It has been three and a half years since the release of WHOOP 4.0, and while we thought it was great at the time, I didn’t continue to use it because I didn’t see the value for me, as the yearly fee was steep.

Now, a couple of health scares later, I wish I had been using it.  For this reason, I was excited to check out the new WHOOP MG when they sent it to me a few days before release.

Now there’s no use testing out a high-end health band like the WHOOP MG over just a couple of days or even a couple of weeks, because they start to bring their to value to the fore once they’ve had time to analyse your health and your exercise and sleep patterns over time and calibrate itself to you.

I purchased a WHOOP body arm sleeve or bicep band to allow me to use the WHOOP MG while weight training, and I was even able to use it while playing basketball in competition, something I’ve been unable to do before.  

WHOOP MG

The new iteration of WHOOP is WHOOP 5.0 and WHOOP MG with the MG standing for medical grade.  While we were only sent the MG version, apparently, when on the wrist, they look essentially the same.

The difference is in the hardware with the MG version offering the ability to perform ECG, provide irregular heart rhythm notifications and blood pressure insights.  In Australia though, the heart screener with ECG and the irregular heart rhythm notifications are not available at this stage.  

Regulatory approval for these two features is pending and is expected to be available later this year.  ECG measurement has already been approved in the US, the EU, and the UK.  

The WHOOP MG is reportedly 7% smaller than the WHOOP 4.0, but when viewed up close and on the wrist, it feels significantly smaller than that.  Even with the smaller size, it has a faster processor and more sensors inside than the previous generation.

The battery pack this year has also been improved with a Bluetooth signal that displays the battery percentage on your phone and also the ability to hold a charge for over 30 days.  The battery pack was able to charge my WHOOP MG twice, which is impressive considering its small size.  

WHOOP say the battery pack and WHOOP MG will provide up to 14 days of battery life but I’ve seen much more than that – possibly because ECG and BP are yet to be implemented on mine (and others within Australia).  The battery pack is charged using a standard USB-C cable.

Fitness and Health

In the past, WHOOP has been recommended specifically for elite athletes; however, this year’s edition is also designed for the mainstream, featuring three new membership tiers and advanced health metrics for the average person, in addition to advanced fitness metrics.

As mentioned above, you expect to be able to get full features operational for the WHOOP MG when you take it out of the box.  Many of the features are based on your baseline and medical history. 

A quick overview of how long it takes each feature to be available can be seen in the list below:

First Week

  • Strain Coach → Starts working immediately but will fine-tune over your first few days
  • Heart Screener → Can be set up and used immediately
  • Sleep Performance → Provides estimates from day one and gets more accurate after five days
  • Haptic Alarm → Immediately of course
  • Hormonal Insights → Immediately and becomes smarter and more personalised each month.
  • Steps → Immediately
  • HR Zones → Immediately upon your first recorded activity and will track your time spent in each heart rate zone.
  • Journal (After one sleep) → choose behaviours to track daily and start learning how they impact you
  • Bedtime Recommendations (After three sleeps) → Suggests ideal bedtimes based on your recent sleep need and habits
  • Recovery Score (After three sleeps) → Continues to calibrate over your first month
  • Stress Monitor (After four sleeps) → Gives you a real-time view into your stress levels based on sleep, activity, and downtime
  • Health Monitor (After seven sleeps) → Tracks key vitals like resting heart rate, HRV, respiratory rate, and skin temperature
  • Plans (After seven sleeps) → Helps you build a personalised plan to reach your goals. 

First Month 

  • Behaviour Impacts → After logging at least five “yes” and five “no” answers for a behaviour, you’ll start to see how it affects your Recovery
  • Daily Outlook (10 sleeps) → Provides daily personalised workout recommendations and insights based on your metrics
  • VO2 Max (14 sleeps) → Unlocks after 14 nights and calibrates based on your past 3 months of workouts and Recovery data
  • Blood Pressure Insights (14 sleeps) → Delivers daily blood pressure insights upon waking. (Note: At launch, this will be after just 1 sleep) 
  • Healthspan → Unlocks after 21 sleeps in 28 days, with full calibration over the next few months

As you can see from the list above, the full featureset is quite extensive, and I’ll try to go over most of them in the space below, but I’d prefer for this review not to become an extended thesis so I’ll focus on what I believe are the most important features.  The advantage of the WHOOP over other health/fitness bands is that it not only measures and collects data but also analyses it to provide recommendations for your health and fitness/performance goals.

The three main sections at the top of the WHOOP app’s home page are Sleep, Recovery, and Strain.  These main sections are where it places each measurement for easy access and to help analyse your data.

Sleep

It appears that all fitness hardware is now focusing on sleep. Still, WHOOP not only measures sleep (including the various stages of sleep) but also sleep consistency, the amount of restorative sleep you get, and how much you need versus how much you get. This can be used to target your more strenuous workouts and also vice versa, so you can target your sleeping to the more critical workouts.

