If there’s one thing we know about the royal family, they love a health tracker. Whether it’s Queen Camilla’s Fitbit or Prince Harry’s favorite Oura Ring, the famous family are evidently health-conscious and on top of the latest fitness technology. 

It seemed as though they already had the market covered on health trackers; that is, until Prince William was spotted wearing the WHOOP 4.0 band in July this year, cheering England on at a soccer match against Switzerland.

I was intrigued by the simple fitness band the Prince sported, as he had spirited reactions to his team winning the Euro game. The band appeared to have no interface and was also spotted on the wrists of Olympic runner Sha’Carri Richardson, soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo, and basketball hero LeBron James. 

After seeing Prince William’s fitness tracker of choice, I tested it out for myself to see if it really was worth the price tag. 

What does WHOOP do?

WHOOP is a wearable fitness tracker that tracks three key health phases in your body: rest, strain, and recovery, in order to optimize your performance and improve your health overall. It claims to be one of the “most powerful, most accurate, and most wearable human performance tools you can buy,” according to the website.

It also uses AI to give personalized health advice, like whether you should do a HIIT workout that day or opt for a recovery walk after a big week. The WHOOP has a portable charging pack so that you never have to take it off and interrupt the data collection, and there are accessory options for purchase, like a sports bra or boxers, that you can put your watch in if the band isn’t doing it for you.   

It is also water resistant up to ten metres [32 feet], further proving it is the most wearable tracker on the market. WHOOP works on a subscription basis; a 24-month membership is $399 USD, an annual membership is $239 USD, and a monthly subscription is worth $30 USD. There is a one-month free trial, and the subscription includes the watch itself, so it is nice not to have to buy it separately and let it collect dust if you decide not to use it. 

The Verdict: Strain

© Max Mumby/Indigo

The tracker calculates strain by measuring your cardiovascular load and is split into four categories: Light (a score of 0-9.9), Moderate (10-13.9), Strenuous (14-17.9) and All Out (18-21). Your optimal strain level is based on your recovery, so if you push yourself too hard one day, the tracker advises a lower strain level the next day. 

Full disclosure: I am neither a gym girl nor do I plan to be in the future. I work out once or twice a week when I can find the time, and this consists of a fairly breezy run or a scenic walk with friends. In this way, I think I am unique to many WHOOP wearers, who are elite athletes, frequent gym-goers or members of the royal family. 

I do have a busy and often high-stress lifestyle, meaning that my strain levels weren’t always on the low end, but, on average, it sat at about 10. Overall, the strain data didn’t really affect me, as it was often at a healthy level; the only time it was relevant to my life was if I had done a tough run and needed to take the next day off for recovery (as per the WHOOP fitness coach). 

It is likely more important for people like Prince William, who reportedly leads quite an active lifestyle. He is said to be an avid runner, swimmer, and polo player, and of course, joined the RAF in 2009- the fitness test required for entry is no joke.  

The Verdict: Rest

© Kensington Palace

As a casual exerciser leading a chaotic lifestyle, the data on rest and sleep was the most relevant for me. Used to the sleep metrics provided by my old Fitbit, the WHOOP pleasantly surprised me in this area as it went a step further, providing useful sleep data like my sleep debt and optimal wake times.  

WHOOP aims to measure sleep quality and provide personalized sleep recommendations, which was my favorite feature by far. It tracks the different sleep stages [like REM, deep sleep, etc.] and your sleep efficiency, and gives you a performance score to help you aim for consistency.  

As someone who has struggled with sleep their entire life, I was excited about the in-depth data this band provides, particularly the sleep debt feature. It made me more aware of my sleep hygiene and how I was sacrificing precious sleep time to complete my work or socialize with friends. 

I also enjoyed the feature that calculates what time you should hit the hay in order to wake up when you need to, with an inbuilt alarm that buzzes on your wrist if you so choose. It also acknowledged that not everyone can achieve 100% perfect sleep every night, so featured options for 85% of sleep needs and 70% to “get by”. I was also pleasantly surprised when my WHOOP measured a nap I had on a particularly exhausting day, something that my Fitbit never did. 

