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Indian culture handles fitness and finance in diametrically different ways. Our societies love to discuss, dissect and talk about our fitness, whether its asking what we ate to commenting on our bodies, but when it comes to finance there is complete silence, almost a stigma around it. Thats probably why Indians have one of the most sophisticated and nuanced approach to food, but are flying blind when it comes to their finances. However, physical well-being and financial well-being are similar in approach, and drawing analogies from one can help shape our thinking about the other.

Budget like you diet: We manage our diet to assess how much to eat on the basis of our fitness goals, choosing between food groups and options available. In personal finance, this is budgeting where we take control of how and where income is used, understand goals, priorities and allocate accordingly.

Plan investments like workout routines: Investments are so complicated that hearing the word makes us run to someone else to make decisions for us. Experts are like personal trainers, they can force accountability, but the decisions we make are our own.

Just like with food, all investment too is goal-based. What are the outcomes we want to achieve? Someone with the goal of retiring on a beach at 40 would have a very different path than someone who wants their company to IPO at a billion dollars. Once your goals are clear, define outputs just like you would with your workout. Which specific muscle groups do you need to work on to achieve the desired outcomes? In the financial world, this involves creating a specific portfolio that will help achieve goals.

There are two main types of investment instruments you can use Debt and Equity. Debt instruments which include corporate or government bonds, treasury bills, etc., tend to be less risky but offer lower, more consistent returns. Equity instruments such as stocks, mutual funds etc are more risky and volatile, yet offer higher, less consistent returns. Think of these options as cardio and weight training, both fall under exercise and help us achieve the physical goals we want, but their approaches are different.

While putting together a portfolio, dont forget to consider your risk appetite and profile. A professional athlete will have different tolerance compared to a 35-year-old office-goer. Young people can push themselves harder than those with chronic back issues.

Lifestyle choices make all the difference: Apart from food and exercise, the choices we make every day, the habits we build and the identity we associate with looking and feeling good contribute to overall wellness. Similarly, the choices we make on where we invest every rupee even that which we spend contributes to the quality of lifestyle. If we have Rs 5,000 to spend, would you do it on a movie night or on dinner and a museum visit? Smart lifestyle choices set us up for a better life, just like smart wellness choices put us in the right headspace to feel better. The 10% extra you pay for organic tomatoes feels like a long-term investment, which it is. Similarly, before you spend, think about whether its a smart long-term choice. CRED creates opportunities for these smart lifestyle experiences which members access by spending coins.

Measure what matters: Once youve set a program of inputs and outputs, monitoring and tracking on a daily basis is important. Fitness KPIs operate just like financial KPIs in that real-time visibility into the state of our finances gives us the information that nudges smart choices. This tells us how much cash we have, the value of investments, our spending patterns and where we can potentially reallocate. This is tough because a lot of financial data is buried in fine print or somewhere in statements that we never open. We realized how unfriendly it is to review personal financial metrics, and thats why at CRED we make it really easy to see the exact status, spending patterns and hidden charges real-time.

Keep your eye on the (long-term) prize: There are some core behavioral principles that make smart income, investments, credit and lifestyle choices easier to follow, and reflect that for our bodies and our wealth, the well-being mindset has the same elements goal-setting, discipline and moderation..Getting a gym membership in January and forgetting in February does nothing for your fitness. The same outlook should be extended to managing your finances, where it isnt a once in a year exercise that you resolve to work on- mostly during new years eve or tax season. Be consistent in mapping, tracking and budgeting in order to ensure you are aware of your financial situation and informed to make the right decisions.

Short term goals are just that short term. So when looking at your mental and physical wellbeing or finances adopt a broad, long term outlook. Start with outcomes, think about the output metrics that will get you there and finally identify and work on the right inputs. Money and financial fitness is an output that lets you achieve the life you want, and everything related to it is just a tool that is available for you to make informed choices. If youve already shown the commitment to get your health in order, youre a step closer to financial fitness because the same principles apply.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Apply the fitness mindset to improve financial health - The Times of India Blog

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)- Best Fitness Vice President of Sales and Personal Training, Andy Marino, says its gyms are preparing to reopen in New York with new protocols to keep its staff and members safe from COVID-19. Marino says while they havent received any guidance from the state on procedures, they are using multiple sources for its plan.

