WHOOP Podcast

Steve Weatherford, who won Super Bowl XLVI with the Giants in 2012, returns to the WHOOP Podcast for a discussion on mindset, fitness, and Super Bowl LVI. Steve spent 10 years as a punter in the NFL, and was twice voted the fittest man in the league. He had one of the best performances of his career in the Super Bowl, but explains why that didn’t fulfill him at the time and what he’s learned about mental health since that moment. Steve discusses his road to athletics and why he had an unhealthy relationship with sports (6:33), searching for meaning (8:52), winning the Super Bowl (10:32), finding purpose (12:40), having a health and wellness mindset (17:25), focusing on the important things (20:45), picking the Bengals (26:18), and the importance of rest (30:02).Support the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn 

Dr. Andy Walshe sits down with Kristen Holmes for an in-depth discussion on stress and strain and how it affects your body. Dr. Walshe has spent his career at the cutting edge of human performance. He is the co-founder of The Liminal Collective, a global community united by passion for human performance, and is the former Director of High Performance for Red Bull, where he helped Felix Baumgartner jump to earth from a helium balloon in the stratosphere. He discusses individual response to strain (5:55), hidden stress (8:05), the benefits of stress (11:34), how our mindset is based on a survival mechanism (15:50), how strain fuels improvement (21:38), cognitive strain (24:31), the importance of creativity (33:07), and how creativity equals courage (36:10). Support the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn 

Dr. Hazel Wallace, also known as The Food Medic, sits down with Kristen Holmes for an in-depth discussion on nutrition, exercise, and the keys to strong habit formation. Hazel explains her inspiration for going into medicine (2:20), why small improvements are critical to long-term success (6:30), the role sleep plays in metabolism (8:42), meal timing and sleep (10:52), why diet results are highly personal (13:53), gender differences in nutrition (17:00), training while fasting (20:10), behavior change and habit formation (28:50), and the importance of simplifying your processes (31:16).Support the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn 

Since the beginning of the pandemic, WHOOP has been conducting research to better understand how COVID can affect sleep and recovery, what physiological response vaccines produce, and perhaps most importantly, how COVID affects respiratory rate. Our latest WHOOP research shows that with the Omicron variant, like previous strains of the virus, COVID-19 infections often coincide with an increase in respiratory rate. WHOOP VP of Data Science and Research Emily Capodilupo returns to the podcast to detail our findings (3:34), why respiratory rate is so important to track (5:31), how men and women may see different data with Omicron (8:30), why you could see a respiratory rate dip after a spike (9:13), Omicron and the vaccines (14:23), factors that can increase your respiratory rate (18:34), the latest information on testing (20:07), and an update on WHOOP vaccine research (24:35). Support the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn 

CrossFit great Rich Froning talks about the mindset that has propelled him to greatness, and explains why his drive to win and his disdain of losing has fueled him for the last decade. He joins Mike Lombardi to detail how he found CrossFit (5:29), dealing with failure and disappointment (9:21), how he hates to lose (11:01), addressing weaknesses as an athlete (16:09), why having training partners is critical (21:00), performing with red recoveries (22:24), why he values team success over individual success (29:47), and what he's learned over the last 10 years about training (34:10). Support the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn 

World-class athletic performance trainer and coach Bobby Stroupe, best known for his work with Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes, shares his philosophies on coaching, athletic training, and high performance. He sits down with Mike Lombardi to discuss how he became a trainer (2:50), his work with Mahomes (8:42), why the mental component of high performance is just as critical as the physical aspects (14:18), gamifying recovery with WHOOP (17:43), how to react to red recoveries (19:16), understanding stress (25:08), his advice to coaches (28:37), and learning to accept different philosophies (32:27). Support the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn 

It’s hard to believe, 2021 is almost over. It’s been a huge year – for WHOOP and for the WHOOP community.  It goes without saying that so many of our guests have inspired us, have made us think, and have challenged us to be the best version of ourselves. This episode looks back at some of the standout moments from the podcast in 2021, including from Alex Honnold (2:04), Rich Roll (8:04), Steve-O (12:29), Dr. Jim Loehr on the performance mindset (15:13), Dr. Meeta Singh on the science of sleep (19:35), Patrick Mahomes (23:18), Eli Manning and Larry Fitzgerald (26:41), Tom Daley (28:32), Gabby Thomas (30:23), Emily Capodilupo on COVID vaccine research (32:08), and Dr. Stacy Sims on women's physiology and performance (34:26). Support the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn 

WHOOP members were busy in 2021--not only trying new things and getting out there, but also prioritizing their recoveries and sleep. Emily Capodilupo, our VP of Data Science and Research, returns to the podcast for an in-depth discussion on what data from 2021 tells us about the WHOOP community and the world as a whole. We saw our members had a “summer of fun,” with a significant increase in their recoveries and the number of times they reported having sex, as well as noticeable decreases in sleep, stress, and working late.  Our community-wide data also showed us which behaviors most positively and negatively affected both recovery and sleep efficiency. In addition, we saw a direct correlation between mental well-being and sleep across the WHOOP population. Emily and Will Ahmed discuss the uptick in people trying new activities and why that's important for our health (2:27), the summer of fun (6:30), understanding optimal sleep/wake time (10:17), the lowest recovery days of 2021 (11:50), the boost menstruation gives to recovery (13:44), how diet plays a role in recovery (15:36), how alcohol affects the body (18:48), why eating close to bedtime is a bad idea (21:03), and the role mental health plays with good sleep (24:50). Support the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn 

Larry Fitzgerald is one of the greatest football players of all-time – and his journey truly started at the bottom. He was a ballboy for the Minnesota Vikings when he was a teenager before spending 17 seasons in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals, where he finished second all-time in league history in catches and receiving yards. Larry explains why his drive to be great in football extends to every other aspect of his life. He discusses what it was like to learn from the pros as a kid (4:05), how military academy gave him the structure to succeed (7:34), overcoming doubt in college (13:24), his relationship with his father and how he thinks about parenting his kids (16:30), the high performance mindset (19:51), advice to live by from his grandmother (23:59), losing his mom to breast cancer and how he goes about honoring her (28:48), taking care of your body (31:26), success over the long haul (32:23), discovering WHOOP (35:49), how WHOOP helped him with sleep apnea (36:20), the importance of sleep and health in every day life (41:23), and how an internship he did in the height of his football career changed his life (45:32).Support the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn 

On this week’s podcast, we’re talking about how hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle produce highly individual physiological responses that affect training and sleep needs. We have launched a new feature in the WHOOP app – menstrual cycle coaching – which provides personalized sleep and strain recommendations to those who menstruate based on where they are in their monthly cycle. That feature – and this conversation – are based on groundbreaking research conducted by WHOOP and leading female physiology expert Dr. Stacy Sims, who returns to the podcast for an in-depth discussion on this topic with WHOOP VP of Performance Kristen Holmes and WHOOP VP of Data Science and Research Emily Capodilupo. They talk about why women and coaches need to have more information about the menstrual cycle (3:23), what WHOOP has learned through research of the cycle (8:08), how the pill affects your training (10:49), understanding the phases of the cycle (15:23), training periodization (20:25), alleviating PMS symptoms (24:19), how ibuprofen affects the body (29:29), why periods are a sign of good overall health (32:09), debunking the myths of the menstrual cycle, and why tracking your cycle is critical to high performance (40:30).Support the showFollow WHOOP:Sign up for WHOOP Advanced LabsTrial WHOOP for Freewww.whoop.comInstagramTikTokYouTubeXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen Holmes:InstagramLinkedInFollow Emily Capodilupo:LinkedIn