This story is sponsored by WHOOP. WHOOP is a personalized fitness wearable that provides you with coaching insights on your recovery, daily activity, and sleep. Go to WHOOP.com to learn more or sign up now at join.whoop.com/flosports and get your first month free from us.

Overtraining or under-recovering?

As many runners have experienced, it can become a struggle when your body isn’t given the proper time to rebuild and repair after hard training sessions. Fatigue can lead to poor workouts and stagnant performance. WHOOP can help prevent this dangerous cycle from spiraling thanks to its real-time Recovery, Strain, and Sleep feedback and personalized coaching insights.

WHOOP Monitors..

1. Resting Heart Rate (RHR) - WHOOP calculates your RHR every night during deep sleep for a consistent reading that allows you to see changes in RHR and determine how your body is adapting to training loads. For example, if your RHR continues to climb for an extended period of time, this might indicate poor recovery with risk of overtraining.

2. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) - HRV is the measure of variation in time between each heartbeat. WHOOP calculates your HRV during your deep sleep, just like RHR. An HRV that is consistently suppressed and not able to bounce back indicates poor readiness to perform, and could show signs of overtraining and increased risk of injury. 

3. Sleep Disturbances & Sleep Quality - WHOOP tracks poor sleep which is a symptom of overtraining. An overstimulated body can lead to increased sleep disturbances, disrupting the body’s ability to get into the deeper sleep stages. This tanks recovery and makes overtraining worse, and the cycle continues.

4. Workout Efforts - WHOOP calibrates your baseline efforts in order to see how workouts affect you relative to other activities. For someone who is overtrained, they’ll notice higher amounts of WHOOP strain on seemingly easier days.

All runners, regardless of ability level, are familiar with injuries. According to Yale Medicine, at least half of runners get hurt every year. Overtraining injuries such as stress fractures and IT band issues are particularly common. 

Runners are also familiar with the frequent decisions about whether to push, or back off when it comes time for a hard workout. Are my heavy legs a sign that I should take it easy today, or will they loosen up after my warm-up? My early mile splits are slower than expected, should I reschedule the workout or see if my time drops after the next repetition?  I didn’t sleep well before my long run, do I reschedule for another day or can I make it happen this weekend?

Every morning when you wake up, WHOOP gives you a personalized Recovery score on a scale of 0 to 100%, so you know when it’s time to back off or push your body. WHOOP uses four physiological markers to measure Recovery: Resting heart rate, heart-rate variability, sleep performance, and respiratory rate. A recent internal study showed that adjusting intensity of runs based on recovery cut the risk of injury by up to 32%, as runners were modulating their workouts according to what their bodies could handle.

WHOOP also tracks Strain—the amount of cardiovascular stress put on your body daily—by monitoring heart rate and time spent in elevated heart rate training zones. Throughout your day, Strain is accumulated on a scale of 0 to 21 and can be affected by things like stress, work, travel, training, and more.

Everyone knows sleep is important and with lab grade quality sleep tracking algorithms verified by 3rd party studies, WHOOP is able to give real-time recommendations personalized to your baselines and sleep needs. WHOOP measures Sleep performance on a scale of 0 to 100%, factoring in disturbances, stages, cycles, and more. When you wake up, your Sleep score will help determine if you’re ready to tackle a hard workout or if you need to focus on recovery.

The result of using WHOOP? Runners are more aware of their recovery and sleep needs compared to non-WHOOP users. Better sleep means less risk for injury and illness and better quality training each day.

To join WHOOP and get your first month free, go to join.whoop.com/flosports