I am an early adopter of Whoop - been using it off and on (mostly on) for ~ 2 years now.

The production version is called the 2.0. I assume there was a pre-production 1.0, but never seen or head of one out in the wild. All of the Whoops in existence are 2.0’s.

I think if you are considering getting the membership you should really ask yourself some questions - first and foremost, what do you want to get out of the use of the device? Strain? Recovery? or Sleep? if you’re not specifically looking for one of these three things, look elsewhere, because this is pretty much the extent of its usefulness. I was fortunately enough to get in early, I own my device and do not pay a membership fee. If I had to get one under the current payment structure, I probably wouldn’t.

I would also caution metric-driven, or data obsessive people from using this, something that I think applies to many TR users. Are you the kind of person that chases watts to the detriment of your training plan? Will you push yourself harder to tick up your normalized power a few watts for a Strava ego trip? Do you have to PR every time you get on a bike? Do you ride in circles for an extra 10-20m to hit a round number 100 miles/kms/etc? If so, I wouldn’t recommend getting one. This mentality lends itself to becoming a slave to these kinda of devices and probably will do more harm than good if you’re too literal about the data.

Like anything, it takes experience and perspective to interpret data. Just like a PM, it’s another tool. But also like a PM, you have to know when it goes out of calibration and throw those data out for the greater good.

It’s a wrist based optical sensor, so it’s limited. I wear the device on the inside of my wrist where the skin is thinner and contains less melanin. Many MANY people have problems wearing it like a watch, and have used armbands, wrenched the thing down so tight that it cuts off circulation. The reality is, if you’re used to seeing perfect HR curves from a chest strap, the whoop is woefully deficient. Sometimes it correlates well, sometimes it doesn’t. If you obsess and get frustrated about that, then again, it’s probably not for you. Whoop has a FB group that I eventually had to leave because of completely neurotic people that get subjective data from their phones in lieu of having appropriate self-awareness. Take the data it does give you and use it for your benefit. The junk, just ignore. If you can’t do that because you’re obsessive… you see where I’m going?

My thoughts after >500 days of use

The strain metrics are inconsistent at best - especially on a trainer when you’re not moving. Outside riding it works reasonably well, on a rower ERG it works great - very accurate. Might have something to do with the accelerometers in the device that if you’re not moving, it ignores an elevated HR as noise or something. Not sure, but know this is the case, and is a limitation of the technology. I wish you could import HR data from another app for your workouts. If it could do that, I think it’s application would increase dramatically. For example, how can it give you accurate recovery score, or recommend an appropriate amount of sleep if it fails to pick up something as dramatic as Eclipse as a workout?? The recovery scores are hit and miss. They use HRV taken at some unknown (proprietary) time before you wake up. Sometimes it’s bad for no reason, sometimes it’s good the day after a huge training block and am wrecked. Listen to your body first, and second and third. Use the whoop data to validate, but I would caution against new (or data obsessive) users to be a slave to it. The other thing is the app asks you questions to process your recovery score, but IMO, they’re not really the correct questions, and they do not move the needle on your score - it will often give you a score before you answer those questions, which is odd IMO. Also, I think taking a more holistic approach and asking about energy levels, mood, etc. would be very helpful in actually calculating the score. It doesn’t and I think that severely devalues it’s potential usefulness. If my recovery is in the red because of HRV score, I attempt my workout anyway. Sometimes the workout is great, sometimes it’s shit. Doesn’t seem to consistently correlate for me. If someone decides to take extra rest day(s) because of HRV scores, I think that’s foolish and probably to your detriment. Sleep. This is where I think the whoop has real value. We all know the value and importance of sleep. The whoop tracks when you fall asleep and when you wake up and seems to track sleeping HR well - likely because of the low frequency, I would expect. This is where I chase numbers. I’m trying to maximize my time asleep as well as optimize quality. I know where my sleeping HR should be, when it’s not that, I start to ask myself why, and dig into it, if I’ve been feeling a little off and my waking HR is 5+ above normal, I will usually opt for a rest day. Heaping training stress on top of your body when it is actually borderline sick is a surefire way for your immune system to lose to whatever bug it’s fighting. Alcohol and anything above Z1/2 training, and screen time does significantly and adversely affect sleep. If I have a few drinks, my HR stays elevated, sometimes 15-20 bpm above normal until that alcohol volatilizes out of my system, then it goes back to normal. This 6284685638% affects sleep quality. I get my highest quality sleep between about 10PM and 2AM. If I mess this up because I had 2-3 beers, it feels like I got 2-3 hours of sleep, which from a rest perspective exactly correlates. For me - the earlier I go to bed, the better my sleep quality - even if I get up earlier. This is a serious biohack for me. I never would have come to that conclusion before using the whoop. YMMV.

I think it does have value, don’t get me wrong. The act of wearing it makes you more self aware, It promotes good habits and reminds you when you step out of bounds. It’s not perfect by a long shot.

Ultimately it’s up to you to practice good habits, right? It doesn’t make you put that beer down, or go to bed any earlier, so if you ignore the ways in which you can seek gains anyway, why wear it, or pay the money for it to continually tell you that your habits aren’t changing. We all know what’s best for us. Don’t drink, go to bed early, get lots of sleep, but many of us don’t do those things for a plethora of reasons. If you already do those things, a Whoop probably won’t influence your behavior too much.