Best Fitness has created a plan for the reopening of gyms in New Hampshire. Marino says they will be using this along with general guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control for their New York plan.

Marino says Best Fitness has always focused on keeping gyms safe for its members and that the new protocols are an extension of that. Nationally, Marino says members are respecting the rules and are being diligent about cleanliness.

AtBestFitness, we are committed to re-opening our gyms in accordance with state regulations and guidelines to ensure public safety while supporting the health, safety and livelihoods of our employees, says Marino. The health and well-being of our members, employees, and the community we serve is our number one priority. We are eager to re-open and help our members safely continue toward theirfitnessgoals.

Gyms in Massachusetts are scheduled to reopen on July 6. New York has yet to set a date when gyms will reopen.

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Best Fitness eager to reopen gyms in New York - NEWS10 ABC

With many gyms closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, WFH is making way for WOFH: Working Out From Home.

I use a lot of makeshift materials to work out, says Anne Barreca, of Brooklyn, New York. Without access to a gym or swimming pool, she uses whats in her environment for exercise, including the stairs leading to her third-floor walkup, groceries, resistance bands, furniture sliders, dish towels even her 5-month-old son, Benjamin, whom she calls the worlds cutest kettlebell. Hes the perfect size for squats and lunges (comes with the noises too, her husband, Brian, jokes).

Its better than nothing, Barreca said. Something is always better than just being lazy or sitting around. There's no such thing as a perfect workout.

Exercising using ones body weight or with whats available, of course, isnt a new phenomenon.

In 1976s Rocky, the underdog boxer trained by punching slabs of beef in a meat freezer and running up the 72 steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 1982, Jane Fonda donned spandex and leg warmers to bring her total body aerobics routine, Jane Fondas Workout, to women around the world. It sold over 17 million copies, becoming the best-selling VHS tape of all time.

In that same spirit, fitness enthusiasts are discovering new ways to work out and get back to basics in the age of COVID-19.

For Barreca, finding creative hacks to get moving and accepting this new normal wasnt easy. Being an avid runner and swimmer, she continued her exercise regimen well into her pregnancy and was eager to get back to her routine after giving birth. As fate would have it, her doctors gave her the all-clear to resume working out on March 16 the day gyms and pools closed in New York. It was like a cruel joke, she says.

But she didnt let the gym shutdowns, or that shes parenting a newborn during a pandemic, discourage her.

It forces you to tap into the inner reserves you have of patience and creativity, Barreca said. I love gyms as much as anyone. I hope I get to go back, but its not a necessity for maintaining your fitness, which is a very beautiful reminder.

In Largo, Florida, Shani Bryant says she has also learned this lesson while sheltering-in-place and working from home. Her pre-COVID workout group consisted of fellow fitness enthusiasts in her office, all moms, who worked out together every day during their lunch hour, from weight training and HIIT (high intensity interval training) to spin class. They even wore matching shirts and drank the same pre-workout supplement.

It was legit, like a sisterhood, Bryant said.

And while they all tried to keep up that sisterhood when they began working from home, exercising together online via Microsoft Teams, Bryant says she eventually started getting busier and working through lunchtime. She also pointed out that not everyone in the group has the same equipment or resources at home.

All the weights were sold out in the stores, so I couldnt find any barbells or kettlebells, Bryant said. Between January and March, orders for fitness equipment (kettlebells, dumbbells, stationary bikes and treadmills) saw a 55 percent boost in online sales, according to Adobes Digital Economy Index.

Despite those challenges, and sometimes missing the rigor of her old gym workouts, Bryant says shes giving herself some grace and putting less pressure on herself to maintain her old routine. Though shes visited the gym twice since reopening, with social distancing measures in place, she says its difficult to work out in a mask and shes unsure about going back, as cases in Florida continue to rise. She tells herself: Relax, youre in a pandemic. Its OK if you cant lose those other 10 pounds that you were trying to do before your birthday. Its OK.

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She says she has learned to appreciate slower workouts, such as long walks outside with her 3-year-old son.

He loves chasing the birds, riding his bike, looking at all the trees, Bryant said. Now were definitely outdoors and exploring a little bit more, which is nice.

