BOSTON & STORRS, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--WHOOP, the human performance company, and the Korey Stringer Institute (KSI) at the University of Connecticut (UCONN) today announced the completion of a landmark performance study involving Division I Collegiate athletes. The study, which was conducted with 40 UCONN athletes (26 males and 14 females) from March 2016—December 2016, was designed to explore areas of human athletic performance and recovery, and how sleep, heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) metrics can be integrated together and inform decision making to promote optimal performance, speed recovery, and promote general health and wellness. It is the most comprehensive study of its kind to date—collecting close to one terabyte of physiological data over the course of 8 months—and the initial findings were presented earlier this month at the 40th Annual NSCA Conference in Las Vegas, NV.
“It has always been critical for us to ground WHOOP’s technology in science and push the boundaries to unlock human performance. This collaboration between KSI and WHOOP will help us better educate and guide best-practices for maximizing performance and recovery,” said John Capodilupo, WHOOP Co-Founder and CTO. “The magnitude and quality of the data collected, including sleep and recovery metrics from WHOOP, has made this the most comprehensive study of athlete performance conducted to-date.”
The study examined the recovery metrics of the UCONN men’s soccer and women’s cross country teams participating in the 2016-2017 season. Data collection was conducted during off-season training phases and over the course of their full athletic season. Along with collecting sleep and recovery assessments using the WHOOP strap, other variables measured included athlete demographics, training and competition loads, fitness and hydration status, wellness and blood-biomarkers.
“As scientists and practitioners, we are continually trying to connect critical pieces of the performance puzzle and ‘bridge the gap’ between science and practice. However, the critical piece missing is often the time athletes spend outside of training,” said Ryan Curtis, Associate Director of Athlete Performance and Safety, Korey Stringer Institute. “The collaboration with WHOOP allowed us for the first time to gather objective data on how our athletes were recovering outside of training. This is allowing us to define relationships not previously shown and in turn, give actionable insights to coaches, practitioners and researchers.”
The first analysis of the data focused on the relationship between sleep, training load and fitness and revealed positive correlations between:
- Training load metrics such as total and average distance, high speed distance, high-intensity accelerations and deceleration and light sleep time
- Athlete body fat percentage and average sleep disturbances
- Athletes average slow wave sleep time (important for recovery and anabolic hormone release) and high-intensity running.
The ongoing analysis of the study will also explore relationships between WHOOP Recovery and associated metrics with other physiological data collected throughout the study.
“The Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut is passionately committed to maximizing the performance and health of athletes, warfighters and laborers,” said Douglas Casa, Chief Executive Officer of UCONN’s Korey Stringer Institute. “Our work with WHOOP has enhanced our ability to achieve our goals as an organization since they are committed to the same ideals and have a product that can assist with understanding important components of recovery an athlete is currently experiencing. Our data indicates that WHOOP has the potential to be an important tool in the decision-making process regarding training planning.”
The full findings of the study will be released in 2018. To learn more about the initial findings, visit https://thelocker.whoop.com/2017/07/31/landmark-study-whoop-korey-stringer-institute/.
About WHOOP
WHOOP, a company committed to unlocking human
performance, is transforming how athletes understand their bodies and
inner potential. Designed for the 24-hour performance lifestyle, the
award-winning WHOOP Strap 2.0 is worn by the most elite athletes in the
world to positively change behavior, provide actionable recommendations
and avoid overtraining. WHOOP provides individuals, teams, and their
coaches and trainers with a continuous and personalized understanding of
Strain, Recovery, and Sleep to balance training, reduce injuries, and
predict performance. Join the best athletes in the world and learn more
by visiting www.WHOOP.com.
About the Korey Stringer Institute
The Korey Stringer
Institute (KSI) is housed in the Department of Kinesiology within the
College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources at the University
of Connecticut (UConn). UConn's Department of Kinesiology has a strong
tradition and reputation as one of the leading institutions studying
health and safety issues for athletes and the physically active. The
mission of KSI is to provide research, education, advocacy and
consultation to maximize performance, optimize safety and prevent sudden
death for the athlete, soldier and laborer. For more information, visit: www.ksi.uconn.edu.
