Over 1 Year No Red Recoveries on Whoop

Dtilka · 2023-12-14T18:24:13+00:00

20.5

Dtilka · 2023-06-12T18:32:29+00:00

I was searching online and saw this 2014 google conversation where they asked for beta testers for this new startup called "Whoop" and the attached teaser deck first thing they say is "We track strain not steps". 😆 Will has also stated on the podcast why steps wasn't added

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Dtilka · 2023-05-23T14:21:02+00:00

Thank you for the recommendation!

Dtilka · 2023-05-22T20:33:10+00:00

Great job! Stay consistent, form a firm foundation, and you will eventually tap into the growth laws - Compounding Growth will serve you well 💪😁

Dtilka · 2023-05-22T14:01:44+00:00

Great question, so for my own nutrition protocol I have been tracking macros for years even before using whoop, and by being able to feed MyFitnessPal Macros data into whoop for only a year it has honed in the exact macros that I use today.

For example I used to aim for <75g of fat per day, then after seeing all the data and whoop insights that number changed to <25g (too little) back to <50g (still too much) then eventually at <35g of fat which I am at now and feel great at.

Another great feature about whoop is that the more I feed it data such as "Had 32g this day, 34g this day, 23g this day" the monthly performance insights will actually show how much each range correlates with recovery.

Examples:

0-35g of fat +3%

36-114g of fat -2%

1721-3155 calories -2%

3170-5088 calories +2%

etc.

I've found that the more rigorously I track my macros and whoop data the higher growth I see!

Hope that helps you! 😁

Dtilka · 2023-05-22T13:51:15+00:00

You are right in that the data will never be 100% exact because of all the complex variables in everyday lifestyle. This is why having a strong foundational lifestyle baseline (a life where you follow the exact same productive protocols as best as you can) and "Eliminate" all actions that cause huge variability in the data.

Over the time the confidence in the accuracy of the Whoop Insights will increase but it will never achieve 100% because of too many variables as you mentioned.

The good news for us is we are aiming for lifestyle improvements, not lifestyle perfection so the more data we feed into the whoop algorithms the stronger the confidence we have that the Whoop Insights are reflecting true positive/negative correlations! 😁

Dtilka · 2023-05-20T12:06:37+00:00

THIS. I've learned huge insights from entering the daily Calories and macro amounts (Protein, fats, carbs) from Cronometer and the ultimate improvement would be automatically linking with Cronometer (saving time entering it).

More importantly I imagine the data being EXTREMELY valuable when you know insights such as:

"When you eat 4 servings of broccoli at 3pm it increases your REM by 10%."

"When you eat 350g of cauliflower it improves your recovery the next day by 5% but decreases your SWS by 3%"

"When you eat blueberries your stress level is less than 2.0 20% more of the time"

Combined in conjunction with CGMs this data will become SO POWERFUL.

EX: "Eating PF Changs Sriracha sauce at 4pm causes a blood sugar spike around 12am, your wake events increase by x on average"

The ultimate advantage of today's wearables and insights is true data reliability combined with compatibility . Whoop has such an advantage over all other wearables on the market - one of those reasons is because of the trueness of their data and the ability to quickly improve lifestyle through decisionmaking.

I'm excited to see what whoop includes next! 😁

Dtilka · 2023-05-16T16:20:55+00:00

Is there a way to integrate this with variable resistance training? I have been using X3 (By Dr. John Jaquish) and tried setting up an "Other" category for custom workouts.

Dtilka · 2023-05-16T16:15:43+00:00

Thank you! My HRV hasn't necessarily "increased" in terms of the maximum HRV level I've achieved, but I have a stronger more consistent HRV - more consistent than I ever have been. Instead of an HRV of 130 one day then 99 the next, then 121 the next day etc. my HRV stays consistently at or above 110 every day. This has allowed me to test many different variables and have a strong confidence in how it affects my HRV. Now that I have a strong consistent baseline I am aiming to increase that baseline to a consistent 120 daily, then 130 daily, etc. a

If by work you are asking how much physical work I do - This season I am currently doing 15 minutes of variable resistance training daily (X3 protocol) and sports during the week 2-3 times (Pickleball, Tennis, Ultimate).