Stacey Tinianov, in Santa Clara, California, has also been forced to slow down. A mom of two teens and a cancer survivor, Tinianov was attending 5 a.m. classes at a nearby Orangetheory fitness studio four days a week and when she didnt make it to a class, she went to 24 Hour Fitness in the evenings to work out on the elliptical. On weekend mornings, she would go on three- to four-hour walks with friends or do a tandem bicycle ride with her husband.

Now, with fitness centers closed, her family has created some new habits.

Every morning, we get up, I go on my walk and he commutes to work, Tinianov said about her husbands daily bike ride. And so he does this 20-mile loop, comes home, showers and then goes to the garage and works all day.

But she admits its challenging to exercise outside and do the constant calculus of social distancing.

It's really weird to walk in a neighborhood because you'll see people and you're like: OK, who should walk in the street? Who should stay on the sidewalk? Who needs to cross the road? Tinianov said. It doesn't feel relaxing, because you're constantly trying to gauge what you should do and it just seems to be a lot involved now in kind of calculating it, rather than just going out for a walk.

Although she hasnt been able to recreate Orangetheory at home (the app doesnt translate the same vibes as an in-person workout, she says), a small silver lining has been finding new activities she tried a zumba class for the first time over Zoom and she started doing some yoga thanks to YouTube. She also completed a four-week exercise challenge, Chloe Tings Summer Shred Challenge, with her 19-year-old daughter.

I definitely would not have done yoga online, Tinianov said. I just wouldn't have. And I don't know why I tried it this time, but I'm glad I did. I like it. I find it incredibly calming.

More walking and yoga matches up with how Fitbit users are working out during the pandemic, according to a recent Fitbit analysis that looked at data from mid-April.

Walk exercises, or brisk walks that last for at least 15 minutes, are up, and walks still constitute a large portion of user exercises, the analysis said. Weve also seen substantial increases in the popularity of biking, yoga and aerobic workouts. Among users who exercised at least once per week, yoga and biking have seen an increase of over 40 percent, while aerobic workouts have increased by more than 20 percent meaning that users are taking this time to switch up their fitness routines.

When it comes to exercising during this new normal without access to old routines and resources, the key is motivation, said Dr. Sari Shepphird, a sports psychologist and psychotherapist in California.

It takes some creative thought, which is why motivations so important because if you're lacking the motivation, you're not going to want to put in the time to creatively problem solve, Shepphird said.

She suggests finding a sense of community, even virtually, if possible. Coaches and trainers online are trying to do just that, even with exercises that might typically require physical contact.

Joey DeMalavez, owner of Joltin Jabs in Philadelphia, just reopened his boxing gym, but is continuing some virtual sessions. At one point during Pennsylvanias stay-at-home order, he was leading 11 Zoom classes per week. Known for his discipline and a stickler for form, the former pro boxer had to adapt technologically to continue reaching his clients. He says while he cant be there physically to adjust their form, doing the workout with them and yelling through his computer screen has been working pretty well.

I won't call them out by name but as I'm looking, I'll say, Put that hand up, DeMalavez said.

I remind them, Remember that checklist, check it off, chin down, shoulder pointed, hands up, knees bent, balls of your feet, 45 your front foot. So I'm constantly going like that.

It can be harder to read the room when clients are in different places with their mics often muted, says Tasha Gray, co-owner and a trainer at FitnessSocial, a studio in Fresno, California that recently resumed in-person sessions. You just learn to make it work, she said.

During months of remote sessions, Grays studio went ahead and gave away or rented kettlebells to clients depending on their membership level.

For Amber Patty, a personal trainer and gymnast in Salt Lake City, online classes have meant more clients and a broader reach. With Upside Down Ambo, she blends body weight exercises with gymnastics movements, and even teaches classes on how to do a handstand.

Theres ways to train people without being there, Patty said. If somebody can't kick up to a wall, I have ways to get them upside down and get them strengthened and get them to a place where they can kick up without being there. ... There definitely is a benefit if I'm right there, but there are camps and classes where the teacher has like 20 people and they just can't really help everyone. So it's still helpful, and I've seen a lot of progress with my clients through Zoom with the handstands.

And as Americans spend more time indoors or socially distantanced, whether youre working out or just trying to survive, Shepphird recommends fighting anxiety or whats the point? thoughts by using tips and tricks from sports psychology.