Recovery

This section includes the data collected that affects how well you recover.  These include heart rate variability, resting heart rate, respiratory rate, and sleep performance.  You can then tap into Recovery Insights to fill out the questionnaire to see how these behaviours affect your recovery, allowing you to adjust as required.

I liked that the app showed me just how far I had recovered, but most of the time I couldn’t be bothered filling out the questionnaire, so I didn’t get all that many insights.  For those serious about their training, it is essential to answer as many questions as possible to get the full value from the band. I will be doing this going forward when I am not under the pump as much.

Strain coach

This analysis takes into account several factors that can affect strain on your body to provide an overall score.  The coach then offers suggestions for how to improve this Strain value.

Health monitor

This is a collection of various health measurements, including heart rate, respiratory rate, SPO2, resting heart rate, heart rate variation, and skin temperature. This data can be collated into an overall health report to share with your health professional.

Heart screener – We are unable to use at this stage in Australia due to the inability to take on-demand ECG readings but I’ll revisit this if and when it becomes available here.  

Caffeine recommendations

This is one I probably should pay more attention to but WHOOP will tell you when your caffeine window closes – ie, at what time taking caffeine will affect your sleep.  There were times I thought “you can’t tell me what to do!” but it is for the best, apparently.  Sleeping is when you do most of your recovery and if you don’t sleep you don’t recover as well. Therefore, if you take caffeine too close to bedtime, it may not only affect the amount of sleep you get but also the quality of sleep.

Stress monitor

The stress monitor measures your stress levels throughout the day and night, including while you are sleeping.  WHOOP say that it determines how alert and activated your body is and that stress isn’t always something to avoid.  Not only does it do that but it offers insight into what affects your stress levels.  “WHOOP measures stress on a scale of 0 to 3 using motion, HRV and heart rate and the higher the score, the more activated you are.”

WHOOP includes some workout “sessions” in the app to help improve your stress if it is too low or too high with guided breathing sessions.

Behaviour impacts

This is for those who want extremely accurate recovery figures, but for me, I’m not into all that, so I didn’t bother filling out all the required questions.

VO2 Max

Although this unlocks after two weeks, you will have to wait until after three months worth of workouts and recoveries for it to fully calibrate.  Unfortunately due to a shoulder injury preventing me from running (yes, swinging the arms while running hurts), I have been unable to improve this VO2 Max estimation.  

Blood pressure insights

This requires three readings over three different days from proper BP cuff to be able to function but once unlocked it will give you an update once per day (upon waking).  It is currently in beta so don’t take it too seriously just yet. 

 “It provides insights to help you understand how blood pressure relates to your performance, recovery, sleep, and overall well-being, but it is not intended for medical diagnosis or treatment. If you have concerns about your blood pressure, we recommend consulting a healthcare professional​.”

As someone who has had BP issues in the past, the ability to track my blood pressure daily is a godsend.  While it may not be totally accurate at this stage, it gives you a trend of how you BP is tracking.

Hormonal insights

This feature is for the ladies, but it includes a new featureset to help you to “understand and optimise their performance in alignment with your unique hormonal cycle. By integrating menstrual cycle tracking, physiological metrics, and personalised coaching, Hormonal Insights empowers members with data-driven guidance tailored to their bodies.”

WHOOP uses AI and biometric data to provide “actionable insights” to help you train smarter and recover better based on where your hormones are at in your cycle

Healthspan – takes a while for this feature to unlock but when it does it gives you an overall view of your WHOOP age and pace of agfing.  It groups in a lot of the data from above to create this score and offers suggestions of how to improve that.  

For me, although my WHOOP age is 1.1 years younger than my current age, my pace of aging is 1.6X.  And for that reason, I’m pausing the typing of this review to go and jump on the exercise bike for a bit.  Other factors that affect it are sleep, strain and fitness measurements such as VO2 Max and RHR.”WHOOP Age reflects your last six months, while Pace of Aging is all about your most recent 30 days.”

This is where the WHOOP Coach comes in handy. I thought I exercised well. I do five weight workouts and two to three interval training cardio sessions per week but apparently that’s not enough.

According to the coach my recent habits are increasing my Pace of Aging. It told me what things I did resulted in an improvement in my WHOOP Age but not immediately why my Pace was increased. So I asked it — after all it is an AI feature. Apparently, I need to add a little more daily movement, squeeze in an extra strength or cardio session and get more consistent sleep.

WHOOP Coach — AI help and other insights within the app

A new addition this generation is the AI-powered WHOOP Coach.  This provides you with personalised advice and coaching to help you improve your performance.

Within each section of the app you can select to “Learn more with Coach”.  Tap on this and the WHOOP Coach will explain what the results mean – such as Recovery factors.  It will then give you recommendations to improve it for next time.  

From here you can then “Ask WHOOP anything,” and the AI Coach will respond with the best answer they can come up with.  It is quite helpful.  I asked my Coach if I should exercise this afternoon and he/she/it said yes and then detailed what level of strain exercise I should do.  

The more you put into the WHOOP device, AI and app, the more you will get out of it.  

