How WHOOP Uses Big Data to Optimize Your Fitness and Health

<p>Most fitness gadgets, like the Fitbit or the Apple Watch, encourage you to get out there every day and “close your rings” or “do your 10,000 steps.” But there’s one activity tracker that’s a little different. The WHOOP isn't designed to tell you when to work out—it’s designed to tell you when to <i>stop. </i></p><p>Harry's guest this week is Emily Capodilupo, the senior vice president of data science and research at Boston-based WHOOP, which is based here in Boston. To explain why the company focuses on measuring what it calls <i>strain</i>, rather than counting steps or calories, she reaches all the way back to the beginning of the company in 2012. That’s when founder and CEO Will Ahmed had just finished college at Harvard and was looking back at his experiences on the varsity squash team. Ahmed realized that had often underperformed because he had overtrained, neglecting to give his body time to recover between workouts or between matches. To this day, WHOOP designs the WHOOP band and its accompanying smartphone software around measuring the physical quantities that best predict athletic performance, and giving users feedback that can help them decide how much to push or <i>not</i> push on a given day.</p><p>Capodilupo calls the WHOOP band “the first wearable that tells you to do less.” But it’s really all about designing a safe and effective training program and helping users make smarter decisions. Meanwhile, the WHOOP band collects so many different forms of data that it can also help to detect conditions like atrial fibrillation, or even predict whether you’re about to be diagnosed with Covid-19. It’s not a medical device, but Capodilupo acknowledges that the line between wellness and diagnostics is shifting all the time.  And with the rise of telemedicine, which is spreading even faster thanks to the pandemic, she predicts that more patients and more doctors will want access to the kinds of health data that the WHOOP band and other trackers collect 24/7. </p><p>The conversation touched on a very differe