I Was Skeptical When I Was Told Whoop 4.0 Would “Change My Life”, Months Later, Here’s What I Think About It Now

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It’s the fitness tracker that has taken the sports world by storm and has been spotted by international elites like Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James, as well as local sports stars like James Tedesco and Tayla Harris.

Even Prince William got in on the action and was spotted showing off his OOPS 4.0 earlier this year. But does this health tracker really live up to the hype?

When I had the chance to test this innovative, but above all faceless, technology. I have to admit I was skeptical. How can I see how fast I was running or read my heart rate at any given time to push myself further?

A colleague told me OOPS 4.0 “would change my life,” I scoffed, but after a few months of using the band, I have to admit, she wasn’t wrong.

At $349 for the WHOOP 4.0 band and a 12-month subscription, it’s cheaper than other smartwatches on the market. THE the unit is currently on sale for just $299 for Amazon Prime members.

THE OOPS 4.0 The point is that it “captures the biometric data that has the most significant impact on health” and that the app presents the data in three main categories; Strain, recovery and sleep. The longer you wear it, the more intuitive and useful it becomes, offering personalized suggestions based on your body’s performance.

The Strain metric is calculated by tracking cardiovascular load on a scale of 0 to 21, providing a personalized measure of effort.

This helps me understand my physical stress levels throughout the day or during workouts. It also signals when my stress is caused by lack of sleep.

At first, I didn’t find this measure particularly useful, but when combined with the recovery and sleep information, it became clear how much my behaviors were affecting my overall performance and health.

The recovery number is calculated by taking into account HRV (heart rate variability), RHR (resting heart rate), respiratory rate and sleep performance. The recovery score turned out to be a game changer for my training. I know when to exercise or when to take a day off and I now feel much more in tune with my body.

The Sleep score captures sleep quality by tracking the time spent in each stage of sleep. It also offers personalized sleep recommendations through its Sleep Coach, to ensure you get the rest you need for optimal recovery and knowing I have to go through the app has been helpful.

The daily log that quickly tracks whether you have your period, your alcohol and caffeine intake, and any screen-free reading before bed is also helpful in determining which habits promote better sleep.

Spoiler alert, alcohol is not conducive to a good night’s sleep. We all know this, but after downing a few drinks and seeing the correlated decline in sleep performance, it’s hard to ignore.

As a mom, for two little sleep thieves no less, I often have disrupted nights, so it can be painful to be reminded of how little sleep I get. I wish there was a “I’m doing my best but it’s my kids who wake me up all night” tab to write down in the daily journal.

While exercise, recovery and sleep numbers are essential, there are many different metrics you can track in these spheres, such as calories, steps, HRV, the list goes on so you can go deeper if you wish.

For me personally, I find the suggestions made by the app to be incredibly helpful. Knowing what my peak day is to push myself or be told to go to bed at a certain time for optimal recovery makes daily decisions easier.

There is also a Community tab and you can see your performance compared to other uses in different categories. I joined the Women 30-40 team which has more than 51,000 participants.

It’s a good ego boost to see myself at the top of the rankings and I was once shocked to see that I was 16th in this category, but I realized that since our time zone is awake first, most of the group was probably still asleep while I was practicing early, skewing the rankings. Still for this short window, I take it.

While testing the WHOOP 4.0, I shifted my training from running and HIIT to more strength and conditioning work and wore the WHOOP 4.0 and my regular smartwatch at the same time for a month to compare the two.

There were some teething problems with the WHOOP to say the least, I couldn’t figure out how to put the strap on the device and it took me days and a phone call to figure out how to attach the charger. Once I was up and running, things got better.

At first I didn’t pay too much attention to the WHOOP results, but over time it became clear that compared to my regular smartwatch, it was the most accurate.

I’ve had the same smartwatch for a few years now and the familiarity of my watch’s readings was comforting. I understood them and became a little obsessed with them.

Every race, every workout, I was constantly checking my numbers, recording reps and weights, recording rest times, the list goes on.

With the band Whoop there’s none of that and to be honest it was one of the things I didn’t like the most at first.

The fact that he’s faceless is actually one of my favorite aspects of it. I practice and focus on the task at hand and check my results later.

I also don’t miss getting all the phone notifications through my old smart watch, I now realize how distracted I was.

If I ran exclusively, it would be a bit annoying to never know what pace I was running at that moment, but since that’s not a current training goal for me, it doesn’t matter.

There’s no denying that WHOOP 4.0 has changed the way I train, the way I sleep, and the way I approach recovery. It really changed my life.

To purchase WHOOP 4.0 or to take advantage of the sale offer for Prime members, click here.