In school, I was involved with astrophysics research projects where we would analyze large amounts of data. Because this data came from simulations or powerful telescopes, we had a seemingly endless amount of data. In contrast to astrophysics data, human physiology data is strikingly different; most studies are done on very small sample sizes over a short period of time. Meaningful conclusions are still drawn but a lot is left unknown, uninvestigated, or uncertain because of the lack of huge data sets.
After meeting Will and exploring this field of human physiology, I knew that WHOOP would be able to provide much-needed missing data that would be able to truly propel knowledge in this field. Right now the WHOOP strap measures physiological data through 5 individual sensors, each collecting 100 data points a second. With all this data, just imagine when there are are thousands or hundreds of thousands of WHOOP straps on elite athletes all across the world having their training and recovery data recorded and analyzed. There is no doubt that the insights we could get from this data would revolutionize how we approach the athlete’s performance; and that’s exactly our mission at WHOOP.
With an astrophysics-sized data set, we can now address questions like:
– Is it better, for me as an individual, to work out in the morning than if I just work out before bed?
– How should I schedule my workouts around game days so I perform optimally?
– How much sleep do I need tonight to be in peak shape for tomorrow?
– As a coach, how is my team’s recovery patterns different from last season?
– How should I alter the training regimen to account for this so we can outperform last season?
It is amazing to me that I can know the weather tomorrow with pretty high accuracy and I can track and predict network traffic on our servers, but people lack the information to make informed decisions on how recovered they are and whether or not they should train today. These are questions that we will have the power to answer now that we’ve opened up our WHOOP Bands for pre-sale.
It is no doubt that these questions are just the tip of the iceberg. As we collect more and more physiological data about a person as well as aggregate at the team level and beyond to general demographics, we will unlock key insights into how the body responds to training stimulus and recovers to prepare for new, more advanced stimulus. Building on this data will allow us to drive forward towards the key problem for athletes – how to train for peak performance.
