Wait, What? McIlroy & JT Spotted Wearing WHOOP Fitness Tracker

If you’ve been following the PGA Tour this year, there’s a chance you’ve noticed Rory McIlroy at the Memorial Tournament earlier this year wearing a black bracelet and, just this past weekend, Justin Thomas at the Medinah Country Club wearing a similar white bracelet. So the question begs, what the hell are they?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by BMW Championship (@bmwchamps) on Aug 19, 2019 at 7:00am PDT

Surprise, it’s not the newest, trendy luxury watch.  Instead, Rory and JT, probably among hundreds, if not thousands, of other professional athletes, were spotted wearing WHOOP Strap 3.0s, a biometric tracker that collects physiological data 24/7 on five health-related variables at a rate of 100 times per second, including sleep patterns (time spent in each stage), strain (how the body responds to cardiovascular stressors) and heart-rate variability (a measurement of how you’re improving athletically).

And just like a shot tracker like ShotScope, users (along with their trainers, coaches, friends and the larger WHOOP community) are able to review, analyze and digest the data, how your body is responding to certain stimuli and how to improve your overall health, fitness and athletic performance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by WHOOP (@whoop) on Jul 5, 2019 at 9:14am PDT

Such information is clearly advantageous to professional golfers, who need to make sure they’re resisting and training at full capacity, or throttling it back and reducing the intensity when it’s time for a rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by WHOOP (@whoop) on Jun 5, 2019 at 9:59am PDT

But that certainly doesn’t mean the WHOOP isn’t something more dedicated amateur golfers shouldn’t consider.  As Golficity Fitness Expert, Kirk Adams, further explained to me, such information could be even more valuable to help make sure the weekend warriors can bring their “A” game to the gym and/or golf course after a long week in the workplace:

Golfers have long known the benefits of practicing hard. Over the past 25 years, they’ve also learned how hard work in the gym can translate to greater success on the course. Today, golfers are trying to find the right balance between hard work in the gym and on the range and time spent recovering from that hard work to maximize fitness and minimize injury.

Working out in the gym and practicing for hours places stress on the body that causes it to adapt. When done properly, that stress leads to better fitness and more consistent performance. However, too much stress (over training), or not allowing enough time for recovery, can lead to decreases in performance and ultimately injury. Adequate, high quality sleep, proper nutrition and other recovery modalities like massage, sauna, and cryotherapy, are just as important as another set of squats or hitting 100 more balls. But how do we find the right balance?

Many players are starting to wear recovery monitoring products like the WHOOP band to measure analytics like resting heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep duration and quality. They even give you a readiness score, a numerical value that tells you how recovered you are and ready to train or compete. This data, in theory, allows the player to make better decisions about how frequently and intensely to work out and practice. Those better decisions should hopefully lead to greater levels of fitness, lower scores, and less injury.

Most good players don’t need to be reminded of the value of long hours of practice and intense consistent workouts. Where I find tools like the Whoop to be most valuable is that it brings awareness to good sleep and nutritional habits, which are often not as top of mind. It’s important to remember, however, that training and recovery status remains part art and science. That readiness score is only as accurate as the data the band collects and the algorithm programmed to analyze it. In my experience, I’ve run into more players who are under-training, not over-training. Coaches and trainers should also share this data wisely with their players when it’s tournament time. How will a player react mentally if the band tells them they are not ready to perform their best, but they have to tee it up in the morning?

In light of the foregoing, it’s likely that technological advancements have, once again, created another pathway for individuals to more efficiently and effectively tap into the performance potential.  Indeed, while it’s great to set smartphone reminders to call it a night and get some sleep, some people (myself included) would take such advice more seriously if it illustrated that I haven’t fully recovered and, as a result, won’t be able to bring 100% with me to the gym or the course.

Cover Image Via Instagram