I’m having a recurring issue with heart rate accuracy when running.
I wear a WHOOP Peak 5.0 with the bicep band (tight, correctly positioned on the inner biceps) together with a Garmin Forerunner 255 on the wrist. Consistently, Garmin shows a smooth, believable HR curve that matches perceived effort and breathing, while WHOOP often reports unrealistic spikes and long stretches in higher zones.
The result is that Strain and Recovery on WHOOP are distorted by HR artefacts, and runs are classified as much harder than they actually are. Ironically, my wrist-based Garmin is proving more reliable than WHOOP on the bicep, which is supposed to be the “better” placement.
So, to the WHOOP team:
-
Are you aware of these HR artefact issues in running with the bicep band, and is there work underway to improve the Peak 5.0 algorithms for runners?
-
Is there any roadmap for a WHOOP chest strap or a more robust HR sensor option for running, for people who need trustworthy zone training?
I really like WHOOP for sleep, recovery and long-term trends, but at the moment it’s hard to trust the running intensity data.