This is a lot about mindset, Shepphird said. To identify what youcan control, and then focus on putting your effort there is going to make a big difference in the quality of your life on an emotional and mental level. And then another skill that's often used in sport is mindfulness To be aware of what it is that you're experiencing and not judge yourself for whatever it is that you feel, but to just observe it. Not be afraid of your own thoughts, but to allow them to come and then problem solve once you realize what it is that you're feeling.

To say fitness habits are changing is an understatement, Shepphird says. People are working out in new ways and with new frequency.

Tinianov is embracing more family time and different ways to move. Barreca, who used to spend one or two hours on the perfect workout, now does multiple mini-workouts throughout the day while her baby naps. When she does jog, she pretends her mask is a VO2 max increaser because thinking of it as a pandemic mask is sad and thinking of it as a way to increase VO2 max makes it slightly mentally easier. Bryant, who still keeps in touch with her workout crew, has delved into healthier cooking and gets outside more.

Maybe our bodies needed this break, Bryant said. Maybe this is a time we needed to take a break and rest our bodies, rest our minds a little bit, regroup and just use this time wisely.

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Think WFH is a challenge? Not compared to WOFH: Working Out From Home - NBC News

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Since the widespread closure of gyms due to the pandemic, more and more of us have been turning to live-streamed, at-home workouts. Some of them have been led by athletes and fitness junkies at the height of their field, like tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams, CrossFit legend Rich Froning, and shredded movie star Mark Wahlberg.

Today, outdoorsman and survivalist Bear Grylls just took on a particularly challenging workout: the pre-joining fitness test for the Royal Marines, designed to challenge an individuals' strength, endurance, and mental fortitude. Led via video link by an active service member, Bear and his teenage son Jesse attempted to complete a remote version of the four-exercise circuit.

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"There's a strong link between the fitness needed for a soldier and the fitness needed for an adventurer," says Bear. "For me, it's about functional fitness, and being fit for purpose."

They start off with a set of burpees comprising 20 reps. This exercise is included in the fitness test as it allows recruiters to assess a candidate's flexibility when performing the full movement, as well as their stamina.

Next up, after a 10-second rest, is a set of 20 situps, performed with very specific form requirements: Bear and Jesse have to keep their knees squeezed together, creating muscle adduction which will then beneficial in rope-climbing exercises.

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They follow that with 20 pushups, ensuring that their arms are fully extended at the upper end of each rep, and finish off by testing the strength and stability of their core and posterior chain with a 60-second plank.

While Bear and Jesse only complete one circuit, the instructor, Ben, explains that usually candidates are required to do three of each set and officers are expected to be able to do four. "I don't know if I could do three rounds of that," says a breathless Jesse after completing the abbreviated test.

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Watch Bear Grylls and His Son Take on the Royal Marines Physical Fitness Test - menshealth.com

Struggling to keep to your fitness goals? Or are there any other life goals eluding your grasp?

Well according to new research, the key is to copy those around you.

Researchers from theUniversity of Pennsylvania looked at a new method to nudge people to achieve their goals a "copy-paste" prompt.

One of the reasons why people struggle to reach their goals is due to a gap in information on how to achieve these goals, and while a mentor strategy is one proposal to overcome it, it has some limitations.

READ: Lost your motivation to eat healthy and exercise during the pandemic? You are not alone

Men more amenable

They divided 1 028 participants into three groups looking to exercise more. One group was told to find a routine themselves used by someone they know, one was given a routine by the researchers and another group was just instructed to reach their goals however they wanted.

In ten days, the first group proved to be more dedicated to their goals, sticking better with the routine than the other two groups.

They spent 55.8 and 32.5 more minutes exercising than those with no direction and those with a provided exercise hack respectively.

Men also seemed to be more amenable to the copying method.

ALSO READ: Video games may sabotage fitness among college students

The benefits of copy-paste prompts are mediated by the usefulness of the adopted exercise strategy, commitment to using it, the effort put into finding it, and the frequency of social interaction with people who exercise regularly, write the researchers.

Applicable to other life goals

While we live in a social media world where its easy to follow peoples journeys to their various personal goals, many people forget that they can follow their peers examples, and might need a nudge towards copying others to reach their own goals.

The methods social aspect is another benefit, and could help provide support networks on the way to achieving goals. The effort of researching methods themselves also seemed to give participants an ego boost, motivating their exercising efforts.

