The Reebok Crossfit Games, Half-Ironman Nutrition, Elite Athlete Diets & More: A Conversation With The WHOOP Team

https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/whoop2

In the podcast episode WHOOP: The Performance Enhancing Wearable That Tells You When To Sleep, How To Exercise, Your Strain Levels & More!, I introduce you to Will Ahmed, CEO of WHOOP, the first scientifically-grounded, self-quantification system worn by a growing number of professional and recreational athlete. Will launched WHOOP out of the Harvard Innovation Lab with his co-founders John & Aurelian, when as captain of the Harvard Men’s Varsity Squash team, he became deeply interested in how strain, recovery and sleep affected an athlete’s performance. WHOOP is currently used by Olympians, military, the world’s top trainers, and teams across all major U.S. professional and collegiate sports leagues.

Since that podcast, Will has filled me in on how Crossfit athletes have been getting a ton of value out of the WHOOP, and introduced me to Mekenzie Riley, a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist by trade who has her license through the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, as well as both a Bachelors and Master’s degree in dietetics from Eastern Illinois University.  In 2016, she went to the Crossfit Games on Team OC3 Black, taking 5th place overall. Now in 2017, she been competing as an individual and finished third in the Atlantic Regional, punching her ticket to the 2017 Crossfit Games in Madison, WI. Will also introduced me to Seth Page, Owner and Co-Founder of Misfit Athletics (where Mekenzie trains). Misfit works with athletes of mixed modalities to prepare them to compete at the highest level in the sport of CrossFit. Seth started out in the more traditional field of fitness training in 2006 before transitioning to CrossFit in 2008, and began coaching athletes locally in 2009 as the sport began to gain traction. Since then, Seth and Misfit have worked with countless CrossFit Regionals and Games qualifiers. Seth's current focus includes experimenting with and refining programming for competitive athletes, all while training for his first Ironman race.

In today's podcast, I have Will, Seth and Mekenzie all on the show together to talk all things WHOOP and self-quantification for Crossfit, Ironman and beyond, including:

-Mekenzie's training protocol and qualifying strategy for the 2017 CrossFit Games...[14:30]

-How Seth tracks eight different athletes each day and which parameters he looks at to make training decisions "on the fly"...[16:40 & 19:45]

-How Seth differentiates between mental vs. physical fatigue...[26:30]

-How Seth is using Crossfit to train for Ironman triathlon...[29:20]

-Whether you need to be concerned about Bluetooth radiation or LED light signals from the WHOOP...[45:50 & 47:40]

-Mekenzie's approach when it comes to Seth's diet, and why she has transitioned him from “carb backloading” to a more traditional diet for endurance athletes...[51:00]

-How Seth and Mekenzie are using WHOOP to customize nutrition data...[60:00]

-And much more!

Resources from this episode: -WHOOP (use code GREENFIELD for $50 off at checkout) -Podcast: WHOOP: The Performance Enhancing Wearable That Tells You When To Sleep, How To Exercise, Your Strain Levels & More! -Article: The World On Your Wrist: How To Track Your Daily Strain, Recovery, Sleep & More (A Nerded Out Review Of The New WHOOP Wearable.)

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Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Will, Sam, Mekenzie or me? Leave your comments at BenGreenfieldFitness.com and one of us will reply!

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