new Whoop 4 Accuracy Update
More: Detailed Whoop 4 Accuracy Review
Whoop has released a series of accuracy updates over the last month or so covering a variety of usage scenarios. Have you noticed any difference?
The improvements cover these 4 areas:
- HR estimation during sleep
- Improvements to accuracy in garment accessories
- Improvements to SpO2
- Improvements to heart rate estimation (assumed to be during activity)
My Experiences
Taking those in turn.
I’d not noticed any changes in HRrest from sleep other than a recent rise by 1 bpm. I’m about to start tapering so a 1bpm rise during peak training is not unexpected.
I have quite a few Whoop garment accessories and the company has partnered with excellent quality apparel manufacturers in each case. The most recent was with ASSOS for cycling BIB shorts. I covered the accuracy I found there and the word ‘meh’ springs to mind. More: HRbutt when measuring cycling HR. I’ve had more success in the past with the old algorithm measuring with Whoop on the calf. Unsurprisingly, where you wear Whoop (or any optical HR sensor) makes a huge difference to accuracy. Wearing it on the wrist is one of the worst places due to significant motion artefacts. I wear it using a biceps sleeve when I care about its accuracy and recommend that method.
SpO2: I’m not interested in that data.
Finally, if I look through more recent workouts, the data superficially looks OK with no obviously wrong peaks or troughs. Things are quite hectic here so I’ve not got time for full comparisons, especially with Whoop as it’s a bit of a faff to pair it with another device in order to access and compare its data.
Luckily Rob (Youtube Link: Quantified Scientist) has recently spent quite a bit of time testing the new algorithm. Rob probably does the best, most scientific testing and mathematical correlations of heart rate data and he now finds Whoop to be one of the most accurate devices. Most reviewers, me included, at best usually compare multiple devices simultaneously across a variety of our usual trainings. The issue, of course, with optical HR is that accuracy depends on you, your training and your environment as well as the technology, so you shouldn’t take any one person’s view of the accuracy they experienced as correct for you.
Reader-Powered Content
This content is not sponsored. It’s mostly me behind the labour of love which is this site and I appreciate everyone who follows, subscribes or Buys Me A Coffee ❤️ Alternatively please buy the reviewed product from my partners. Thank you! FTC: Affiliate Disclosure: Links pay commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Didn’t notice any real difference, but I’m in a base building phase atm so it’s hard to tell, you probably need some sort of intervals to test this. Might do a Tabata type of workout just to see if I can notice any differences, without incurring too much strain.
Rob’s reviews look quite good! I’ll have to check the video, do you know if he was wearing it on the wrist or bicep?
I personally found whoop 4 (old algo) to be generally quite poor during exercise, even on the bicep — although it was wintertime when I tested it, which was probably a factor.
he is very focussed in what he does and has the maths/science skills to colalte and report the info as correctly as he can.