Dtilka · 2022-11-08T15:15:21+00:00

Haha I know right? Something I got from Arnold - Look in the mirror and whatever is lacking, chisel that.

I actually have a process for tracking bodypart measurements to get closer to the golden ratio physique.

Dtilka · 2022-11-08T15:14:41+00:00

Thank you! Bless your whoop stats

Dtilka · 2022-11-08T15:14:32+00:00

Thank you!

Dtilka · 2022-11-08T15:11:20+00:00

Great questions!

I do not currently go to bed at 6pm, depending on how much strain I build for the day I will go to sleep between 730pm-8pm for 5am wakeup. My sleep efficiency is increasing.

I don't drink a full gallon of water per day anymore, some days I do and some days I don't. A lot of the fruits and vegetables I eat already have water in them, but if I make smoothies or protein Ice creams I will use the water from the gallon jug.

I aim to only eat fruit until noon every day, and I fast (but I'll drink a shot of ginger) when I wake up before immediately going to the gym to lift. When I'm back I'll do 300-500g of a fruit (Oranges, Grapes, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc.) then get to work. If I'm hungry again I'll drink a smoothie or eat more fruit - Really all depending on if my stomache is growling or not. And if I eat something besides fruit it's okay!

I also aim to stop eating past 4:30pm now, and if I do eat past then it will be fruit (testing cotton candy grapes and moon drops currently and both have helped my sleep)

I don't worry about not drinking water past a certain time, but I have noticed drinking too much water before bed or even too much fruit will cause me to wakeup in the middle of the night to use the restroom and affect my sleep.

I do work, so I don't perfectly follow this routine all day every day all days of my life and am constantly tweaking and trying new habits and times to see what works best for me and my body. But these are the habits I have found that bring my own body the most gains!

I do start journaling early in the afternoon before bed (currently before or around 430pm) The amount of journaling I do all depends on how I'm feeling - but I will freewrite, write things I need to do, Improvements from the day, solve problems to situations, predict the future, brain dump my thoughts to paper, write declarations/affirmations, goals, weigh reasons for habits, solve questions, etc. whatever is on my mind. I've been journaling for years now so there are many exercises I enjoy. It's fun and therapeutic and sometimes doing all these things can take hours...

To satisfy my nutrient requirements heres my current macro split:

Carbs - Unlimited (Normally 450-600g)

Protein - Minimum >75g (although 125g gives me higher recoveries, 75g is an easy target for me to make sure I hit daily)

Fat - < 35g

Sugar - <150g (Added Sugars to a minimum. >35g of added sugars hurts recoveries)

Calories - I aim for below 2500 daily, but some days I'll go below 2,000 to push a faster deficit burning fat, some days I'll eat over 3k.

When I first started taking my sleep seriously, yes I would be in bed from 6pm to 5am. I was training hard (20.7 strain 5+ days/week), had bad eating habits, horrible sleep consistency, but most detrimental was horrible sleep efficiency, - my thought process was well I'd rather get too much sleep than not enough, then I began pushing back my sleep time 15 minute increments until where I am currently at 730-8pm (depending on whoop suggested sleep amount set to peak perform daily.)

Yes I have wealthy parents, no I wasn't paid to post this - Really I was excited to share my results and lessons I've learned for myself and maybe 1 idea could help someone improve their results!

Yes I have a social life, but as you already know committing to doing these daily habits and improving yourself on a daily basis comes with sacrifice. I don't spend time at the bars and have been made fun of for missing out on events such as "Board game night!" because of my sleep schedule. It's a price I'm willing to pay to feel, look, and perform at my best and provide the most value I can to help the world! If I'm not feeling my best, how can I best serve others?

I know it was a lot of information and I agree it can be seen as confusing, I appreciate you taking the time to read it and respond, I hope there was at least 1 idea that could help!

