What's the crack people? Hope you're having a fantastic day. Welcome back to the channel. So, I have made a video previously on my experience using Whoop for just under half a decade and blown away by the reception. It's the first video that's done anyway half decent numbers. So, I'm glad I could provide some people with some value and from the bottom of me heart, I really do appreciate that. Now, let's get into why you're here. So, as stated, I have used a Whoop for about four and a half years since June of 2021 up until a couple of months ago, which was like March, April 2025. So, I have recently switched to the Garmin and I want to give my review. I've been using the Garmin for approximately 2 months now and I want to share with you the goods, the bads, and the uglies with my experience in making the switch. I'm going to start off with the things I really enjoy about the Garmin so far. First of all, the thing that I thought I would actually hate, I like the most, which is the fact that it has a screen on it. Whoop used to advertise a no screens no distraction policy. And to me that made perfect sense. If I am swimming, if I'm running, if I am on the bike cycling or in the gym for that matter, those are my four primary sports of choice. Why would I want to be looking at data when I'm trying to perform? To me, it just made perfect sense. But ever since I've had the screen during those styles of workout, I've actually found I don't know what I was thinking and that I actually enjoy being able to flick the wrist and have a quick glance at the data that I'm looking for. Now, this isn't a video about what kind of data you can get off it specifically cuz there's a lot of nerds out there that will break this down a lot better than I could ever do. But yes, you can customize the exact data fields that you want in and around your specific workout. So, in regards to my cycling, I might want the distance. I might want my average heart rate. I might want my average speed. There's just specific things within that specific sport that at a quick flick of the wrist, I have access to, which actually keeps me a lot more accountable and a lot more informed during an activity. In the pool, I thoroughly enjoy the fact that it counts my lengths. It counts my distance. Every time I stop in the middle of a split, in the middle of a drill, it gives me a breakdown of my pace. It gives me a breakdown of my average kilometers. It gives me a breakdown of the distance I did over the last drill or whatever it is. And it counts my lengths. It counts my distance. And just being able to flick the wrist and been able to access that has blown me away. And I know it seems like duh obviously, but like to me, like I said with the Whoop thing, like no screens, no distractions, just made sense. But in reality, no, it doesn't make sense at all. With the Whoop, I'd have to do the workout and find out how I got on. Whereas with the Garmin, it tells me if I'm sucking ass now or if I'm actually doing well. Wearing the Garmin for my resistance training can be a little lackluster, but it counts your reps to a certain degree. And and I'll dive a little bit deeper into this one in the negatives, but it counts reps. You can put in the total weight after a set. You can flick the wrist and check how long you've been resting for. Again, just slight little data points there that again of like yes, you can use your phone for a stopwatch and your rest timer, but just having all that in one place is absolutely a sweet thing indeed. Another thing I've loved about the Garmin so far is not being a slave to my phone. Again, as stated, their old campaign used to say, "No screen, no distractions." But in order to get any relevant data with a Whoop, you have to have your phone on you at all times. Yes, the Whoop will track your heart rate and rough calories burned if you don't have your phone, but if you go off for a run without your phone, you don't know how far you've gone. You don't know your average pace per kilometer. And those two things of all the other data points that and wearable can give you. They are the most important things. When I'm swimming in the pool or if I'm swimming in open water, I now have an ability to track that. Whereas before with the Whoop, I actually couldn't. In open water scenarios, I had to stick my phone in a toe float and drag it behind me. Now look, I'm not rich. I'm not minted. And putting a iPhone that cost the guts of a grand in a plastic floating thing behind me in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean does kind of [ __ ] worry me. And if I had all the money in the world, maybe I wouldn't be so worried. But the fact that now I can go into the sea and I can start swimming and it tracks everything for me without me being paranoid about dragging my phone behind me has just unlocked a whole new level of data and a whole new level of just confidence and like comfortability when it comes to participating in these sports. Knowing that what I'm doing is getting tracked and I'm not risking €1,000 every time I go out for a swim. I also now can track my pool swims because beforehand obviously you're not going to bring one of those open water toe floats with you in the swimming pool when you're trying to do tumble turns and you you know you're trying to share lanes with other athletes and everyone's getting tangled up in your [ __ ] toe float. So, the fact now that my coach can write down a workout or um a training program for me that day in swimming and I can just concentrate on executing the the specific stroke properly with good intention and good form in mind. And this tracks the