The long awaited DCRainmaker Whoop 4.0 review is up.
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What was your resolution if any here? I got my 4.0. Wore it to bed and similar it’s stuck syncing yesterday
Didn’t really get resolution. Asked for a refund and canceled my membership after about two weeks of back and forth nonsense with customer service.
Back to using HRV4Training now as a guide and ironically, have slept better than ever since I took the WHOOP off. Miss seeing strain numbers sometimes but doubt I’ll ever go back.
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Thanks for the reply, that’s a shame.
Fwiw my response from Whoop support
“WHOOP ran into a small bug that makes it difficult for your WHOOP to know whether it is being worn or not. In this case, it looks like your WHOOP thought it was off-wrist from Friday evening until about 9 am Saturday morning so the sensor turned off, and unfortunately no HR data was collected during your sleep that night.
The good news is, our team is aware of this issue and we are actively working on a permanent solution for this! In the meantime, I do have a few steps that I would like you to try to keep this from happening from moving forward:
Part 1: Reboot the Strap
To do so:
- Within the WHOOP app, open the menu by selecting the icon in the navigation bar
- Click on “Device settings”
- Select “Advanced” next to “Status”
- Scroll down and select “Reboot the Device”
Part 2: Allow Strap to Drain Fully
In this next step, we’re going to let the Strap battery drain fully until it shuts off. Once it has completely drained, place a charged battery pack on the Strap and let it charge fully.
”””
DC Rainmakers review saved me $360. I canceled my Whoop order.
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I also ended up ordering simply because I was annoyed by the availability, etc. I’m not regretting that choice.
Also cancelled now - I really wanted this to work out well, and with a cashback offer + discount code it would’ve been closer to $10/month, but still not worth it if it isn’t accurate in the recovery.
I really like the journaling + sleep tracking feature, but my bigger problem is finding time to sleep anyway…
I had a whoop 3.0 for 6 months. I bought several bands because you have to change them after you train (sweat). Now I got my 4.0 and all my bands (which cost me 200 $) are useful.
And what do I get a discount on new 4.0 bands. GRRRR!!
Better use the money for a APPLE watch.
Random question: If I choose to get a Whoop initially for the $30/month pricing, can I ever opt to upgrade to the prepaid annual plans in the future?
Yes. I did that this past fall actually, merely because I realized I was likely going to keep it around for various review/update/etc purposes, so might as well save some money.
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Do you have any plans to do a review of the Athlytic app used with the apple watch, and how that compared to Whoop and other fitness trackers?
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Having read your review like 3 times, I still cannot decide on it.
I really cannot tell from any of the reviews if the data on it is actually worth following up on? I just watched a video of Vegan Cyclist, where his score was really low, but he was feeling amazing, and managed to smash out 300w for an hour on the trainer.
Some reviews also state that the Whoop might measure “the bodys inflammatory response” but how you actually feel might not be reflected in the score.
If thats the case, what is even the case for getting the Whoop…?
This still echoes in my head from your review… (I hope its ok that I post this in quotes)
And thus ultimately, I don’t find much value in Whoop’s Recovery scores – which is essentially half the service.
What are one actually paying for then? A nice app that tells me that I should rest even though I feel great?
I think you’ve read the info well and you’ve already got your answer. Not sure why you’re still on the fence.
I’m coming up on my 1 year anniversary with Whoop and here are my thoughts. TLDR - I wear it 24/7 and will continue to do so.
I don’t see it as a day to day device to give me a red light/green light on training. It works best IMHO as a device to give you data tracking over a longer term than day to day. For me, it does spot trends, particularly with sleep and recovery but I would never look at just one day’s recovery score and decide to modify a workout much less take an unscheduled day off without taking other factors and feelings into account. Over time though, it does keep me from digging deep holes and I definitely take what the Whoop says into account and it definitely adds valuable info to the mix but its just not my only data source.
I love the sleep tracking and that is really the one thing that keep s me as a user. Again, on any given day, I can have a great sleep score and feel like crap or have a bad score and feel great but over time, it spots trends.
Also with regards to sleep, the saying “what gets measured gets managed” is true for me. Because my sleep is now being measured, I pay more attention to it. Frankly, for me the data could be 100% BS but it has improved my sleep habits.
