8/12 Whoop! Wednesday

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I started wearing my Whoop strap on July 1st and have been blogging about my experience. The Whoop strap is a wearable performance monitor that measures your strain (workout intensity), recovery and sleep. 
Last week I explored the Weekly Performance Assessment. This week I finally have enough data to explore the Monthly Performance Assessment. 
After 28 days of continual wear Whoop has enough data to provide you monthly analytics. So far I have only a Monthly Performance Assessment for July, and already I can see patterns in my training and recovery. 
I logged 17 activities in July that's exactly the same number of workouts I logged on BTWB for July. I know that I didn't log all of my workouts in July on Whoop since I was still learning the system. 
As you can see from the report below, the average strain for my 17 logged activities was 6.8, I spent 7:18 total hours doing my logged activities and my average activity duration was 25 minutes. The activity I logged the most was Functional Fitness, e.g. CrossFit, with Coaching the second most logged activity. 
Looking at my strain by the days of the week I have my highest strain days on Mondays and Saturdays. I know the Saturday strain is high because I usually go for a long hike or do a long workout on Saturdays. Anything over 15 mins will increase my strain score. Looks like Mondays in July were longer workouts as well:)
My strain on my rest days, Thursdays and Sunday, is what I expect, low. I rely on those days for active recovery and low energy demands. 
Based on my monthly data, I could try for harder or longer duration workouts on Wednesday and see if that impacts my recovery. 

My highest strain days are the days I workout with Monday and Saturday being the highest.

My recovery score is dependent upon my sleep performance (and a few other factors) and it looks like I nailed my sleep in July. My hours of sleep met or exceeded my sleep need and I spent lots of quality time in SWS or deep sleep.
​This is a very important metric for me to follow since SWS sleep is when the body repairs itself from the work it did that day. Based on my strain trends I need to ensure that Monday and Saturday nights I practice good sleep hygiene. I know now that means limited blue light (from my computer or TV), limited alcohol, ear plugs and a fan to keep the room cool. 

I worked hard all last fall to develop good sleep hygiene. It's nice to see my good habits stick.

My recovery was pretty evenly split with 16 days not in the green and 15 days in the green. This month I am aiming for more green days. Looking at my trends I see that Mondays and Saturdays are my lowest recovery days. I'm not too surprised by this since they are also my highest strain days. 
As I explored in my last Whoop blog, just because a strain number is not high it does not mean you didn't work hard or with intensity. Your recovery score is independent of your strain value and dependent on your personal biology and biometrics. If you workout hard and fast, even if it's for less than 10 minutes, your body has to recovery and that will be reflected in your heart rate, respiration rate and heart rate variability. 

I plan to improve my recovery days in August by drinking more water and limiting alcohol.

If you are interested in joining me on a Whoop journey, use my link to get your first month free. If you're already a Whoop user, join our True Spirit Whoop Group with the team code: COMM-AD6416. ​

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