Hello WHOOP team,
I use Strength Trainer regularly as part of a structured lifting program, and I think it has a lot of potential. The main issue for me is not the concept itself, but the amount of friction during the workout.
The single most important improvement would be a better rest timer workflow.
Right now, having to manually manage the set flow is too heavy in a real gym session. In practice, I often forget to interact with the app at the right moment, especially when I am also logging my numbers in another app. The biggest issue is rest time: if I forget to launch it, or if I do not get a clear alert when it ends, I easily go over my planned pause without noticing.
What would feel much more natural is this flow:
finish set → validate set → rest timer starts automatically → alert/vibration when rest is over → validate end of rest → next set
The key point is that I do not want the next set to start fully automatically. I want the rest timer to start automatically after I validate the end of a set, then I want a vibration/alert when rest is over, and finally I want to manually confirm the end of the rest period (either from the band or from the phone) before moving into the next set.
That would keep the user in control while removing the most repetitive and easy-to-forget actions during a workout.
A second major improvement would be to better distinguish between previous performance and today’s target.
Seeing the previous session is already useful, but it would be much better if Strength Trainer could also show or pre-fill the intended target for the current workout. In structured training, the previous session is a reference, but what really matters during the workout is knowing what I am aiming for today.
This would become even more useful with semi-automatic progression targets.
For example, with a 6–10 rep range, the app could suggest the next logical target based on the previous session, and once all sets reach the top of the range, suggest a small weight increase for the following workout.
The goal would not be to force progression automatically, but to turn existing workout data into a useful target for the current session. This would be especially valuable for people using double progression.
Another feature that would help a lot is the ability to add notes/comments at the workout or exercise level. For example: session feel, pain or discomfort, ROM or tempo notes, real RPE, technical adjustments, or reminders for next time. That kind of context is extremely useful in structured training and currently has to be tracked elsewhere.
I would also really appreciate body measurement tracking directly in WHOOP, such as waist, hips, thighs, arms, and chest. Weight, body fat, and lean body mass are useful, but circumference measurements give a much better long-term view of body recomposition.
Finally, I think the issue with exercises is less about creating workouts, since custom exercises already exist, and more about having a broader and more practical official exercise library, especially for common gym machine variations. It would also help if custom exercises could be mapped more clearly and reliably when there is no close official exercise available.
Overall, my biggest request is simple: reduce friction during the workout itself and make Strength Trainer more useful for real structured progression over weeks and months.
Thanks for reading.