I also have multiple friends with both AWs and whoop. Except for one, all of them have the exact same problem. And we all don’t know why it works for the one guy. But that one guy is also super tall, and has a pretty high baseline HR. Maybe that’s got to do with this.
Anyways, regarding the „tracking afterwards“ that’s basically the same as tracking during the workout. If the strength trainer knows the weights and reps it can include muscular strain and adjusts the total strain. That’s also why I must use the strength trainer, because otherwise whoop would calculate the strain for a really really heavy and intense workout over 90mins the same as a walk in the park because it never detects HR above 120. Maybe the walk in the park would be even more intense for whoop because without the spikes during a regular cardio session, it detects properly
Having the same problem. Today my strength trainer was stuck on 106 while my chest strap says I was at 154. Similar to you, it never seems to catch up to accurate heart rate until it comes back down. Has me rethinking renewing my subscription because there’s no way my data is accurate due to this.
Joining in on this..
A mate gifted me his old whoop 4.0 with a 2 month trial.
I’ve had it for almost two week.
I’ve been back and forth for three days with whoop having a similar issue to people in this thread.
The first week was fantastic, super accurate heart rate tracking through all workouts, the last three days however, it’s been reading up to 50bpm less than my true heart rate.
Response time from whoop is pretty slow, and despite doing all trouble shooting twice over, and whoop agreeing to replace the sensor if the problem persisted today, after showing then this morning that yet again it’s the same issue, they’re now saying it needs 2 more days to ‘calibrate’
As far as I’m aware, no wearable needs to ‘calibrate’ to your heart rate. Your heart beats, the sensor tracks it..
I was genuinely excited to use this device, but if it can’t even track a heart rate accurately, how accurate will the rest of the data truly be..?
Yeah I think this supports my assumption that theoretically the sensor should be able to read correctly and that it’s most likely a software thing.
So I still have a tiny bit of hope that this will get fixed if enough people complain. Even though whoop support says it’s a known issue of all wrist based optical sensors. But that’s just not true since every other device I’ve tried worked perfectly fine.
I tried my first strength trainer workout with a new whoop 5.0 to log my workout and my heartrate didn’t leave zone 1 while my Apple Watch was registering my actual effort(up to 148bpm). Left arm Apple Watch right arm whoop. What do you guys think about registering your weight lifting session as functional fitness instead of strength workout until it’s more reliable? Cuz if you look at my screen shot I was basically walking around the gym doing absolutely nothing but counting someone else’s reps and weight according to whoop.
Strength training - depending on the type of workout - doesn’t work good for me on the wrist, but it’s quite accurate with the biceps strap. So I always wear it and I get similar results regarding strain and muscular/cardio load distribution.
Totally agree with all of that. Tracking seems to be as accurate, if not more than Apple Watch outside of “strength trainer” for me. As a personal trainer, I monitor all the data pretty closely and it just doesn’t make sense that they can’t make strength trainer into a module that isn’t clunky with that. I also notice that sometimes my heart rate will stop reading mid workout and freeze on whatever HR reading was on there for the remainder of it. I have been using Whoop for over 2 years now and love it as an all encompassing wellness tool, especially with strength trainer. Just wish they could get that part straightened out with all the rest of the recent upgrades they’ve made.
I have the exact same experience. Both with the 4 and now the MG. It is extremely frustrating bc I feel like im being short changed and not accurately credited for my efforts.
I’ve had the exact same problem. Tried adjusting the band, switching wrists, shaving the area (though I’m not particularly hairy). Didn’t seem to make any difference. Whoop then calculates the number of calories you burned based on this incorrect data, and sends the “corrected” calorie value back to my Apple Watch–which I find annoying.
So, for example, my Apple Watch will have me at 200 calories at the beginning of a workout. Ill lift for an hour, and at the end the watch will say 600 calories. Whoop will then do some calculations based on my perceived Zone 1 heart rate and send info back to the Apple Watch will will suddenly show 400.
I’m experiencing a very similar issue with my WHOOP during strength training, especially when lifting near-maximal loads.
It feels like the WHOOP is filtering out too much of the short-term heart rate spikes that naturally occur during heavy lifting.
I’m wearing the WHOOP exactly in the biceps spot recommended by support.
Interestingly, after restarting the device recently, the heart rate spikes became even less noticeable. For example, during shoulder presses, my heart rate usually spikes to around 157 bpm for a few seconds (confirmed with my Apple Watch), but the WHOOP only shows 146 bpm before dropping back down. After the set, both devices sync up again and match.
When I do VO2 max training or cardio intervals, WHOOP does detect high heart rates correctly—but those spikes last longer, so I guess the algorithm handles them differently.
Since WHOOP samples at 52Hz, it should technically be able to capture short-term heart rate changes.
That’s why my assumption is: WHOOP is applying filtering that suppresses fast, brief HR peaks. And that’s exactly where the problem lies for strength training—we actually want to track these short, intense spikes.
I’ve noticed this filtering issue since I first received my WHOOP 5.0. To me, it even seems like the filtering has become more aggressive over time, especially during strength training.
I really appreciate WHOOP as a health and motivation tool—it’s excellent in so many areas. But this specific issue is frustrating because it makes part of the experience less meaningful for me.
I’d really appreciate support from WHOOP or insight on this!
