Just as Kurt Ellis, a New York City-based strength and performance coach for Golf Digest Schools, starts demonstrating moderate intensity exercises to golfers online, he stares at the camera. “If you like analytics to understand what’s going on inside your body as you go through these workouts, WHOOP keeps track of your heart rate and recovery, and gives you an overall better perspective of how you’re performing,” says Ellis, who’s wearing the latest WHOOP 3.0 strap on his wrist.
A WHOOP devotee, he knows firsthand that your pre-golf workout has never been so consequential. WHOOP transforms it into something much more meaningful by monitoring your fitness and performance, tracking your physiological data, and accessing daily analytics 24/7. Whether you’re crushing a high-, medium- or low-intensity workout, WHOOP helps you balance those sessions so that you show up to the first tee on Saturday morning in the best-possible emotional and physical states.
How it works: As you exercise, WHOOP precisely quantifies your exertion level and training intensity. It uses that data to generate daily target goals customized just for you. All the while, it’s also measuring the physical and mental stress levels your body is going through, and rating that on a proprietary scale. Plus it’s quantifying strain — the cardiovascular load you put on your body — displaying up-to-the second heart rate and caloric burn on its smartphone app. “During my training sessions, I utilize the ‘WHOOP live’ feature to track my heart rate, to make sure that I’m working within a certain range,” says Ellis, who shared his screen with us (pictured below) immediately following his medium intensity workout. “This feature provides real-time feedback on how hard I’m working during any given moment of a workout and allows me to gauge my rest intervals accordingly. These key features can be the difference between over-training or performing optimally.”
But the single metric that differentiates WHOOP from any other product is the daily recovery score. Taking into account all of your strain data plus your sleep quantity, quality, debt and efficiency, it gives you a color-coded percentage indicating exactly how ready your body is to perform when you wake up. Using that recovery metric as a training guide lets you know how to approach your day, with respect to how strenuously you should train and how much rest your body needs.
WHOOP won’t let you hit the gym — or any other aspect of your life, for that matter — without a specific real-time plan in mind. That’s why hundreds of Tour pros now rely on it, to help them reach peak performance inside the ropes. With its advanced biometric data presented in uncomplicated language and graphics, WHOOP is like having the best-ever personal trainer right on your wrist. “It simply gives you an upper hand in overall performance,” says Ellis. Click here to sign up using promo code “GolfDigest” for 15% off a WHOOP membership. Then you’ll see how it can transform your workout, golf game and life.