Pricing

There are three levels of WHOOP membership, with each one coming with a free device – which device you get is based on which level you purchase.   You can see the difference in features in the table below.

WHOOP One will cost you AU$299 per year and comes with a WHOOP 5.0 device.  

WHOOP PEAK is AU$419 per year and also comes with a WHOOP 5.0 device.

If you want the WHOOP MG you will need to purchase the WHOOP LIFE subscription which is a tough sell in my opinion.  In Australia, at this stage, you do not get ECG readings and Irregular Heart Rhythm Notifications which leaves the only difference between the LIFE and PEAK levels being the daily BP insights – currently in Beta.  

There is no way to buy the MG device on the website separately, so I dare say your best bet would be to purchase the PEAK subscription and then when the ECG does become available, consider whether you need the added ECG features and then think about upgrading your membership.  For my mind, it is only worth it if you have a known heart condition where ECG monitoring will help keep track of it and give you peace of mind.  Until then, the availability of BP insights (the only other difference) doesn’t seem to make the extra outlay of funds worthwhile. 

Personally, I will consult with my cardiologist at the end of this trial membership to determine whether the full LIFE membership would be of value to me and he says it will then it will be a small price to pay for that peace of mind and extra health surveillance.

If your goals are improved health and fitness with insights into your health data and how to improve it then, for me, the PEAK tier membership offers the best value for money.

Upgrading?

At first the upgrade option from WHOOP 4.0 to 5.0/MG was based on how long you had been a WHOOP member but after some backlash, the pathway is now a lot easier.  You can see the options in the table below (prices are in USD so that will differ here in Australia):

If you head into the app and select ‘My Account’ and ‘Membership’ you’ll be able to see if you’re eligible for an upgrade.

Accessories

There are a lot of different bands and wearable WHOOP holders you can buy to help you workout while also wearing your device.  As mentioned above, I purchased an arm sleeve which allows me to wear my WHOOP MG while working out – I use various wrist straps and wraps while working out so cannot wear anything around the wrist.

The various WHOOP bands are not cheap, with the cheapest 5.0 band I could find on the website starting at AU$79.  I’m not sure how this price is justified but maybe choose carefully the band you want when you first sign on to a membership and then look to third-party sellers in the future when they are available if you aren’t keen on that price.

One thing to be wary of is that the bands can break.  I tugged on the silver clasp on my black band a bit too hard and separated the clasp from the band.  So far I have been unable to put it back together.  I did pull on it pretty strongly as I thought it wasn’t inserted onto the device properly so beware that you don’t do this as well.  Luckily WHOOP sent a spare green band to me in the first place so I was able to complete the review.

What I loved and how I’m going to continue to use WHOOP MG in the future

The 2025 WHOOP upgrade is significant, marking a transition from a device for elite athletes to a broader community health and fitness device.  The best new features include Healthspan, the Health Monitor and Stress Monitor.  For those like me who like to optimise performance, the recovery status is also handy.  All of these features are included in the PEAK membership and the standard WHOOP 5.0 device.

Every single one of these are something I will continue to use.  My main goals will be focused on Healthspan and stress monitor to continue to recover as fast as possible to allow me to exercise to optimal levels which will in turn improve stress and more importantly, Healthspan.  

To get the most out of the WHOOP MG/5.0 device I will continue to fill out the journal questionnaire every day and ask the AI Coach for help as much as possible – it’s there so why not?  

WHOOP used to be just for the elite athletes (and the wannabes) but now it is for everyone. The transition from in-depth recovery device to overall and comprehensive health and fitness device has been a sudden one but I’m here for it. Previously, I thought that the WHOOP devices were more than I actually needed, but now with all the new features, especially the Health Span measurements and the upcoming ECG measurements, it is for me.

For me, my health these days is less about performance but more about improving my length and quality of life. The WHOOP 5.0/MG will do just that for you. The list of measurements and data collected is extensive with the more you put into the device, the more you get out of it.

The new AI WHOOP COACH offers not just insight into your results but also suggestions on how to improve them. This is a prominent feature for the average folk like myself and is what sets it apart from the myriad of other wearable fitness devices on the market.

There are now three different levels of WHOOP membership, making it much more affordable for the average person — WHOOP ONE, PEAK and LIFE. They range from AU$299 for the basic ONE membership up to AU$629 for the comprehensive LIFE membership. If ECG measurement and daily BP insights is not your thing then LIFE is not needed — ECG is not available just yet so that may sway your decision to begin with.

WHOOP LIFE does require a WHOOP MG device but you do get it when you sign up for the LIFE membership. A WHOOP 5.0 arrives with the other two memberships.

WHOOP MG is the most fully-featured health and fitness tracker on the market and while it is not cheap, what price your health? $12 a week is what WHOOP LIFE will cost you — just $8 per week for the PEAK membership.

If you are looking for a comprehensive fitness tracker then you should be looking at getting a WHOOP membership. WHOOP do offer a one-month free trial. For more information and to purchase your own WHOOP device head over to WHOOP.com.