for your finger that claim to be a more comfortable option for tracking workout efforts. Smart rings can limit your workout functionality by making specific movements or exercises more challenging, such as lifting weights or boxing.
A hands-free option like WHOOP easily sidesteps this issue while providing data whose accuracy you can trust, no matter what kind of workout you perform.
Chest strap monitors are known for providing accurate data on heart rate, but can be very uncomfortable to wear even for a short workout session, negatively impacting your performance.
Additionally, chest strap monitors are only meant to be worn during active exercise — they’re not a 24/7 tracking solution like WHOOP. WHOOP can capture your metrics at all hours, whether washing the dishes, completing an intense HIIT workout, or sleeping.
Since they’re worn on the wrist, fitness watches and wristband trackers are more convenient than smart rings and chest straps. They are also able to collect data at all times. Some competing wrist-only trackers lack flexibility since they can only be worn one way and are expensive, given these limitations.
WHOOP overcomes this hurdle with Any-Wear Technology, making fitness tracking as simple as slipping the WHOOP 4.0 sensor into a pod in your shorts or exercise top.
Clip-on trackers are designed to be attached to clothing items like shorts, belts or sports bras. While these trackers aim to be more versatile and provide a more comfortable option for measuring fitness metrics, they have drawbacks.
Traditional clip-on wearables don’t make direct contact with the skin, leading to limited accuracy and an inability to track data like heart rate, blood oxygen level and skin temperature. The WHOOP Body apparel collection lets you place the WHOOP 4.0 sensor in your workout garments, where it can capture data from the skin, so you can get all the metrics desired with increased comfort and actual versatility.
All in all, WHOOP stands out as the ideal fitness tracker to add to your workout routine. With unrivaled standards for innovation, quality and getting the data you want, WHOOP is a wearable well worth your investment.
Choose WHOOP today to unlock unparalleled insight into your fitness efforts and overall health.
