Justin Thomas wearing on wrist?

[bladehunter]

I am following along here and i fee like I’m taking crazy pills. Whoop there it is. Recovery time ? Chest straps ? A watch that doesn’t tell time? This is worse than my wife’s Apple Watch telling her to “ complete the circle”.

[MattyO1984]

Motivational quotes from a watch!! What a time to be alive. I’ll buy one if they start telling me to “build it and they will come”.

[Pepperturbo]

I tend to agree.

The watch Bubba Watson started wearing allegedly cost 500k. I am sure Bubba didn't pay for the watch but accepted it as a promotional item. Given the level of competition in the sports watch market, Whoop was smart going after a few tour players. Lot's of golf ho's will buy just about anything if a tour player wears or uses it.

[Sean2]

Kinda surprised me to see a $30/mth prescription fee.

[Pepperturbo]

Yes, it depends. Thanks for your thoughts.

The Fenix 5, 5S, 5X (mine) and 5 Plus have different tech attributes, as does the 6 series. I have no issues with what you call bulkiness neither do my gym and cycling buddies, but I understand how some may. It weights about the same and any of my really expensive watches. The problem I see with Whoop is alleged $30 per month subscription cost, plus extras. The company believes that adjusted price point takes it from expensive corporate/professional price to average Joe athlete/gym rat. Also, I don't buy if it's good enough for the pros' its good enough for average Joe, except average Joe can't afford $360 per year plus the cost of a nice watch, and the cost of golf or other sports activities.

All of us wear 5&6 series 24/7. The Fenix 5X and 5 Plus HRM and recovery functions are surprisingly accurate compared to the my Polar M. Having the Garmin companion iPhone app open and nearby helps, but isn't required. "Yes" HRM chest strap enhances all data including HRV stress app. I also use an app called Cardiogram which partnered with Garmin to provide Heart related metrics. I only grab the HRM chest strap for gym sessions, hiking, cross-country skiing, cycling and golf.

With Whoop the user still has to wear a watch though, and it doesn't allow the wearer to select a workout, even though each workout affects different aspects of the body. The other point, none of the data is available to the user to see without using the phone app. As you know, most of the data provided by Fenix is available on the watch itself, plus app and desktop. To each their own though. Use what ever in good health.

[Aaronwilson_95]

True. Different payment options but that’s the shortest term price per month. You don’t buy the strap though it’s free just have to pay for your monthly .

[J295]

Just sharing a data point here… Have used mine for about six months and it’s perfect for my needs. I’m a 60-year-old lifetime athlete/fitness enthusiast. Ymmv.

if anyone wants to do a deeper dive take a look at WHOOP on Twitter. Lots of podcasts and articles there.

 

[ibradley]

I find my whoop is more useful than an Apple Watch as a fitness tracker. Motivates me to walk more quickly while playing golf in order to get my “strain score” higher. I have also been motivated by it to pay more attention to sleep quality.

[bscinstnct]

 

Ha! I pay $25/month

 

For my gym!

 

Never look at my heart rate when I lift or cycle. Why should I? When I lift, I'm just pushing for advancing to heavier weight in my rep range. You rest til you're ready for the next set. When I cycle, my breathing tells me when I'm maxing out. As long as it's steady, keep pushing. For me, this works, I keep advancing to higher gears on slopes and going faster and longer. It's not rocket science. I mean, you really don't know how hard you are working?

 

Now, it you're training for the cycling 1 hour record, 34mph for an hour straight! fine (cool article, btw)https://www.wired.com/story/cycling-hour-record-almost-impossible/

"To stand a shot at the hour record, an athlete must maintain for 60 minutes a power output that most people would struggle to hold for 60 seconds. Stevens averaged just over 300 watts for the duration of her attempt. British cyclist Bradley Wiggins, who, in 2015, pedaled 54.526 kilometers (33.881 miles) to set the current men's record, is estimated to have averaged 440 watts. If you've ever paid attention to your numbers during spin class, those figures will no doubt astound you. If spinning's not your thing, imagine this: 440 watts is the energy it takes a 150-pound person to climb a flight of stairs in about 5.5 seconds. Now imagine climbing 655 flights at that pace. That's an hour."

 

But, I mean, you need to where a whoopy to see your strain and recovery for your spin class or to walk 18 holes?

 

Did Pele need a whoopy?

 

 

 

Anyway, it's cool tech and I appreciate people like gadgets.

[bscinstnct]

Also, uh, watch it out there ya Don Juans...

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/slaternfl/status/1202464912120975363?ref_url=https%3a%2f%2fd-22246449681911893404.ampproject.net%2f1911191835190%2fframe.html

[Pepperturbo]

You're right, and not alone. I see many people at the gym lifting weights pushing to advance the weight. The problem is the time between sets/weight changing, and duration of set all of which varies so a consistent training result isn't measurable. We didn't know back when I was playing football what we know today about the importance of keeping our HR in a certain target aerobic or anaerobic training zone for "x" about of time, and how important it is to not reach our maximum HR, as it has no benefit.

Much like golf, each of us exercises differently and have different motivations. Even though I am a feel golfer, I am not a feel exerciser. I use technology to insure I am maintaining the same result over a week and month which adds up to endurance. Plus, I am no spring chicken and have a high stress job. Knowing how my body handles stress turns out to be important. Didn't have that benefit years past. During my earlier CAT racing years training rides were on a 20lb bike and 100mi plus at speed. Unlike then gears today are changed with purpose to influence watts, climb and descend and maintain endurance for max distance. We didn't have the exercise or bike tech then that we have today. We used simply body talk and BP tech then to know. Today, on a 16.5lb bike it's not so much body talk but tech realtime HRM/BP that tells us when to push and when to back off and how much is left in the tank to cover 50 miles.

I maintain a $30 a month subscription fee is a lot for Joe golfer if he has a monthly gym membership fee and golf iPhone or Sky caddie app yardage subscription fee. Do the annual math. Then there's my Sport Fitness gym membership at $70 per year because it was purchased in 1980, one-time cost of Garmin fenix 5X at $500+ and one-time HRM strap at $70 that not only provides detailed HRM, gym & cycling data metrics but 40k golf courses and yardages and detailed golf data, etc. I cancelled my Sky caddie subscription and sold the equipment reducing my costs. LOL.

 

[bscinstnct]

Back in the day, you didn't "know what we know today" about HR, anaerobic/aerobic, etc. But here is what you did know without anyone telling you...

 

What worked to get you moving more weight progressively and get jacked up ; )

 

Pretty much all my lifts are compound lifts of 5 sets or 4-12 reps. So, it's anaerobic and my rest periods are timed to the second and my rhythm for reps during a set is like a metronome. The only variable is progressively forcing additional reps of a weight over time to increase the load. Rinse repeat.

 

Now, cycling I could see the date being important for and I will probably take the plunge at some point.

 

Hey, if you want to relive your CAT 5 days, check out this vid of the end of a race in Prospect Park where I ride. I'll admit seeing this opened my eyes on how cool the data would be to have. This guy destroys this hill and wins at the line. (turn down the music if it annoys you)

 

[Pepperturbo]

Nice watching those attacks... You can always tell when a break-away is about to give up, they spend time and speed looking back to see where the other breakaways are or the peloton. Nice road surface for a race and I like the music.