distance, tracks the length, tracks everything for me so that I'm not counting my own length and that I'm not overly concerned about all this work that I'm doing isn't getting represented on any form of data. again has just absolutely unlocked another tier for me in regards to my specific needs. Another strange thing that doesn't necessarily direct to sports or activities, but more kind of relates to just real world scenarios is that I was walking through town the last day and I just felt my like I just felt a little anxious, right? And I'm thinking I I was look I just kind of head's going a bit and I'm like is that normally something that would really happen to me like and I was able to just flick the wrist get a live update of what my heart rate was at and it was sitting at 110 which for me just chilling is [ __ ] way above what it usually should be. I don't know if anyone else gets this but I just got a wave of like anxiety in me when I was just a load of people around and and like I said I'm not really an anxious person. I'm I'm fairly all right with that. But like just been able to, you know, I feel like I'm a bit What's happening? Quick look at the watch. Oh, I my heart rate's a little bit higher than usual. All right, let's hold back. Let's do a little bit of box breathing, which if you're familiar with box breathing, it's just a way to, you know, help just kind of [ __ ] bring the heart rate down. And, you know, if you ever were an anxious individual, is definitely something I would be inquiring about on the YouTube search box. But again, it's a subtle thing. Whereas with the Whoop, I've done this before as well. And the catch is you have to get your phone again. You have to flick open the app. The heart rate isn't readily available on the app front itself. I actually had to then go into the camera option in the Whoop and then it brings up your live heart rate. Or at least that's the only way I could find like a quick access to my heart rate then and there. And there's just layers to being able to see that data. Whereas again with the screen, you just flick and you can customize whatever you want on that. But for me, just being able to flick the heart rate there and go, "Ah! Oh, okay. Whoa, whoa, ease up a bit, Chris. Your heart rate's slightly elevated." And, you know, a bit of breathing here. Let's bring it back down. Massively, just massively, massively. A nice little attention to detail. And if it is something I'm going to be wearing on my wrist at all times, something that I would actually insist is there. So, well done again, Garmin. Then there comes the customization within the face, within everything you see. Again, not my area of expertise and not the type of video I hope to make today, but you can change the color, you can change the font. Right here, I've got my heart rate on the top. I've got my steps on the bottom. And we do live in 2025, and I think we all want to customize or personalize our wearables so that it is a little bit more us and a little bit less general. Whoop have done this by bringing out different colors, bands, and so on, but they charge you a [ __ ] arm and a leg to do so. Garmin. Yes, you can buy extra faces if you want and they cost you about like three, four, five quid, but there's so many on it already. You can change the colorways. And finally, I find the data to be a lot less forgiving than Whoop. Sometimes with Whoop, I would wake up from asleep and my resting heart rate would be between 41 and 43. Now I am a fit individual but even I know with a bit of common sense I don't believe that I am that fit. Whereas with the Garmin after wearing it for 2 months it has been super consistent in and around if I have a harsh workout I can see my heart rate drift into the 60s which for my ego quite hurts a bit cuz I used to see like 41 42 and this false sense of like oh I'm super fit. Take the last day. I swam 2 and a halfk in the morning and I hit a full body session in the evening and my resting heart rate was at 63. I no longer get away with this false sense of security of oh my god, I'm super fed and doesn't matter how many workouts I do, I always have a a low 40 resting heart rate. But then on the contrary, if I do have a rest day and I bring down intensity for, you know, a given weekend, my heart rate does fall into the high to mid40s, which again for me can be quite realistic. One way I kind of liked the Whoop telling me I was super fit, but I'd rather know the truth. Moving on to my last positive, and that is I don't feel a slave to my wearable anymore. Now, this might be a weird and personal one, and I'm not quite sure if this provides value, but for me, the Whoop was part of me. It was an extra limb. If I went on holidays without my charger, I'd start panicking. And there was just this weird psychological thing whereby I would just get so anxious if my Whoop wasn't charged. because I never took it off and it was on me at all times. It just felt like I got so paranoid or probably not the right word to use. It just felt like I needed my Whoop on at all times. I needed it charged at all times. And yes, that's one of the massive benefits about Whoop. But psychologically, man, like it didn't matter whether I was going out the town, didn't matter where I was, if I was going to a to a funeral or anything like that, I'd be wearing my weird blurry whoop at all costs because I needed every second of every data. And it just got to me so bad. And I never realized it until I started wearing the Garmin. The Garmin you have to take off to charge. and taking it off. For the first few times, I felt naked and felt like I wasn't going to go to bed