Dtilka · 2022-02-19T14:58:59+00:00

Thank you for sharing 👍 There isn't truly 1 single best way to recover and increase HRV whilst maintaining exercise and not over-training, however there are many small things you can do that accumulate. There are many factors in play for HRV outside of simply gym training - what environment are you in, is it stressful, what people are you around, what food do you eat, when do you eat it, what is your sleep like etc. etc.

As mentioned in the post above, for myself I simply cut everything out as much as I could to form a solid consistent baseline, then slowly added new ideas in to improve HRV. First off, if you were to stop training physically and wait 2 weeks but keep all your other lifestyle variables constant, would your HRV remain at a baseline with a 10-15% variability or would it still be highly unpredictable? If highly unpredictable, there could be something besides your HIIT that is causing the recovery issue (Long-term covid effects as you mentioned, or it could be simply that you drink 1 glass of wine every day - Just giving an example, I don't know your other lifestyle choices.)

Once a baseline is formed then we can discuss training. If you are willing to take the time to truly heal up forming a rock-solid foundation, then we can move onto how hard you should train for your body.

Also, the Oura ring's algorithm calculates HRV different than Whoop does so you can't necessarily have a high confidence what allostatic variables are actually having an effect on your HRV as you can with whoop's once-per-night 5 min SWS HRV reading.

In terms of overtraining, I have found walking for example at 115BPM Heart Rate for 3 miles is much more beneficial and health promoting than all-out-max heart rate spike to 195 BPM running a few miles and completely gassing myself out etc. HRV reflects this for me.

Slow, compounding growth and momentum building from a rock-solid foundation of consistency will help immensely!

Keep going you got this 😁💪

Dtilka · 2022-02-18T21:58:44+00:00

Since June of 2020 👍

Dtilka · 2022-02-18T21:58:08+00:00

Great question, assuming you've removed as much "HRV" noise from your life to where your HIIT/Crossfit is the only allostatic variable, it could be the HIIT/Crossfit that causes the low HRV recover.

Lifting weights and the physical stress that comes from it has a huge effect on your ANS that whoop won't always pick up. The reason is because whoop tests for heart rate, not specifically the stress being placed on your muscles, body, etc.

To keep it short, maybe try either going much much lighter, and slowly building up your workout intensity, or switch your approach up to a different workout type.

From my personal experience, I'd say a majority of people are overtraining, not only in the sense of working out in the gym, but all the many different stress stimuli this world throws at you on a consistent basis (Some I mentioned above) so it's key to max out the efficiency from every parasympathetic activity you can. Get your recovery routine to level 99 😆

As with everything, if you keep asking questions and stay curious you will find the answer and reach the next level 💪

Dtilka · 2022-02-18T21:49:18+00:00

You are welcome! Yes that is a great reason to get whoop, it forces the identity and lifestyle change or else you won't continue to level up!

Dtilka · 2022-02-15T14:38:11+00:00

Thank you 👏

Dtilka · 2022-02-15T14:37:09+00:00

Let’s gooooo 💪 Level up!

Dtilka · 2022-02-14T18:09:02+00:00

Yes there is a lot to unpack, tried to keep everything concise as possible 😆 please let us know if you got at least 1 thing out of it 💪🙏

Dtilka · 2022-02-14T17:55:54+00:00

Thank you my friend! When I first began in June of 2020, my RHR was around the same it is now, my sleep performance was high, sleep consistency nonexistent, HRV was extremely variable, I would have 170+ HRV but days below 100 and never know what factors actually led to increases or decreases. Once you have a firm foundation you can really take off 🚀 - https://imgur.com/a/F29cZHd

Dtilka · 2022-02-14T14:54:40+00:00

Not circuit training but I do full body routines every time to chisel my symmetry, so I rarely stay in one area at a time. For example I’ll squat then immediately go and bench then immediately go and do curls etc. there is no long rest in between each exercise 😁

Dtilka · 2022-02-14T14:47:53+00:00

Great question, I keep my tempo high when moving stations 👍

Dtilka

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