I do find over time my HRV and recovery scores track with my RPE and other measures for fatigue (e.g. PMC chart). I view the Whoop as one more data point along with all the others like weight, PMC, how I feel, how I look in the mirror, how I am performing (both on the bike and off); mood, motivation, etc that all goes into that general mix of “how do I feel?” The Whoop definitely adds something positive to that data mix for me.
Along with all that a more minor, but still significant aspect of the whoop (or any other wearable) is having 24/7 HR tracking. For me, the HR readings are no different than I get with a chest strap so its become my sole HR source. That makes suiting up for a ride a tiny bit easier as its now one less thing to deal with. And, it is really nice to be able to see what is going on (or not … ) the other 22-23 hours a day I’m not on the bike. (One thing it has shown me is how sedentary I am absent my bike workouts!)
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I tried it, i returned it.
I think at the point that you are on Trainer Road and considering a Whoop, you probably pay enough attention to your body to know when you feel good or need more sleep, etc.
Basically, after a month i found that Whoop more or less told me what i was already feeling. Quantifying that with a “score” was nice, but not for the price. I liked the HRV monitoring, and was almost willing to keep it for that, but i could never get used to having it on 24/7.
The whole ecosystem and feedback-system still interests me, as a whole. I really really wish that it was more accurate, or at least was more transparent in what it was measuring.
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Personally, my experience of the Whoop does not align with the review by dcrainmaker.
So I’m a Type 1 diabetic, with asthma who suffers from Agoraphobia (does anybody want to swap bodies)
I got a Whoop about 5 months because I was suffering from large bouts of exhaustion, the go to bed fine and wake up unable to get out of bed, now I don’t think the whoop is perfect, but for me it has been life changing
Now I don’t know if the HR is super accurate, but it is consistent, and when comparing day to day, that is probably the most important thing (do you care if you power meter is 50 watts out, if it is always 50 watts out) , and it recognizes stress from other activities other than the sporting activities, stress from cutting the hedge is still stress from cutting the hedge, if I got for a walk when my anxiety is high, it records a different training stress to if I go with a calm walk in the evening , it doesn’t even have to show up as an activity. I don’t think pairing with a strap would that good a idea, as that would mean the reading wouldn’t be consistent over the 24 hrs
So my first finding when I got it was that I didn’t sleep as badly as I thought I did, I sleep better with my window shut (what a fool, I’ve always slept with the window open), I trained to hard on many days where I was tired, and not at all when I was rested (the will teach me to blindly follow a plan), I can do more on rest days, I’ve gone down to 4 training days a week (most weeks) and a 2 day rest block in my usual training week, has meant that I can put a lot more stress into the training days that I do, do … and have increased my training load over the week, from about 400, to near 700, and as I’m 52, I’m fairly happy about that
It does “average for the last 30 days”, so if you are pushing 21 (highest stress) every day, what 21 is will increase each day, so if you rest (my finding) what 21 is will reduce, so it depends on keeping on top of your training, and filling in the survey correctly, so if you do “80 TSS”, and your body fully recovers, 80 TSS seems to have less stress effect on you, I have to have tomorrow off the bike, but I did 3hours of zone 2 yesteday, Donner + 1 hr zone 2 the days before that, 2 hours of zone the days before (boxing day) and a 20 min FTP test xmas day, and even though I did “Aden Carter” earlier today, the Whoop is pointing out that (even though my legs are slightly tired) my recovery has been improving, and because I have been sitting on my arse at work all day (still feel tired) and with tomorrow off, I can/get some more training in as I am about at 50% of my daily stress target, so sum up, if I was just following the TR plan, I would be under training
I don’t let the Whoop sync to strava, I let it live in it’s own little world, I don’t think the great thing about the Whoop is telling you how you feel, more helping you improve, does going to bed earlier actually improve your recovery score ? does eating before bed help or not, if I train in the morning or evening, does that affect my recovery
People are going to respond to this, with you should listern to your body more, and I do my best, but when you always feel shit, having a helping hand has been a real bonus (for me)
Is it perfect, absolutely not, is it a good tool … yes, and like all good tools, it depends how you use it
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Just started using one yesterday. Wore it while I was sleeping and left the app open on my phone.
This morning it’s been “catching up” for almost 2 hours now. Is this normal?
Two hours is a bit too much… it usually takes about 10ish minutes…