Garmin vs Whoop: The Real Difference

The Data Problem

Garmin gives you 500 metrics. WHOOP gives you three that actually matter: recovery, strain, and sleep. The paradox: more data often means less insight.

What Garmin Does Well

Activity tracking is excellent. Running pace, cadence, ground contact time, VO2 max trending — it's all reliable and the GPS accuracy is solid. I use Garmin specifically for run tracking and have disabled everything else (sleep tracking, body battery, the stress meter) because those metrics are noise.

What WHOOP Does Well

HRV-based recovery scoring is the best consumer implementation I've used. When WHOOP says I'm at 35% recovery, my body confirms it. The sleep coaching is also legitimately useful — it tells you exactly how much sleep you need tonight to be recovered by your target wake time.

The Winner?

Both, but for different jobs. Garmin for what you DO, WHOOP for how you RECOVER. The mistake is expecting either one to do both jobs well. They don't.