I imagine the sleep tracking feature is also crucial for Prince William, as a father of three and the future King of England- if anyone needs to get enough sleep, it’s him! 

The Verdict: Recovery

© Sam Barnes

According to the website, WHOOP “quantifies how your body is adapting to various stressors–for everything from training for elite athletic competition, to even just working from home in your sweats.” The latter was much more relevant to my life, so it was nice that lifestyle stressors accounted for my recovery score and not only exercise- it felt more accurate and personalized. 

The band measures recovery by combining heart rate variability, resting heart rate, sleep performance and respiratory rate to give you a score up to 99%. It is then color-coded into green [primed to perform and well-recovered], yellow [can take a moderate amount of strain] or red [rest and rejuvenate]. 

The data that most affected my recovery score was sleep, as I am not an avid exerciser. After some particularly bad nights, my recovery score would be as low as 11%, meaning I absolutely needed to rest and recover the next day. It helped to visualize this in the app, as I used to ignore my body’s need for rest in favor of getting more work done or staying out later with friends. My average recovery score was 55%, meaning I balanced strain and sleep relatively evenly to let my body recover enough to lead my busy life. 

This feature would be invaluable for someone like the Prince as his demanding lifestyle probably requires a lot of recovery time; after all, his average number of public engagements per year sits at a whopping 203.  

Pros of WHOOP

© Jean Catuffe

The WHOOP definitely provides more in-depth data than a Fitbit, so if you’re a gym junkie, training for a marathon or an elite athlete, it’s perfect for you. I found that the data was more accurate during my runs than the Fitbit, and even when I forgot to log that I was starting an activity, it recorded and logged it for me anyway.

There are also an incredible amount of activities to choose from, with everything from babywearing to breathwork to dance to Gaelic football. I really liked that the WHOOP acknowledges so many activities that we wouldn’t usually think of as high-intensity, like manual labor, high-stress work, and even dedicated parenting. 

One of my favorite features of the WHOOP was the journal option, which allowed you to enter other environmental factors about your day into the app to gain more accurate advice on recovery, strain and rest. 

I enjoyed taking the time to fill out the journal, where you could tick boxes like “commuted to work”, “connected with family and/or friends”, and “consume fruit and/or vegetables”. It sounds like a small thing, but taking stock of the day was nice and helped me become more aware of how I was feeling in myself. 

Cons of WHOOP

© Stephen McCarthy

WHOOP does have a few drawbacks that would be remiss to ignore. Firstly, the fact that there is no interface on the tracker itself can be quite frustrating, especially during the middle of a run when you want to check your heart rate or calories burnt. In order to check any stats, you have to open the app, which is inconvenient when you’re on the move. Imagine a swimmer trying to check their stats in the pool! 

If you like having no distractions during your workout, maybe this is the best choice for you. It also doesn’t track your step count, so if you’re looking to hit a step goal every day, look elsewhere.  

While the tracker is water resistant, the band itself is very slow to dry and gives your wrist an uncomfortable, squelchy, damp feeling for at least two hours after going in the water with it. I began to take it off when I showered for this reason, even though you are encouraged to leave it on at all times. Again, if you are a swimmer, this is probably not the tracker for you.

While the portable charging pack is convenient, it seems to require charging more often than I thought it would. It claims to remain charged for five days, but I found I was charging mine every three or so days even though I wasn’t doing intensive workouts every day. This is a minor gripe but an annoying one nonetheless.  

The final verdict

As a casual exerciser, the WHOOP watch is not worth the price tag for me. However, if you are an elite athlete, a frequent gym goer with a busy lifestyle, or even training for a marathon, this is the perfect tool to help you achieve results while still finding time to rest and recover. 

The data is quite accessible, even for someone like me, and I’m sure it would be my best friend if I decided to run the London Marathon next year. For Prince William, it is likely beneficial to his busy lifestyle and reminds him to rest and rejuvenate in order to perform at the top of his game.