Outside of fitness, they posit that this copying method can also be applied to other life goals, like academia, careers, and financial goals.

However, its important to note that participants were enticed with monetary gains if they completed the whole process, which might skew motivations for completing their tasks. The study also doesnt account for long-term benefits of this method.

Still, this might be one time where peer pressure could be to your benefit.

READ: How to train safely outdoors during winter

Image credit: Pixabay

Gabi Zietsman

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Being a copy-cat might make it easier to achieve fitness goals - Health24

The HYROX Virtual Championships of Fitness kicked off today. The competition, organised in conjunction with Laureus Sport for Good, is an ultimate online fitness challenge comprised of five workouts over three weeks.

To ensure everybody can compete, the event consists of two categories: Bodyweight and Equipment. Entry into each competition costs $12.

The Virtual Championships of Fitness are the first are the first qualifying event for the HYROX World Championships in April 2021 (location TBA), with the best athlete in each age group going ahead.

In a concerted effort to fight racism, violence, discrimination and disadvantage, fifty percent the proceeds from the Virtual Championships of Fitness will be donated directly to Laureus, announced HYROX.

Laureus is aglobal charity that uplifts youth and those in need through sport. They use the power of sport to end violence, discrimination and disadvantage. Proving that sport can change the world.

Anyone who participates is encouraged to make a league and rank among friends, family, and colleagues on a personalized leaderboard, while competing globally.

HYROX Leagues are your chance to see how you compare against your peers.

Interview with Hunter McIntyre CrossFit Games Wildcard, Spartan Race World Champion and HYROX Legend

The equimpent competition requires access to a Rower, dumbells and a wall ball and includes running. For the bodyweight competition no equipment is needed only some space and a mat.

Have a glimpse of what will be in store for competitors over the next three weeks:

Equipment competition

For time:

Bodyweight competition

For time:

Then 3 rounds of:

Then:

Sign up here!

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Join the HYROX Virtual Championships of Fitness, Starting Today - BOXROX

Posted: Jul 3, 2020 / 10:00 AM CDT / Updated: Jul 3, 2020 / 04:59 PM CDT

Morning Doses Lindsey Day shares her top four body weight exercises that burn the most calories!

Lets start with the starburst. Explode up the fireworks into a star position, extending your arms and legs outward. Do as many of these as you can for one minute.

Next exercise is the stripes. Start in a plank position with a towel under your feet. Slide up and back striping the ground in the plank position and keeping your body totally straight.

Next exercise is the flagpole. Jump up, then to the side in a side plank position shaped like a flagpole.

Our final exercise is the four corners, in honor of the 4th of July. Jump from the left side of the room to the right side, back corner then the left corner. Repeat as many times as you can for one minute.

Now, youre ready to go attack the BBQ and lay by the pool! Happy 4th of July!

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4th of July Fitness With Lindsey Day - CW39

Fitness brand V Shred exposed the personally identifiable information (PII) of over 99,000 customers and trainers -- and has yet to fully resolve the leaking database responsible.

Las Vegas-based V Shred is a company that offers fitness plans for women and men, with a focus on fast workouts, nutrition plans, and supplements. The firm says it has clients in 119 countries, 12 million unique visitors to its website per month, and over 40,000 subscribers to its university program.

On Thursday, vpnMentor's research team, led by Noam Rotem and Ran Locar, made the data leak public, in which an unsecured AWS S3 bucket exposed the PII of at least 99,000 individuals.

See also:Japan investigates potential leak of prototype missile data in Mitsubishi hack

The bucket, discovered on May 14, originally contained 1.3 million files, totaling 606GB of data. Among the files were three .CSV files of particular note; one that appeared to be a lead generation list, another a client email list, and a trainer list.

Combined, the files contained names, home addresses, email addresses, dates of birth, some Social Security numbers, social media accounts details, usernames and passwords, age ranges, genders, and citizenship status, among other data points.

The .CSV file of the most importance was 180MB in size and contained the PII of tens of thousands of people.

ZDNet verified the open bucket and at the time of writing, many resources remain open and accessible, ranging from company materials to diet guides, workout plans, and user photos.

CNET:FTC warns of COVID-19 scam claiming to give funds for bank info

CSV files appearing to contain the information relating to both trainers and clients remain exposed. IDs, first and last names, email addresses, genders, and client email addresses are included.

