WHOOP Student Discounts

The WHOOP band is a piece of wearable tech that analyses your key metrics, like HRV (heart rate variability) and resting heart rate, to determine a daily recovery score. The WHOOP app then provides you with specific lifestyle and training behaviours that affect recovery.

WHOOP monitors your sleep, recovery and daily effort to deliver actionable insights on how you can optimise your performance. The wearable fitness tracker is popular amongst celebrity athletes – with the likes of Kevin Durant, LeBron James and Michael Phelps sporting a WHOOP band.

WHOOP is a subscription based service, so the WHOOP band is a free device you get when you purchase a membership. The newest WHOOP 4.0 is smaller and smarter, designed with new biometric tracking for skin temperature, blood oxygen and more.

The WHOOP is an entirely different beast to an Apple Watch in both form and function. Firstly, and most noticeably, the WHOOP 4.0 band has no screen – which makes it fairly unique in the world of wearables. It’s a simple, knitted strap with a sensor that monitors blood oxygen, skin temperature, heart rate, sleep and more. As stated, there’s no screen and no notifications. It’s designed to be lightweight and minimal so nothing gets in the way.

The Apple Watch is the most popular smartwatch, whereas WHOOP caters more so for athletes looking to improve key parts of their recovery process, meaning you’re more likely to see WHOOP bands worn by celebs and athletes than your coworkers. If you’re looking to improve your performance and workouts (and have access to your phone’s functions), the Apple Watch is more likely to suit you.

With that said, the WHOOP does work with both iOS and Android devices. Updates to Whoop 4.0 have added Strava integration and Apple Health compatibility, too. It just doesn’t offer any smartwatch features – which is a bonus for those looking to avoid distraction.

WHOOP bands are waterproof up to 10m and have a 4-5 day battery life.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is one of the best objective metrics of physical fitness and for understanding your body’s readiness to perform. Tracking your HRV with a heart rate monitor is a great way to understand how balanced your autonomic nervous system (ANS) is. This metric provides a helpful insight into how well-rested you are. Here are 7 simple ways to improve your HRV:

1. Managing stress and understanding how pressure in your everyday life affects you is a crucial way to improve a low HRV
2. Regular exercise at the right intensity so your body can recover properly without strain
3. Sleep consistently with a regular sleep schedule. Sleep consistency will boost your HRV by helping to sustain your circadian rhythm, and also enables you to spend more time in REM and deep sleep.
4. Drink more water and less alcohol. Your level of hydration determines the volume of your blood, and the more liquid you have in your system the easier it is for blood to circulate and deliver oxygen and nutrients to your body
5. Eat a balanced diet and be mindful of when you’re eating. Your body functions better when it knows what’s coming and regular eating patterns help maintain your circadian rhythm. Additionally, not eating close to bedtime (within 3-4 hours) will improve the quality of your sleep by allowing your body to focus on other restorative processes instead of digestion.
6. Exposing your body to cold temperatures for brief periods of time (cold showers, ice baths, etc.) will stimulate the vagus nerve, which activates the parasympathetic branch of your autonomic nervous system and controls heart rate variability.
7. Intentional breathing (slow and controlled) is shown to positively impact your HRV. It will also help to combat stress, which has been shown to inhibit heart rate variability. All the more reason to get into mindfulness and meditation…

On average, you'll go through 3-5 REM cycles per night, with each episode getting longer as the night progresses. Healthy adults should typically spend 20-25% of sleep in the REM stage. If you’re getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night, around 90 minutes of that should be REM ideally.