cuz it wasn't going to track my sleep. I wasn't going to go to the gym because it wasn't going to track my workouts. I wasn't going to partake in any activities cuz I wasn't going to get the data. But the more I take it off and the more I begin to go for a walk without it, I realize that this is a tool that is an assistance to me in my workouts and I am no longer an absolute oblivious slave to my wearable. Now, on to some of the negatives I found over the last two months. It is not as comfortable as the Whoop. And that is to be expected obviously with a 41ish mm massive screen on my wrist, but I really don't think it's as comfortable as the Whoop. Like I'm constantly loosening it, tightening it. My wrist expands and contracts based on the heat, based on the time of day, and my hydration. And I just find I'm always tweaking it. It's a bit too tight. It's a bit too loose. Not something that's really a deal breaker. It's just something that now I'm aware of. Whereas with the Whoop, I wore indefinitely and have never complained about how comfortable or uncomfortable it actually was. It was just invisible to me. It was on me at all times. And ultimately, I just got used to it because it's a lot lighter and it's a lot more slick. And again, it was just like the Whoop for sure is is super comfortable in comparison to the Garmin. One of the only other negatives I found with the Garmin is that within its resistance training activities, it's absolutely shite. And so is the Whoop. Don't get me wrong, this isn't the Whoop is better than the Garmin, but I just find that in any form of resistance training, fitness wearables just do not have what it takes to track any form of decent data. It makes a good attempt at counting reps, but if you're doing a unilateral movement, so that's a fancy term for using one limb at a time. So, let's take a bicep curl. If I'm curling with this hand, it counts the reps to a rough maybe 85% accuracy and then you have to put in the weight you lifted afterwards. Whereas if I do a set of 10 on this arm and I do a set of 10 on this arm, it doesn't count this arm, which like obviously, but like it's just kind of like what's the [ __ ] point then? I also find with the strength trainer or the resistance activities that like you're putting in your reps and you're, you know, you're like this in the gym and you look like, you know, [ __ ] Ben 10 or whatever, like going through all the settings and, you know, like you're lifting 90 kilos and you have to tap it 90 times and you put all that effort into, you know, inputting the data and it doesn't like give you much at the end of your workout. It gives you like a total amount of weight you've lifted, all the sets you've lifted, but it doesn't break down the sets and doesn't break down the exercises. And like again, it just cool, but like completely [ __ ] useless data in and around the gym itself. Another thing I wish Garmin put a little bit more TLC into is the community aspect behind it. While Whoops wasn't amazing, I do believe Whoop was slightly better in this scenario. With a Whoop, you could create a group chat or a group and you could compare, like in my case, my clients, we all had Whoops, and I could compare who got the most sleep, who got, you know, who burned the most calories, who worked out the most. And it just, it was a nice little kind of competition to, you know, see who's slacking and see who's kicking ass. And for me anyway, I always kind of like that. Garmin does have a like feed where you can connect with people. However, I find it quite difficult to find people and people with garments, it's not really a thing that they do. So, it's not really a thing where you'd go to someone and go, "Hey, have you got a Garmin? Yeah, we should so connect." And like for me, I just I don't really find that the community aspect of your workouts and activities has been reflected that well at all within a Garmin. My final thoughts and to wrap it up all in a bow is that the Whoop has its place. I find that the Whoop for a general person looking to increase sleep, looking to just get some general information in and around their body is actually amazing when it gives you the weekly and it gives you the monthly reports in all the stuff you've done comparing last month to this month. I find again the data of Whoop can be really strong and really beneficial. However, that's not why I want a fitness wearable and that's not what Whoop started out with. Whoop started out with a athlete focused mentality. Now they're more of a general health and fitness wearable. Garmin has stayed true to the consumer they're aiming at. It is really built for performance and activities. I want a wearable that I don't need my phone with me all of the time. I want my wearable to tell me live data in and around that given activity to make sure that I have a little eye in the sky for a lack of a better term to give me that data so I know am I slacking am I performing or where am I on the scale of my own performance that's why I wanted a wearable and that is why Garmin for me specifically has been an absolute eye opener to the fact I am in love with it so far if I can answer any have your questions at all, you can leave a comment or if you wanted a decent explanation, just drop me a line on Instagram so I can send you a voice note and I can really break down some of your questions if you have them. I also wanted to say thank you so much again for 1,000 subscribers sound. Good luck. Where my friends go? It was simple. When the ends low, switch the tempo. I got right. I got heart. I don't die. I'm a fight. I go down. Then I strike. I go hard day and