In addition, the open bucket contains before-and-after photos of members, some of which could be deemed sensitive.

Due to the company materials stored in the bucket, it was not difficult to ascertain that V Shred was the owner. Both V Shred and AWS were notified of the misconfigured bucket on May 18 and 20, respectively.

V Shred responded to the research team via Amazon customer service on June 1. In a conversation between the company and researchers, a V Shred team member denied there was an issue with the exposure of PII.

TechRepublic:How to protect your remote desktop environment from brute force attacks

At first, the team member said that the bucket was only used to store web assets, CSS, and media files, adding that if the resources were made non-public, members would not be able to download their meal or training plans.

In addition, V Shred said that in order to access such content, a link would have to be shared and/or a user would need to be logged in.

However, the researchers explained that the bucket is open for anonymous users to browse, including each separate directory listing.

On June 18, the main .CSV file containing substantial PII was removed, but the rest of the bucket is still public and accessible.

"V Shred is a young company and appears to be run by a small team," VPNmentor noted. "However, it's still responsible for protecting the people using its products and signing up for its services. By not doing so, V Shred has jeopardized the privacy and security of the people exposed and the future of the company itself."

V Shred has not responded to repeated requests for comment at the time of writing.

Have a tip? Get in touch securely via WhatsApp | Signal at +447713 025 499, or over at Keybase: charlie0

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V Shred data leak exposes PII, sensitive photos of fitness customers and trainers - ZDNet

WURTLAND, KY (WOWK) Physical education is considered an essential course in schools across the country. But what happens when you dont have the funding for up-to-date proper equipment?

For the Wurtland Middle School, their troubles with out of date equipment are now long behind them. The middle school has been awarded a $100,000 gift from the National Governors Association for the completion of a new fitness center.

The schools old equipment was definitely out of date.

The equipment that she uses now, its not much, its just a little bit. Some of its broken.

The center will be located in the same room as the health and PE class, but with a few new renovations. The floors will be covered with rubber and the room will be filled with the new equipment.

The equipment will include:

Gov. Andy Beshear and Jake Steinfeld, chairman of the National Foundation for Governors Fitness Councils, announced Wurtland Middle is one of the three Kentucky schools that were selected to receive a state-of-the-art $100,000 DONT QUIT! Fitness Center.

The center will not only be available to the students, but also staff and other members of the community.

Its going to provide a place for staff to work out. Its also going to be open to the community.

Students will be allowed in the center during and after school hours for free. Community pricing for use of the center is still being discussed.

For more information on the project, click here.

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State-of-the-art fitness center awarded to Wurtland Middle School - WOWK 13 News

Welcome to Riding Nerdy, TNWs fortnightly dive into bicycle-based tech, where we go into too much detail and geek out on all things related to pedal-powered gadgets.

With all the cycling tech on the market like power meters, heart rate monitors, Zwift, smart trainers its easy to think that you just need to ride more and ride harder to get fitter. But thats not necessarily the best approach. With all this tech we should actually be training, and recovering, smarter.

I say recovering, because thats specifically what the latest tech Ive been using for the past few months the WHOOP band does. In short, its subtly augmented the way I approach rest and recovery after exercise, and made me appreciate sleep way more than I did previously.

Its helped me recover so well, in fact, that during the first full month of using it, I did more cycling (in terms of time) than Ive ever done in my life. I managed to squeeze out some 52 hours of two-wheeled fun in May, normally Id do about 30 to 35 hours per month. Off to a good start, Id say.

But before getting all nerdy, lets start by looking at what Whoop actually is, and what you get in the box.

There are two components to the Whoop experience, the wristband and the app.

The wristband is a pretty simple affair. Its a fabric strap that contours securely to your wrist. It has a waterproof housing that contains sensors that measure five key performance metrics based on heart rate and skin conductivity. The wristband is also Bluetooth-enabled, which lets it broadcast this data wirelessly to other fitness devices. I actually paired it with my MacBook to use in Zwift and it worked flawlessly.

Compared to other sleep trackers and fitness watches, its a delightfully lightweight, subtle, and stylish alternative. Sleeping in this thing has been no problem at all as its also incredibly comfortable. Which is also good, given that youre supposed to wear the strap 24/7.

