Hank

Deleted the dating apps. Joined a run club. Met her on a random Wednesday night run. Moved in together 10 months later. She’s my best friend.

@BelfortBoi This is exactly the problem. When the hard runs read easy and the easy runs read hard, the data is worse than useless. It’s actively misleading.

@HankFrank Yeah it’s feels way off. Did a threshold run at race pace and it told me I was zone 2-3. Did an easy 3 mile run and it put me at zone 3-4

The problem with WHOOP that nobody is fixing: It's called cadence lock. The wrist sensor picks up your arm swing rhythm instead of your actual heart rate while running. The result? My Garmin reads 124 bpm avg on an easy run. WHOOP reads zone 4 and 5 for nearly 80% of the same run. Same activity. Completely different data. And this happens every single day. What makes it worse? WHOOP doesn't let you use an external heart rate monitor to correct it. You're stuck with the bad reading. Your strain is wrong. Your recovery recommendations are based on a workout you didn't actually do. I've been a member for 3+ years. I've tried every fix. Nothing works. At what point does a "known issue" become a broken product? What am I paying for at this point @WHOOP?

@elucasmd Haven’t heard of this. Going to check it out. Appreciate it.

@HankFrank Have you tried Bevel? It’s a smartphone app, can pull data from an Apple Watch or Garmin connect.

@SahilBloom A lot of people in here are saying the same thing. Going to give it a real shot! They offered to send me one to try, which was really nice of them to do.

@HankFrank Maybe bicep band would work better for you

@GoodPointDustin I was watching one of @herrcuules newest YouTube videos!

@HankFrank What are your watching?

My Zwift setup is a direct reflection of who I am as a person right now. Diet Coke. Cadence. A fan pointed at my face. Towels covering every surface. TV for sanity. Peak performance environment.

@JohnGoldman The fitness gains are real but phone calls on easy runs is thinking small. Pull up Claude at conversational pace and start actually getting work done out there!

Best part : I took a phone call for work during the run. Just chatting away while jogging. Kept me nice and slow and conversational. Easy pace. Like real easy.

Last nights easy run was quietly one of my best. Check the HR. That’s around 12 bpm down from just a couple months ago at a similar pace. New fitness is emerging all over. Love it.

@SahilBloom I’ve tried this actually. Moved it all over my forearm and wrist. Still locks on almost every run for me. I genuinely want it to work. I love the app and the insights. But none of it matters if the data going in is wrong every day.

@HankFrank I completely fixed this by moving the sensor higher up on my forearm like 2-3 inches.

I spent years chasing strength. Every week the only thing I cared about was adding weight to the bar. 315x10 squat 455x8 deadlift 225x1 bench 135x4 OHP Nothing elite. But respectable. And I wasn’t done. I knew I had more in me. Then Covid shut the gyms down and I had nothing. So I went outside and ran. That was 6 years ago. Now I’m lighter, faster, and healthier than I’ve ever been. And I tell myself almost every day how thankful I am that I never got to that next level in the gym. Because if I had put on another 20 or 30 pounds chasing size, I don’t know if I ever make this transition. Running found me at exactly the right time. But I’d be lying if I said the barbell doesn’t still call me sometimes.

@natolisnuggets Honestly no. That’s kind of the realization I’m coming to. Garmin tracks sleep, HRV, recovery, and training load. The only reason I’ve held onto WHOOP this long is habit.

@HankFrank You still need a whoop to know what behaviors affect recovery and sleep?

@Bogz59 That last line is exactly the problem. You can’t market yourself as the gold standard of performance data and then not fix a known accuracy issue.

@HankFrank Did it happen since last update ? Use whoop with bicep band was perfect and now I am afraid to use with my garmin because m it’s destroys data of run and whoop strain (cadence lock). Quite also annoyed that whoop always use scientific authority while data’s lack of accuracy.

@Walter_805 That’s a really interesting workaround. The fact that we need tricks like this to get accurate data from a wrist sensor kind of proves the point though.

@HankFrank My Apple Watch will do the same thing but usually only if it gets the cadence signal first. I’ve found that if I wait a few seconds for the heart rate to be correct before I start running it locks onto the right signal.

@Evan_B24 Yep it’s an optical sensor problem across the board. The difference is Garmin lets you pair a chest strap and use that data. WHOOP doesn’t.

@HankFrank This happens on my Garmin Forerunner watch when I'm on the bike. It says my hr is like 80 when it's 140. But, I use a chest strap instead.

@WHOOP I’ve been through support multiple times over 3+ years for this same issue. Happy to DM again but this isn’t a one-off fix. This is a hardware limitation that affects every runner dealing with cadence lock. Would love to see it addressed publicly.

@HankFrank Hey Hank! Please feel free to send us a DM for further assistance. We're happy to help!

@CalumRobinson1 Not yet. Sounds like that might be the move based on what everyone’s saying here. Appreciate it.

@HankFrank Have you tried the bicep band for the whoop? I wear it and it’s always pretty close to the readings I get from the Garmin chest strap

@brandosm Haven’t tried it yet. Hearing this a lot in these replies though. Might have to give it a shot before I fully give up.

@HankFrank I use the bicep band and do not have this problem. Have you tried it yet?

@NeilTradesIre @WHOOP Exactly!

@WHOOP @HankFrank Just allow members to use a chest strap monitor for cardio or to allow it to pull Garmin data for workouts. You can’t use wrist sensors for accurate measurements during cardio

@swatters4 I wear a Garmin chest strap every day. But WHOOP doesn’t allow me to export the HR data from my chest strap to the WHOOP app.

@HankFrank Get a Polar Verity arm band or a Garmin HRM dual chest strap and get really solid data. Give up on any wrist based sensors, they just aren't there yet

@Garrick_Gan Honestly? At this point I don't have a good answer. I liked the recovery and strain insights when I first started but Garmin gives me most of the same data now. Hard to justify paying for something that gets my running data wrong every single day.

@HankFrank Why did you keep the Whoop when you can grab most if not all the metrics from your Garmin? Asking as someone who cancelled the whoop membership after getting a Garmin back in 2022

The gym doesn’t have this view.

How to actually start running when you come from the gym: 1. Drop the ego immediately 2. Run by heart rate or feel, not pace 3. Start with 3 days a week max 4. Walk when you need to. No shame. 5. Add mileage slow. 10% per week max. 6. Keep lifting but reduce the leg volume 7. Give it 6 months before you judge anything Skip step 1 and you quit by month 2.