WHOOP Podcast

This week's episode is a deep dive on sleep debt and how sleep deprivation affects your body. VP of Performance Kristen Holmes is joined by sleep expert Dr. Allison Brager, a neuroscientist and a Major with the United States Army. Dr. Brager's research has covered survival in extreme environments under sleep deprivation and stress, and serves on fatigue management and neuroenhancement working group for NATO, the Office of the Army Surgeon General, the Department of Defense, and NASA. She discusses what sleep debt is (3:38), why sleep need is highly individualistic (5:17), how mindset plays a role in sleep, recovery, and performance (13:00), what caffeine does to your body (16:48), sleep fragmentation (20:28), the toll sleeplessness takes on your body (23:06), sleep and wake timing (28:47), eating close to bedtime (35:05), and tips to manage insufficient sleep (37:54). Support the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

Robert Moeller, WHOOP Associate Vice President of Government and a former Navy SEAL, sits down with Coast Guard Commander Scott Austin for a discussion on leadership, performance, and how data can be used to help our servicemen and women. Commander Austin is a helicopter pilot who recently completed a study that evaluated how Coast Guard crew member perceptions of fatigue and alertness compared with WHOOP data on sleep and recovery. He discusses the treacherous conditions he and his crews often encounter during search and rescue missions (2:43), the danger fatigue can cause in aviation (7:54), the culture of sleeplessness in the military (11:00), his thoughts on strong leadership (14:55), the details of the study the Coast Guard conducted with WHOOP (18:43), what the study revealed (26:57), what can be learned from WHOOP (31:34), how fatigue affects your physiology (37:39), and the importance of sleep (41:32). Support the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

Olympic bobsledder Lauren Gibbs sits down with Mike Lombardi for a discussion on how it’s never too late to chart a new course for your life. Lauren started bobsledding at 30 years old, and less than 4 years later, she was representing the United States at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. She won a silver medal at those games with her teammate, Elana Meyers Taylor, and also won a gold medal at the 2020 World Championships. She discusses how she started bobsledding as "a joke" (2:35), finding your path in life (7:24), understanding your personal power (10:09), going "all in" (14:04), WHOOP and recovery (18:30), promoting parity in women's sports (25:34), body image and weight (31:32), how she found motivation on tough days (37:49), and how making little changes leads to major improvements (43:45).Support the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

The CrossFit Open begins this week, and we’re excited to have one of the best CrossFitters on the planet join us on the podcast – Noah Ohlsen. Noah won the Open in 2016 and has been a perennial contender in the CrossFit Games for years, finishing 2nd at the Games in 2019. He sits down with our resident CrossFit expert Mike Lombardi for a discussion that covers everything from overcoming disappointment, the power of a positive mindset, and understanding what’s really important as you pursue your goals in sport and in life. Noah details his goals in sport (2:17), his journey to CrossFit (6:43), getting to the CrossFit Games (9:24), pursuing his dream of a championship (11:29), why it's important to enjoy the process (13:49), reframing your training mindset (18:50), overcoming injury and disappointment (27:38), how the WHOOP Podcast inspired him to rethink his mental performance (29:25), and how he uses WHOOP in his day-to-day life (35:14).Support the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

Dr. Michele Lastella, a sleep and athletic performance researcher, joins VP of Performance Kristen Holmes to discuss the role of sexual activity in sleep quality, physiology, and emotional well-being. They explore the hormonal response triggered by sex, the reduction of sleep latency, sleep and libido, and the health-promoting aspects of sex. They also reveal new WHOOP insights on sex and masturbation data, discuss changing sex habits as we age, and examine the impact of events like Valentine's Day and the Super Bowl on sex behaviors.

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: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow 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: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow 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: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow 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: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow 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: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn