When my older daughter began sporting a Whoop to trace her coaching and restoration for her faculty ski group, I instantly developed Whoop envy. When you’re not aware of the Whoop, it’s a wearable gadget that tracks information akin to your resting coronary heart fee, your sleep (gentle, deep, and REM), your coronary heart fee variability, and your respiratory fee. It provides you many scores on daily basis, together with restoration, sleep, and stress. A inexperienced rating is nice, yellow is okay, and pink is a sign that your physique is working exhausting to recuperate however would possibly want a minute.

This all sounded proper up my alley. I really like information, and particularly information about my physique, as a result of it’s the place I dwell. After learning the human physique obsessively in medical college and having used numbers like coronary heart fee and respiratory fee to tell my care of numerous sufferers within the ER and the ICU, I used to be thrilled with the concept of having the ability to observe my very own physique in a numerical means each day. So I signed up, and shortly had the app put in and the little doodad on my wrist. And it was each bit as cool as I had hoped.

I’ve been sporting my Whoop for over a yr now, and whereas it will not be a software I take advantage of for the remainder of my life, it’s taught me some tremendous helpful issues about my physique. Whereas these learnings might not apply to each human physique, I’m guessing a lot of them do. My Whoop revelations usually are not terribly surprising, however having the chilly exhausting numbers in my face has helped me perceive them as details, reasonably than unproven theories. Listed here are the highest seven issues I’ve realized from sporting a Whoop. 

Whoop Reality #1: Alcohol is dangerous for you

Let’s simply get this one out of the way in which. I’m not going to trouble sugar coating it: alcohol has some poisonous results in your physique, in just about any amount. Each time I’ve any alcohol, it reveals up within the numbers. My sleep will not be nearly as good, my coronary heart fee variability is decrease (larger is best), and my restoration rating is lowered the following day. That is very true if I’ve additionally achieved a tough exercise that day. As a medical physician, I’ve lengthy recognized that alcohol will not be good for you, however seeing the precise physiological impact it has on my physique has helped change my relationship with alcohol. I now take three or 4 nights every week away from alcohol, and normally stick to at least one serving on the nights I do drink. It’s really easy to slide right into a nightly behavior of 1 or two drinks, however after seeing the results of alcohol on my cardiovascular system, I merely can’t justify that degree of consumption anymore. It doesn’t really feel honest to the physique that works so exhausting for me on daily basis, particularly since athletic endeavors are such an integral a part of my life. I even have a powerful household historical past of atrial fibrillation, and have dabbled in arrhythmia myself, so I’m doubly motivated to drink lower than my fibrillating kinfolk do. (Alcohol has an virtually linear relationship to atrial fibrillation.) Within the screenshot beneath, I had consumed alcohol on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, and my restoration scores the following days have been both yellow or pink.

Whoop Reality #2: When you’re going to drink, earlier is best

Whereas I drink much less repeatedly than I used do, I nonetheless have just a few drinks every week. Although it is not the biologically wholesome selection, there may be typically a pleasant social aspect to sharing a drink with pals that I take pleasure in, and I take satisfaction in crafting a reasonably excellent cocktail! Once I cease ingesting by six or seven o’clock, and swap to water or electrolytes, the affect on my Whoop scores is considerably mitigated. I’ve even had just a few events the place I’ve had a cocktail or a beer early within the night, and nonetheless managed to Whoop inexperienced the following day. If I’ve a couple of drink, or if I drink something after 7pm, inexperienced normally goes out the window. As I write, I’m nonetheless having fun with the mild heat of the (one) margarita I had on the airport bar earlier than boarding an early night flight to LA. We’ll see what it does to my numbers tomorrow!*

Whoop Reality #3: Exhausting cardio exercises are, um, exhausting

I grew up within the Jane Fonda period the place you probably did all cardio on a regular basis. Even if you happen to lifted weights, which I did, you probably did an hour of cardio first. After sporting a Whoop for a yr, I can see a really clear sample: my restoration scores are decrease the day after a tough cardio session. This implies, not surprisingly, that my little coronary heart muscle labored its ass off and appreciates a while to recuperate earlier than the following exhausting cardio day. So I are inclined to alternate cardio and energy days now, which suggests I’m in a position to get a inexperienced restoration more often than not. On the events, like our annual household cross-country ski journey, once I need to do a number of exhausting cardio days in a row, I do know that my selection may have a detrimental affect on my restoration, nevertheless it’s a value I’m prepared to pay on occasion. 

Whoop Reality #4: My physique is able to repairing itself 

Not a newsflash, I do know, however the first time I noticed an excellent low restoration rating in a ugly shade of pink on my app, I felt like I should have achieved everlasting harm—kinda like whenever you get that one C in faculty and it tanks your GPA for 2 years? It seems that it solely takes sooner or later of excellent hydration, diet, and relaxation to get your Whoop rating again as much as an A+! I feel seeing these numbers shift so dramatically with a bit TLC confirms for me that once we look after our our bodies, they look after us proper again. Fortunate for us, our our bodies don’t maintain a lot of a grudge so long as we don’t abuse them too typically.  

Whoop Reality #5: Good sleep is wonderful, however dangerous sleep isn’t as dangerous as you assume

You recognize these nights the place you assume you’re up all evening, tossing and turning, tending to a child or a canine, worrying about work, or just flopping round in existential angst? On nights like that, I’m typically stunned to see that I nonetheless in some way managed to get 70-80% of the sleep my physique wanted, and that’s not so dangerous! Whereas nothing makes me happier than a sleep rating of 100, I’ve been reassured to see that even on nights I might describe as horrible, I’ve been in a position to snatch some significant ZZZZs. In case it helps, listed below are my high ten suggestions for higher sleep. 

Whoop Reality #6: Meditation will not be woowoo bullshit

I already knew this, primarily based on the huge physique of medical proof demonstrating the myriad advantages of meditation, nevertheless it’s nonetheless cool to see it on my Whoop! Whoop launched a Stress Monitor characteristic final yr, the place you may see your stress degree bounce round in actual time all through the day. Stress goes up whenever you train, or whenever you’re hustling to get issues achieved round the home, or whenever you step in canine poop in your option to the automotive whenever you’re carrying sixty-four issues and operating late for a gathering. And stress goes down whenever you meditate. Like, it plummets. My ten or twenty minutes of meditation are the bottom stress minutes of my day, each single day, with out exception. Nothing reinforces an excellent behavior for me greater than uncooked organic information. So on days once I don’t really feel like meditating, I sit down and get the job achieved as a result of I do know my physique will admire it, even when my thoughts stays within the monkey zone. This is how I bought began meditating—it is not as exhausting as you assume.

Whoop Reality #7: My menstrual cycle impacts my restoration, with out fail 

Effectively, gents, all I can say is Whoop, there it’s. The numbers do not lie. The times earlier than our durations are physiologically totally different. Now, even earlier than the cramps begin, I can inform that the pink tide is coming, as a result of my numbers are trash. And whereas I’m not coaching at a degree the place I essentially regulate my exercise primarily based on my cycle, I’ve discovered that seeing the numbers has made me a bit extra mild with myself once I’m feeling off within the days previous my cycle. My restoration takes successful about 3-4 days earlier than my interval, and tends to rebound rapidly as soon as I begin bleeding, however I’m certain this sample varies amongst ladies. Within the screenshot beneath, I began my interval on the sixth of the month.

I’ll end this publish with the query everybody will ask: ought to I get a Whoop or an Oura ring?? And I’ve not worn an Oura, so I’m not completely certified to reply this query, however right here’s what I’ve gleaned from speaking to the Oura individuals in my life. 

• Oura could also be a smidge higher for cycle monitoring and fertility planning. 
• Whoop could also be a smidge higher for monitoring athletic efficiency and restoration.
• You possibly can cost the Whoop whereas sporting it, however must take away the Oura to cost it. 
• If sporting a hoop when you sleep annoys you, get the Whoop. If sporting a watch when you sleep annoys you, get the Oura.
• And in case you’re questioning, the Apple watch is an okay possibility for monitoring your information, however not so good as both the Whoop or the Oura. 

Hope this helps you determine whether or not a tool like a Whoop could be helpful to you in residing your healthiest, happiest life. In case you have any questions, ship me a DM on Instagram!

* I whooped yellow the following day, with a 50% restoration and an HRV of 53. One drink and an evening in a reasonably horrifying motel room with a 78% sleep rating confirmed up within the numbers.