In fact, Whoops secret is to gather tonnes of data around the clock.

But for that data to be useful it has to be accurate, otherwise the insights into your physiology and recovery will be useless. Ive always been a bit suspicious of how accurate wrist-based heart rate monitors are. My preferred choice, chest strap heart rate monitors, have been the gold standard of laboratory accuracy for over a decade, whereas the accuracy of wrist-based systems can vary widely.

I did some validation testing myself to see how the Whoop band compares to a Garmin chest-strap. I wore the Whoop on my wrist and paired it with Zwift, I also wore my Garmin chest strap at the same time and gathered the data from that device using my bike computer.

I did an 80-minute ride on Zwift with some threshold intervals to make sure my heart rate was going up and down throughout the ride. Post ride analysis on Strava showed that Whoop is as good as the highly-accurate Garmin chest-strap. As it turns out, the Whoop is way more accurate than I was expecting. Another point to Whoop.

After wearing the Whoop band for every second of the day for at least a week, it starts to get a pretty good idea of your physiology and heres where the other component of the Whoop experience comes into play, the app.

Theres no screen on the Whoop band so that means the main experience of the device is on your phone. In the Whoop app, you can keep a journal of how youre feeling, and dissect all the data that its been gathering to develop an understanding of how well youre training and, more importantly, how well youre recovering.

The app is built around three main screens to help you understand and track different aspects of your training and rest: strain, recovery, and sleep. Theres also an overview screen where you can see a snapshot of your past weeks performance.

Each of these screens has an upper and lower section. The upper section gives a quick snapshot of that specific metrics daily score, the lower goes into a bit more detail and shows your seven-day history. Its very intuitive, and takes just a few minutes to figure out.

The only annoying thing is that it takes at least a week for Whoop to gather and analyze enough data about you until it starts becoming useful. But the more you wear it, the better it becomes. With time, it learns more about your body and what normal is for you. The more understanding that Whoop can gain of your own cardiovascular physiology, the more accurate it becomes when giving you your strain and recovery scores. After about a week, youll clearly see when youre training above or below normal levels.

I found myself spending most of my time on the main overview and recovery screens, checking them every morning after the app processed my sleep for the previous night and computed my recovery score.

There are a few key metrics when it comes to computing your recovery score: resting heart rate, heart rate variance, sleep quality, and day strain.

The day strain is a measure of how hard you trained, Whoop also captures activity data when it senses youre out doing something like running, cycling, or whatever else. So when you get back, it will compute a strain score for that specific activity, you can also drill down into that activitys data if you want.

Resting heart rate is also self-explanatory, but heart rate variance (HRV) is the one that is perhaps most interesting. Ten years ago, not much was actually known about HRV, but its fast becoming one of the most important fitness metrics used by professional athletes.

As its name suggest, HRV is a measure of the tiny changes in time between individual heartbeats. HRV is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. When under a lot of physical and emotional stress, HRV drops to prepare the body for fight or flight mode, but when well rested, a persons HRV will increase.

While lower resting heart rates are indicative of being well-trained and well-rested, the inverse is true of HRV. Resting heart rates vary from person to person, the average is around 70 beats per minute. HRV also varies from person to person, more so than RHR in fact.

While high HRVs are indicative of fitness, that rule only applies on an individual level. A person who has a HRV of 140 isnt necessarily twice as fit as someone with a HRV of 70. However, if a person who has a HRV of 70 when well-rested, wakes up with a HRV of 40, its indicative that they could do with a bit more rest or to take it easy for the day.

Interestingly, HRV and RHR arent always in sync. There have been many days when my resting heart rate returned to normal levels, and my recovery score was in the yellow (red is bad, green is very good, yellow is in the middle). However, my HRV was still suppressed, and Whoops advice is to not train too hard on that day.

Ordinarily, I would have thought: I feel fine, and my RHR is normal, lets go for it. But on a deeper level, I still needed to rest and address other causes of stress.

Following Whoops guidance, and performing restorative exercise on these days, proved a sure fire way to get my recovery score back in the green. In other words, letting Whoop take the lead with how hard I train has helped me promote recovery, and make more gains to fitness than I would have otherwise. Its like having a coach in your pocket.

