Whoop is one of our top wearables — but you can get most of its features via a select group of Apple Watch apps
The Whoop 4.0 is one of the best wearables out there—I should know, I’ve used it for over three years. Its unique balance of insights offers a window into health and wellness and has left the Apple Watch playing catch-up in recent years.
But I also wear an Apple Watch. It’s an expensive compromise, and wearing two wrist devices is dorky, but I love the workout tracking and smart elements of Apple’s smartwatch.
And that led me to wonder—which apps and services does the Apple Watch need to replicate Whoop’s insights? The App Store means the capabilities of the Apple Watch are almost limitless. The downside, of course, is that all of these insights are spread over many apps.
But here are the key options to make your Apple Watch more Whoop-like.
Read the reviews: Apple Watch Series 10 tested | Two years living with the Whoop 4.0
Strain
Athlytic ($29.99/£29.99 per year) is pretty much a Whoop alternative in its own right, and will also analyze sleep, HRV recovery, trends, and workout performance. You can do most of the analysis below in one place — and for the most part, its data is useful.
It’s particularly geared to workout analysis and recovery, and like Whoop offers exertion scores based on your workouts. It’s not as holistic as Whoop, which will add non-tracked workouts and general activity into the score.
Read next: Best Apple Watch apps you need to download
Apple has moved to add Training Load data to the Apple Watch via watchOS 11, and also replaces some of the utility of Whoop’s Strain core natively. It will look at the amount of workouts you’re doing and tell you how that compares to previous weeks. It’s not a direct replica of the Strain core, but Whoop advises a daily strain target, so this does fill some of the gap.
It also combines sleep and recovery data in one place—so if you’re looking for a one-stop-shop for Whoop functionality, Athlytic does the job.
Recovery
Athlytic covers many of Whoop’s features, and also offers a singular recovery score based on HRV. But there is one app that does this specific analysis better: Training Today.
Training Today (£2.95/month) quietly works in the background, mining data from Apple Health and turning it into an analysis of your HRV. It’s a little pricey given what you get in Athlytic, but it has some unique features.
Unlike Whoop, it offers a semi-real-time analysis of your HRV and training readiness. This means not only can you see how recovered you are on a given day, but also within the day. So if your HRV rebounds later in the day from getting rest and eating well, or plummets for other reasons, you can plan your session accordingly. By comparison, Whoop only gauges your HRV while you sleep, your score remains static until the next morning.
Sleep
Apple Watch sleep tracking has improved a little over the years, now featuring sleep staging and important bedtime consistency metrics.
But that falls short of Whoop, which offers insights on sleep latency, efficiency, and the crucial sleep need vs. actual sleep.
The App Store has plenty of alternatives. We’ve tested the best sleep tracking apps for Apple Watch and our top pick would be Rise. It has a subscription (a punchy $69.99 a year), but the visualizations and data are some of the best on Apple Watch. If you prefer a one-time purchase, try AutoSleep, which is simpler but packed with data.
Health Metrics
This one is easy. The Health Monitor on Whoop provides a quick overview of your core vitals and how they compare to your baselines, including breathing rate, resting heart rate, temperature, blood oxygen, and heart rate variability.
Apple has moved to add similar functionality, so an update to watchOS 11 will yield the Vitals app. It also tracks these metrics and alerts you if two or more are outside of your normal range, which can be a significant sign of illness or fatigue.
Strength Trainer
Whoop’s Strength Trainer could be improved, but it does a good job of guiding you through weight workouts and adding the effects to your strain score.
The Strong app (Free) can fill this role on the Apple Watch, letting you follow sets and build a workout. It’s not exactly a rep counter, but you can easily record the weights and sets you complete. This essentially covers the main aspects of Strength Trainer.
Health Metrics
While the Apple Watch has Mindfulness apps, it doesn’t track stress like Whoop’s Stress Monitor. We tried StressWatch from the App Store (Free), which offers guidance on stress levels and advice on how to manage them. It will also periodically reveal your stress using the color-coded scale shown above and enables you to dive into an HRV history as well.
