The hoop is Years of health and fitness A company that makes one of the most detailed fitness wearables you can buy. Hoops, a favorite of athletes and celebrity endorsers like LeBron James and Michael Phelps, has dropped a new feature that could make it more appealing to the average person: an AI fitness coach.
According to Whoop, this is the first fitness wearable with an AI coach that interprets your data, plans your workouts, and helps you reach your goals. Whoop Coach aims to revolutionize on-demand, personalized advice and recommendations.
I needed to test Whoop and their new AI coach (still in beta). This feature may not be worth the high annual subscription cost for everyone, but it’s useful if you want advice tailored to your health journey.
What is a hoop band?
When I first put on Whoop, I was surprised to see no screen or buttons. Everything happens within the app. When I logged into the app, I was surprised again. Whoop doesn’t track typical factors that other wearable devices do. You won’t get any insight into your steps, stairs, or active time.
5 LEDs, body temperature sensor, and 4 photodiodes. Even though we are limited to these three metrics, we measure them properly and display them in charts and graphs that help show how they interact.
What I liked about the Whoop 4 band:
- Personalized data based on sleep, tension and recovery.
- The app is easy to use and has tabs for each metric.
- The charger can be attached by sliding it onto the band, so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to attach it after charging.
- It can be used for about 5 days on a single charge. I found that to be true.
- As long as you purchase from Whoop and have an active membership, you are covered by our lifetime warranty.
What I didn’t like:
- An optional alarm that made the band vibrate to wake me up was effective, but the double tap that was supposed to turn off the alarm didn’t always work. Most mornings I had to hit it several times to get it to stop.
- The first few times I had trouble sliding the charger onto the band.
- Switching between bands was a frustrating experience because the Whoop’s hinge mechanism wasn’t intuitive.
- Although the band is waterproof, it took at least two hours to dry because it was wide.
- of hoop membership Prices are high and there are no monthly payment options. Annual membership costs $239 upfront or $399 for 24 months.
Oops, again sell clothing — Sports bras, underwear, tops and bottoms — Something to put your tracker in. So you can do more than just wear it on your wrist. I like this versatility because sometimes it can be annoying to have a Fitbit on one wrist and a Whoop on the other. The Whoop 4 is 33% smaller than the previous generation, but it’s still a bit large for my wrist. It felt like a backpack buckle was wrapped around my wrist. However, I would happily slip into my leggings to get the data that Whoop provides.
Introducing the hoop coach
Whoop Coach has some alternatives to those awful push-ups.
Whoop has just been released Introducing the hoop coach to the app. Powered by OpenAI’s advanced generative AI system, GPT4. Two coaching options are available: customization with data and education and support only. Whoop encourages the use of customization options that provide on-demand fitness and health advice and recommendations based on data collected by Whoop. Education and Support provides general coaching recommendations only.
So instead of searching for a common workout, Whoop Coach can create a workout based on your strain, recovery, and sleep from the previous day. This not only keeps you from pushing your body too hard, but also allows you to switch out movements that don’t make sense for your body. For example, I don’t like incorporating push-ups into my workouts. Whoop Coach recommended alternatives like planks and dumbbell bench presses that target the same muscle groups.
What was it like talking to the hoops coach?
I expected Whoop Coach to stand out more than it does in-app. Instead of removing the data on the overview page, Whoop Coach now has a small black bar below the tension, recovery, and sleep diagrams.
I spent a lot of time interacting with the AI coach, asking general questions about sleep, fitness, and recovery. The more I used it, the more specific I was able to understand my performance. Overall, the advice and recommendations provided by Whoop Coach were solid. When it comes to sleep advice, it’s consistent with the basics of what I recommend to my readers to get a better night’s sleep.
The interface is similar to the chat functionality found there, but a few features stood out to me.
chat thread
On many messaging platforms, if you want to see past conversations, you have to scroll back through the various messages you’ve exchanged. A better option has a search bar that eliminates scrolling. Whoop Coach doesn’t have a search bar, but it does offer a unique chat organization feature: multiple threads.
There is a plus icon next to the chat bar. This allows you to have several different conversations with your AI Coach. No more scrolling or searching after changing the subject multiple times. I used this feature to organize the topics I was learning. In the sleep thread we only talk about sleep. Fitness chat only includes tension and exercise content.
In the upper right corner of the chat, there is an icon that looks like two word speech bubbles. This will show you your chat history and allow you to navigate between threads.
Suggest a topic
Whoop is one of the most rugged wearable devices. It’s not what you expect, but it does give you a ton of information. Whoop doesn’t measure steps, active minutes, or stairs climbed. That said, using Whoop requires a bit of a learning curve to understand what Tension, Sleep, and Recovery measures and what that means for you.
Whoop Coach is a great way to solve this problem. You can ask AI Chat anything you want, but if you don’t know where to start, you’ll receive suggested prompts. So if you’re starting Whoop from scratch, you’ll have a built-in coach to walk you through everything you need to know.
personalization
At the most basic level, Whoop Coach is a great educational tool, helping you understand how to use the app. This is like a detailed walkthrough of the app.
That said, the more engaged you are, the more personalized your response will be. It is best to wear the band as much as possible and fill out a “diary” every day. To get the most out of Whoop Coach, you need to interact with it.
I asked the hoops coach, “Did you sleep okay?” Accordingly, a snapshot of recent sleep activity was provided, including time spent in slow-wave and REM sleep. This provides a different understanding of the information and allows the AI coach to provide actionable tips to improve performance.
Hoop Coach Privacy
Whoop Coach’s privacy disclosure is clear and concise. Whoop’s large-scale language model partners include:Zero retention/zero training policyThis policy means that no data is retained or stored and is not used to train LLM algorithms or technology.
I am concerned when interacting with AI for health information, especially after recent studies found that AI tools can generate harmful content that can lead to eating disorders. It’s not just about privacy.
Whoop has the best intentions of helping you achieve your goals and improve your health during your fitness journey. All replies from Whoop are educational and consistent with the advice I give to my readers. When asked how to lose weight fast, the answer advised to focus on losing weight in healthy and sustainable ways, such as drinking water and focusing on your overall health, not just the number on the scale. has returned. It also included a statement about consulting a medical professional before starting your weight loss journey.
There was no questionable response from Whoop. By focusing on data-driven personalization, we believe that answers can be steered away from generic or harmful answers that can unintentionally irritate people.
Final verdict: Is Whoop Coach worth it?
Whoop Coach is in beta, and you can expect more features and enhancements to the tool in the coming months. However, I was impressed with Whoop Coach. This was a useful feature that allowed us to quickly understand Whoop’s key metrics and how they can help improve performance.
I liked Whoop Coach, but I’m not sure this feature has wider appeal to the general public. Given the current pricing ($239 upfront for annual membership, $399 upfront for 2 years) and the lack of monthly payment options, it is difficult for the average person to invest in his Whoop, even if he had a Whoop. I don’t think I want to. coach.
Again, it’s best reserved for athletes and people who are serious about their fitness training. Still, Whoop Coach is a great addition to the app.
Editor’s note: CNET uses an AI engine to create some stories. See this post for more information.