While most fitness bands are focussed on keeping you active, it should be clear by now that Whoop is the opposite. Its not going to tell you to stop working out, but rather, it helps you understand how much emphasis you should be placing on recovery after exercise. If you train hard, you should rest hard too thats when the gains are made.

You wont find any arbitrary step-counters on the WHOOP band or its associated app. Instead, its main features and interface is focussed on helping you understand your bodys response to varying cardiovascular loads and recovery strategies so that you can learn how to recover better.

For average folk like myself, it will help make what little training and recovery we do more effective; for pro athletes, it can help prevent over-training.

Knowing on an objective level how well rested you are can help you identify days when you should train hard, and days when you should focus on active recovery and restorative exercise. Thats the basic principle.

I, like many other cyclists, am guilty of riding lots of junk miles, where I gamble about at a decent intensity with no real focus. For seasoned cyclists, doing this does little more than build up a substantial amount of fatigue. Fitness plateaus because training isnt at a high or varied enough intensity, and perhaps more importantly, all that time riding prevents adequate recovery.

The real benefit of Whoop for me was learning how to personalize and polarize training. In other words, using Whoop I now know with some accuracy when I should make hard training days hard, and easy days easy. Its made me see that going on feel for me is about 80% accurate, and that my training generally does lack focus.

Over the two months using the Whoop band, Ive increased my functional power on the bike by about 6%. That might not sound like much, but some riders can struggle to make performance gains like that over the course of an entire season. Ive also taken a bunch of Strava KOMs of that period too.

(Speaking of Strava, just last night, Whoop announced that it now integrates with the fitness tracking platform, so you can upload activity data directly to the fitness social network.)

I havent made dramatic changes to what Im doing when Im training, either. Instead, Whoop is making me disciplined to go easy on days when I need rest, and to push harder in confidence on days when Im well rested.

Whoop places a big emphasis on sleep because thats where most recovery is done. It bundles this into what it calls its sleep coach. The sleep coach learns how much sleep you need to get by, perform, or peak and then tells you when to go to bed so you wake up the right amount of rested.

The folks at Whoop told me the most common piece of feedback after the first month or two of using the band is how much more sleep users get and I can testify to that. Im getting way more sleep, and clearly the benefits are showing. Just do what it recommends, and you wont go too far wrong if youre wearing it all the time.

But there is a fly in the ointment: the price.

Whoop is taking an unconventional approach with its pricing strategy. Users dont buy the band or app outright, but instead, subscribe to Whoop like a gym membership. Or like Strava is now asking you to do.

There are three membership options available at the moment, with varying levels of commitment and upfront cost. The shortest commitmetn is for six months an works out at 25 per month, after which you can cancel or carry on with the standard monthly fee of 25 per month.

If youre willing to part with a bit more cash upfront you can commit to an 18-month membership which effectively costs 16 per month, or 288 upfront. Then 25 per month afterwards.

This seems expensive, to me. Especially given that without the membership the device is useless. It can be gifted to someone else, and they can start a membership, though.

The Whoop band itself isnt too advanced, theres no screen or GPS, and its sensors arent exactly bleeding edge. And users dont actually pay for it, its all covered as part of the membership. So that takes the edge off, a little.

Strava recently pivoted to a subscription model and all hell broke loose users really didnt like being asked to pay $5 per month for a fully featured service that used to be mostly free. The free version is still well-equipped, though. But there is no free or entry level option with Whoop.

Whoop is a new company, and I think its always better to lower prices over the course of time, rather than raise them and introduce fees for historically free services. So this might be a good move to start off with, but I would like to see Whoop segment its product for different budgets.

Perhaps it could offer different feature levels for different monthly fees. Or perhaps it could sell the hardware for an upfront cost, and reduce the monthlies a little. I think theres a world of opportunity for Whoop, and it should explore its pricing strategy continually.

Hopefully as the company develops and more people buy into it, its prices will come down and value will go up. As I mentioned, Whoop has just added Strava integration which adds a boon if you also use that platform.

All in all, my experience with Whoop has been great and has become part of my daily routine. Its got me sleeping more, respecting recovery as I should have been, and my performance and overall well-being has improved. Its helped me figure out how to wake up every morning feeling as refreshed as possible its hard to put a price on it when I put it this way.

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Published July 2, 2020 18:07 UTC

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The Whoop fitness band transformed me from sleepy boy to fit boy in two months - The Next Web

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