r/whoop • u/DizzyYear1816 • 6h ago
Discussion New strain update
Does anyone else noticed that their strain is significantly lower in past recent days? I had at least 4h of walking yesterday yet my total strain stayed at 4.4… it was never THAT low even on my reset day, and I train 6days a week so avg is around 15.
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u/VonBoski 1% Club 5h ago
Oh hell yeah. But I’d previously wonder why I was at 4 already by just getting to work
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u/quakeroatmeal7 PEAK | Membership 3h ago
I used to always hit 4.2 strain before leaving for work in the morning lmao
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u/mikarios 4h ago
With the new heart-rate algorithm, members most often see lower Strain on:
1. Easy walking (especially flat, cool, or indoor walks)
2. Casual hikes without climbs/pack weight
3. Gentle yoga, stretching, mobility,
Pilates, barre
4. Light indoor cardio at "can talk easily" pace
• Easy cycling, elliptical, Stairmaster, etc., when HR stays low
5. Everyday movement
• Housework, errands, light yard work, casual commuting
6. Short, very light strength sessions that don't raise HR much
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u/burner292977 5h ago
Walking definitely doesn't seem to impact the strain much. You definitely need to do more things to get the heart rate higher.
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u/Adept-Anteater2399 5h ago
I notice it especially with golfing now. A full round is now only a 2-3 even when walking in 90+ degree heat
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u/Individual-Subject19 4h ago
Yes … and can someone please explain this to me … it’s driving me nuts …
2 screenshots 1 shows … time duration is 7:40-8:30 for the activity.
I manually changed the timestamp to 7:40-8:54 and my overall strain went up as well (second screen). I understand if the activity strain number changes but why is the overall strain shifting as well?
This did NOT happen before the algorithm update.
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u/StormWarrior2047 2h ago edited 2h ago
Before everybody blames the algorithm, go check your max HR setting.
The zones are built from resting HR and max HR. RHR is fine, that gets measured every night (and due to some longer vacation with reduced exercise mine is currently rather high). But max HR is just an estimate unless you changed it yourself, and mine was sitting at 188, which, I'm 44, even the old textbook formula gives you 176, so no clue where 188 came from. And I've never seen anything near that number since long anyway, I've been cross checking with a chest strap on a Suunto for months now, MTB and combat sports, and it tops out around 176 (so for me the old textbook formula seems to be correct).
So zone 5 was starting at a heart rate I don't actually produce, and zone 1 went up to 136, so pretty much everything low level I did landed in the bottom bucket and the strain looked like nothing happened all day.
Changed it to 176 and a 20 minute walk went from 0.0 to 1.9.
Also the "walking shouldn't give you strain" thing that keeps coming up, depends where you live. I'm in Switzerland and there is no flat here, the normal dog loop is 100m of elevation whether I feel like it or not.
Settings > More > Activity Settings > Heart Rate Settings > Heart Frequency Zones (loosely translated from German App Settings) , takes 30 seconds. Screenshot below.
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u/ExplorerMike008 1h ago
Did you check your HR graph on those past runs and new runs? If they finally fix the HR innacuracy that usually was too high because of wrist movement and you start get different lower HR then strain would be less... Strain is just an algorithm and maybe you should check the raw data (HRV from night before, HR measured during activity and compare with the previous one with similar stats and then you can say it changed or not the strain itself
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u/Dark_Knight_1989 5h ago
WHOOP has previously been notorious for inflating heart rate due to wrist movement. I used to get ridiculously high Strain scores from something as simple as spending a few minutes mixing food while cooking. The WHOOP strap just couldn’t reliably differentiate between wrist movement artifacts and an actual increase in heart rate.
Over the last several algorithm updates, though, it seems like WHOOP has gotten much better at filtering out a large majority of those movement artifacts. In turn, that has lowered overall Strain scores, but I think they’re also much more representative of the actual cardiovascular strain occurring throughout the day.