You count your reps at the gym. You count your minutes on the treadmill. You count your calories at the dinner table. There are a lot of numbers to pay attention to when trying to get fit. Well, the number of numbers you should be paying attention to just got bigger. Thanks to WHOOP, you can now quantify and keep track of how well you recover from the physical and mental stresses of your day-to-day life. And it can be an invaluable tool for golfers looking to improve their fitness levels -- whether you're a scratch golfer or you're just a beginner.
Recovering with WHOOP
Recovery has always been somewhat of an intangible with regards to fitness. Some days you just feel better and stronger than others. The same activities or workout that you breeze through one day leave you dragging and in need of a nap on other days. For the most part, you scratch your head and credit your amped-up energy level on your venti Starbucks and blame your lackluster performance on the music they were playing at the gym.
WHOOP takes the guesswork out of your training. This wearable fit-tech wrist strap tells you just how well-recovered you actually are and how intense of a workout you're capable of doing.
Full Disclosure: WHOOP sent us several units to experiment with and Joey D Golf clients Justin Thomas and Jessica Korda are both WHOOP Brand Ambassadors.
Understanding the Importance of Recovery
For pro golfers, understanding the need for recovery is vital. Constant travel and the stress of needing to play four days in a row of virtually error-free golf every week can take its toll. Unlike other sports, though, it's not always a visually evident toll. Professional golfers rarely come limping off the course like a quarterback who's just been sacked for the fifth time, but that doesn't mean that their bodies aren't on the verge of breaking down. Being able to quantify your activity levels as well as your recovery levels lets you come up with a perfect balance that will help prevent injury and keep your body performing optimally day after day.
Understanding recovery is just as important for anyone looking to win their weekly foursome, too. The strap connects easily to your phone via Bluetooth, so checking on your current levels of recovery is as easy as checking your text messages. And knowing whether your body is 80-percent recovered or just 25-percent recovered is extremely important for performing at your best. Knowing where you are in the recovery process will let you plan your days -- and your workouts -- so that you're peaking physically when you want to peak physically. It's great to feel like a superhero on a Thursday afternoon, but if your tee time is Saturday at 9:00 am, that's when you want to be feeling otherworldly.
Optimizing Recovery Time
While on the surface the solution may seem simple -- get more sleep -- optimizing your recovery time is a lot more complex than that. For one thing, you'll soon realize that, to the human body, all sleep is not the same. Eight hours of sleep after hanging out at the bar with your pals complaining about your job is not the same as the eight hours of sleep you'll get with a body free of alcohol, caffeine, difficult-to-digest food, and nagging, stressful thoughts. WHOOP breaks down your time in bed to let you know how much of it was actually sleep and how deep that sleep actually was -- light sleep or the more recovery-boosting REM sleep and deep sleep.
WHOOP even had golfers in mind when it came to design. There are no buttons that have to be pushed in a precise sequence and there are no potentially disastrous beeps or buzzing that can go off mid-swing out on the golf course. The plain fabric strap has no read-out or screen to become obsessed with. You can't just look down and see how many steps you've taken or what your blood pressure or temperature is. And just like that girl you liked in high school, it won't even give you the time of day. All your stats and information can be accessed from your phone, tablet, or computer. The WHOOP strap just quietly does its job of keeping track of the numbers that are keeping you going.
Start Maximizing Your Workouts
Whether you've been working out for years or are just beginning a golf fitness program like Hit IT Great, the more information you have about what's going on in your own body, the better. You'll be able to maximize your workouts and maximize your progress wherever you are. WHOOP won't instantly give you 20 extra yards off the tee, but by understanding and using the information it supplies you, it can become just as important to your game as your putter or favorite iron.
