The wrist-based heart rate monitor has become ubiquitous over the past decade, but for some people it doesn’t make sense to wear a pulse monitor on the wrist. However, there are several locations on the body where you can accurately measure your pulse rate.
In designing new sensors for WHOOP 4.0, we tested 20 locations on the body and found four sites besides the wrist that are near strong pulse points where heart rate can be accurately measured. These locations were selected for their accuracy and for comfort regardless of whether you’re running, lifting weights or sleeping.
“We analyzed data to find the locations with the highest signal and lowest noise and we picked the ones that showed the potential to produce the best accuracy in terms of extracted physiological features,” said Behnoosh Tavakoli, the Director of Signal Processing at WHOOP. Tavakoli defines noise as anything that can disrupt the signal such as motion or respiration.
The new sensor system with five LEDs in the WHOOP 4.0 monitor changes in blood volume in the microvascular bed in the skin and WHOOP engineers selected the points where the signal was always high regardless of whether the wearer is moving or resting.
Wearing a heart rate monitor does not mean you have to wear a restrictive chest strap all day or miss data because you can’t have anything on your wrist during work. In addition to accuracy, comfort was also a consideration for potential WHOOP Body locations. WHOOP Body’s Any-Wear technology lets you wear the 4.0 sensor without a strap in four locations without it feeling restrictive or uncomfortable whether you’re at work, the gym or in bed.
WHOOP Body wearable technology allows you to slide the WHOOP 4.0 sensor into a specialized pocket called a pod located in specific places in your clothing to accurately monitor your heart rate and a wide variety of other physiological metrics.
The new WHOOP Health Monitor uses your pulse data to provide feedback about your live heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oximetry, resting heart rate and respiratory rate, giving you a single place to view your key vitals.
The products and services of WHOOP are not medical devices, are not intended to diagnose COVID-19, the flu or any other disease, and should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content available through the products and services of WHOOP is for general informational purposes only.