Garmin vs Whoop Band - HRV, Training Readiness, Sleep, and Recovery Compared!

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[jonathanryder]

Thanks for doing this comparison. Great work. 
You asked why your Whoop HRV data were apparently less consistent over the past week than your Garmin HRV data. There are a few reasons. 
1. Most importantly, your Whoop data is just from the previous night, but the results you were looking at on your Garmin were rolling 7 night averages ('rolling' means that on any day, the average is adjusted to take in only the 7 most recent nights' data). To unpack this: as a rule, averages calculated over 7 nights will always show less variation, night to night, than data collected after a single night. That mostly explains why you saw more consistent values from one night to the next on your Garmin (because those values were all averages from the preceding 7 nights). 
2. As an aside, Garmin use HRV data collected over the whole night, whereas Whoop focus in on just your deep sleep to determine HRV. The companies give their own rationales for taking these different approaches (whole night vs. deep sleep only), and there are pros and cons to each approach; neither is really 'right', they're just different. But Whoop's aim is try to cut down some of that variation you see in a single night when you look at your HRV status on your Garmin, to facilitate night-by-night comparison. 
3. One other thing to note, is the that you can make the overnight HRV data show on Garmin connect by clicking 'Overnight Averages': that shows you the individual, night by night values (averages from all the values in a single night), as an overlay on the same graph. If you click that, you'll have a better way of comparing what your Whoop and Garmin are measuring. One caveat is that given that Whoop and Garmin take a different approach to collating your nightly data (deep sleep vs. whole night), you'll certainly see some differences between the two brands, and that difference doesn't necessarily have any bearing on accuracy - i.e. which device is giving you a more meaningful handle on your HRV.

[michaelhardie]

All I know, my Garmin showed my stress level as abnormally high and I tested positive for Covid. When it went back to normal levels I tested negative. So let's just say I'm sold on Garmin more than ever

[AlexejSailer]

I'm wearing the garmin each night and switching from my right to left arm, the HRV status is the reason why I bought it. Its a perfect indecator of your overall health. It shows sickness, alcohol recovery and for sure training recovery :) Just trying to keep myself balanced changed my life, I know when to train and when to rest. I know when to highly perform at my job and when to do sports and rest. If you are stressed from you office job you will sie HRV also declining, but doing the write amount of sport and relaxing will push it in balanced state. So relaxing or doing the right portion of sport will increase it. Will never miss that value again. Thx for this channel, so I could get a Garmin, it is a perfect personal motivation for me.

[Ryezn]

I'm never paying a subscription, so it doesn't matter how good whoop is at certain metrics.

[awakiki]

Spent 18 months with whoop and loved it... but fenix 7 is next level! The new readiness/hrv score and improvements to rep tracking in strength training are awesome. It just needs a few of the whoop features you mentioned like sleep recommendation and also smart alarm options. Real time body battery and stress scores through the day on garmin make it more useful than whoop for training and energy management day to day imo. Plus no subscription and high resale value on the watch 👌

[geoffkip]

For garmin you were looking at the 7day average. To get the overnight averages shown on the daily reports you need to click the overnight averages button. Probably explains why it looks more consistent on garmin compared to whoop

[TatumVayavananda]

I love these comparison videos. I know you probably have data on what videos people watch and what people don't, but if you're open to suggestions, I would LOVE you to do a video on how you use Garmin's health indicators data to program and train. I love getting all this data from my device, but I've had trouble synthesizing the feedback I'm getting to my actual training methodology (for example, I'm glad my Training Status is "Balanced" but what do I do to make it change, how should it change how I program my week of running/workouts, etc.) I know it's a bit of a newbie question but I thought I'd just throw it out! Keep doing what you do; you are such a gem in the community and you've given me such great insight on how to spend my money!

[tdone]

I love my Garmin. The HR, just from the watch can be a little off at times. I do have the band quite loose, which may be a factor. It's cheaper to buy and own a watch, you can add apps onto the Garmin. WHOOP is expensive for me. Really good video....proved to me my Garmin is better for me. I have the Fenix 6 pro. I do like the sleep monitor on the WHOOP

[jarretgosbee]

I got the instinct 2 after learning it would get the hrv data and joined the public beta. I was "balanced" since it started giving my reading. Then my kid started daycare. It gave me an "unbalanced" on Wednesday. Thursday I had a bit of a dry/scratchy throat. Friday Saturday were full on man colds. I skipped my Friday beers and immediately got on fluids and rest starting Wednesday.

[Justaurelie]

Whoop samples HRV only during deep sleep whereas Garmin samples it throughout the whole night. That might be why you see such a difference! 😉 Great video as usual, thanks. 👍🏻

[dineshnadar]

Loved the comparison. I will definitely go with the Whoop as being a cyclist I have the Karoo 2 for my bike rides and have the Apple Watch Ultra for my call and message notifications during work hours. Whoop being lightweight can wear it 24x7.

[leocmen]

In my case, Garmin was able to tell me twice, that I was sick before I even feel any symptom... definitely they are doing something right with HRV

[BrianAThomas]

For HRV. Perhaps a Polar H10, and the free Elite HRV app. See how that measures things, then compare that results to the Whoop and Garmin, and see who's closer. The Polar is going to give far more accurate results than a wrist based measure, and Elite HRV gives a good way to track it each morning.

[mayorus]

Great review sir... I actually have the Garmin fr 955, the Garmin hrm pro plus and the whoop 4.0 and I've been wearing both 24/7 the last few weeks... Honestly it's simple... Whoop tracks your sleep way better than Garmin does.... Garmin will track your activities way better than whoop ever will... That's what it comes down to... Whoop will even pick up naps Garmin will not.... So if you're more about your running and workout data get the Garmin, if you're wanting to track your sleep accurately get the whoop...

[giampaolocaputi]

Great! Thanks for this video. Garmin for me, no doubt.

[EuropaChronicles]

I’m really excited. I’ve owned a Fenix 3HR since it was released in early 2016 and just purchased a Tactix 7 Pro online. I’ve been interested in trying out HRV for years but a) couldn’t justify the cost and b) didn’t want to wear the Whoop band and a watch (Whoop would be smart to add smartwatch functions to the next generation).

Now I get a huge upgrade from my current watch that will be better in every way, AND I’ll get HRV tracking which seems to be comparable to the Whoop.

[atmamont]

All of this is already available on Fenix and Epix for a month or so through beta program

[chrisking]

Great video— some compelling reasons to consider Garmin!

[Nonixification]

My new Garmin 955 made my Oura ring useless, love it!

[cngz.]

This kind of test should be between 3 devices/data. It makes sense to build a quorum with 3 devices. When you see a difference between deep sleep analysis, you can find potentially 2 data points closer to each other and it would give you an idea which device is not measuring correctly.Thank you for the review.