Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Health & Fitness

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

Everything You Need to Know About WHOOP 4.0 Fitness Monitor

By

If you are interested in learning more about how certain daily habits affect your health, the WHOOP 4.0 may be a valuable asset for you! In this review, I will cover what the tracker does, who should have one, and whether or not I recommend it.

In order to give you a proper review, I used the device for 30 days to make my experience as accurate as possible by exploring how the tracker is helpful and if there was anything else I wish it did.

WHOOP 4.0 wristband and tracker.

What is the WHOOP 4.0?

The WHOOP 4.0 is a band containing a fitness tracker that links to an app on your phone. Unlike other trackers, it does not have a screen, and it only gives you a notification through vibrating to let you know something about your performance.

Recommended Videos

This unique tracker aims to make you aware of your daily strain, recovery, and sleep.

  • Strain: how much work your body does throughout the day
  • Recovery: how well your body recovered from the previous day’s strain and quality of sleep
  • Sleep: length and quality of sleep

How Does WHOOP 4.0 Work?

The WHOOP 4.0 analyzes your respiratory rate, blood oxygen, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, and skin temperature. These five factors allow the tracker to develop an approximate estimate of your strain, recovery, and sleep.

Related

Your strain is ranked on a level of 0 to 21, although it is impossible to reach 21. Your strain level should increase slightly as the day goes on and you move around and participate in everyday activities. If you exercise or engage in strenuous activity, your strain level may jump up accordingly.

Your strain level and sleep quality and length determine your recovery percentage for the following day. That percentage can be between 0 and 100. WHOOP 4.0 also recommends how much strain you should put your body under based on the recovery rate you have been given.

Lastly, this tracker is amazing for giving information about your sleep. It tells you how many hours of sleep you got, how many hours you needed, how many hours were spent in the REM cycle, the number of disturbances you experienced during the night, your heart rate, and more! Then, after all this data has been considered, you are assigned a performance percentage for your sleep.

WHOOP 4.0 also gives you the option of having a journal that tracks daily habits. The following are a few examples:

  • Consume added sugar?
  • Have any alcoholic drinks?
  • Have any caffeine?
  • View a screened device while in bed?

By answering these questions every day, you can eventually detect a trend in how doing or not doing something may affect your recovery. The idea is to create good habits over time that allow your body to reach 100% recovery or come close on a daily basis.

What Are the Features of WHOOP 4.0?

  • Tracks calories burned
  • Waterproof
  • Comes with a battery pack that you can wear
  • Lightweight and minimal
  • Alarm clock
  • Menstrual cycle tracker
  • Weekly and monthly reviews of performance

What Do I Like About the WHOOP 4.0?

  1. If you set the alarm for a specific time or until you hit a certain recovery percentage, it vibrates to wake you up, so it doesn’t make a noise to wake up someone that may be next to you.
  2. Makes you aware of what habits may be holding you back from being your healthiest self.
  3. Lets you know if certain factors, like your blood oxygen levels, are within a healthy range.
  4. Provides you with an estimated amount of calories burned for the day.

What I Don’t Like About the WHOOP 4.0

  1. Doesn’t track steps.
  2. Doesn’t always start to track a workout on its own.
  3. Isn’t able to accurately track strain during exercise sessions that aren’t primarily cardiovascular.

FAQs About the WHOOP 4.0

Unfortunately, there are no reviews of this product on the website itself, but people have left comments about it elsewhere online. General reviews of the WHOOP 4.0 state that the average person probably wouldn’t care too much about all the information it provides because strain and recovery have more to do with those who exercise regularly and have fitness goals. These reviews also state that the membership cost isn’t very affordable.

How much does a WHOOP 4.0 cost?

A 24-month membership costs $20 per month, an annual membership costs $25 per month, and a monthly membership costs $30 per month.

Is WHOOP better than Fitbit?

Both WHOOP and Fitbit are credible devices. As to which is better, it really depends on what the user is looking for in a tracker.

Does WHOOP work without a subscription?

To use the app and see all of your measurements, you need to pay for a subscription.

Does WHOOP measure oxygen?

The WHOOP 4.0 does measure your blood oxygen levels. It lets you know what ranges you want to be within, and this measurement factors into your recovery percentage.

Should You Buy the WHOOP 4.0?

As someone who exercises regularly, I found the information that WHOOP 4.0 provided to be beneficial. While I am aware that it isn’t always going to be 100% accurate, it was nice to be able to have general information that I would otherwise be unaware of.

I do agree with the majority of reviews that state that someone who doesn’t work out often doesn’t have much use for the tracker. Because it is a bit pricier, I could see someone passing on purchasing the product. However, if you want to help your body be under less stress by creating habits that promote recovery to help you perform optimally in the gym and elsewhere, I think this product is worth a try!

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Christine VanDoren
Christine VanDoren
Contributor
Christine is a certified personal trainer and nutritionist with an undergraduate degree from Missouri State University. Her…
What is dirty keto? Everything you need to know
Dirty keto, explained
keto diet picture knife and fork word block

What once started as a diet designed to help patients with epilepsy, the ketogenic diet is now used widely to achieve many health benefits, from weight loss to enhanced energy levels. A standard ketogenic diet consists of whole, healthy foods, with about 75% or more daily calories from fat and very few from carbs. Though not explicitly stated, many people who shift to a keto diet seek a healthier lifestyle, which also means paying attention to the quality and nutrient density of foods consumed.

The "dirty keto" diet has recently emerged as a sub-diet of the keto diet, designed for those looking for a more flexible, sustainable diet. But what is this "dirty" keto, and is it worth a shot? We'll break it down below.
What is dirty keto?

Read more
The best pre-workout meals – everything you need to know
Maximizing athletic performance in the gym requires the right nutrition beforehand
Man eating before a workout

As in most things in fitness, there is never going to be a one-size-fits-all situation. Whether that's diet, exercise, routines, supplements, habits, the list goes on, just because something works for someone else does not mean it will work for you. A pretty commonly asked question on that fact is whether you should eat a pre-workout meal.

First thing, you need to establish which group you fall into. Do you feel fully optimized during your session, either with or without food? Some people feel less sluggish on an empty stomach and love to recover with a feast. Others feel lethargic and struggle throughout without proper fuel. If you're the latter, this article is for you. If you aren't sure, try both for a couple of weeks and compare your training performance.

Read more
Everything you need to know about the Military Diet plan
Learn about the benefits and risks of the Military Diet
Saltines on a plate for the Military Diet

When you hear of the Military Diet plan, you likely assume it is something that members of the armed services follow. However, the diet is actually not even associated with the military! It is a strict way of eating that has been popularized on social media.
The Military Diet is designed to be a quick fix for weight loss -- a way to lose a significant amount of weight rapidly. As such, there are real concerns about the safety and sustainability of the Military Diet.
Whether you’ve seen the viral posts on social media of people touting their weight loss success stories on the Military Diet or want to lose weight quickly (we caution you against that) and want to learn more about the Military Diet, keep reading for our guide to the Military Diet, including what the diet entails and whether the Military Diet is safe and effective.

What is the Military Diet plan?
The Military Diet is a fad diet that is purported to help you lose weight rapidly -- up to 10 pounds (4.5 kg) in one week and 30 pounds in one month -- by restricting calories and revving your metabolism. This diet is high in protein and low in calories, fat, and complex carbohydrates.
The metabolic boost is said to come from consuming certain combinations of foods prescribed on the meal plan. The Military Diet only consists of modifying what you eat and drink. It is a free program, and there are no supplements to take or specific products to buy.

Read more