WHOOP Podcast

On this week’s episode of the WHOOP Podcast, WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist Dr. Kristen Holmes and WHOOP SVP of Research, Algorithms, and Data Emily Capodilupo take a deep dive into the science of women’s health. The two define the importance of understanding how a woman’s physiology changes across the lifespan. Dr. Holmes and Emily define the various phases of the menstrual cycle and how each influences sleep, recovery, thermoregulation, fueling, and exercise performance. This episode challenges the idea that women need to completely restructure their training around their cycle. Instead, Dr. Holmes and Emily explain how understanding your individual patterns can help you make small, informed adjustments to strain, sleep, and recovery that better support your body.
The conversation examines the menstrual cycle as an important signal of overall health, establishing your own physiological baseline, and how changes in those patterns can provide useful information throughout different stages of life. Dr. Holmes and Emily discuss the extensive research WHOOP has conducted across women’s health, including pregnancy, fertility, and menopause, exploring how wearable data can help reveal changes that might otherwise be difficult to recognize. Ultimately, this episode highlights how better data, more research, and a more personalized understanding of female physiology can give women greater agency over their health and performance at every stage of life.

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(00:00) Trailer
(01:02) WHOOP Research: The Importance of Studying Women’s Health
(03:23) Recovery Through The Menstrual Cycle
(06:01) Using Science-Back Research to Develop WHOOP Features
(09:12) Menstrual Cycle Variability Insights
(12:16) Fuelling Tips for High Performing Women
(19:27) Viewing Your Menstrual Cycle as a Vital Sign
(21:49) Signs of RED-S and Misalignment
(24:17) Early Signs of PMOS and How To Screen For It
(28:28) What Your Body Is Trying To Tell You
(29:49) What Women Need To Know About Tracking Their Cycle
(20:10) How To Advocate For Care
(30:56) Importance of Knowing Your Normal 
(31:22) Early Warning Signs of Perimenopause
(32:54) WHOOP For Symptom Tracking
(40:26) Sleep Hormone Feedback Loop
(43:11) What Male Partners Need To Know
(46:44) Pregnancy Research Gaps: What We Know About Pre-Natal Training
(53:32) Maternal Care & Recovery
(56:12) Exciting New Leads in Women’s Health

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On this week’s episode of the WHOOP Podcast, WHOOP Founder and CEO Will Ahmed sits down with WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist Dr. Kristen Holmes to discuss her new book, Aligned, and what it takes to build a more resilient nervous system. Drawing on her journey from elite athlete to championship-winning coach, researcher, and human performance expert, Dr. Holmes shares what she’s learned about the connection between recovery, resilience, and sustained performance. Will and Dr. Holmes explore why the time spent away from your craft can be just as important as the work itself, how sleep consistency and HRV can provide insight into the health of your nervous system, and why balancing stress with adequate recovery is critical for performing at your best. Dr. Holmes also breaks down her HEAL framework, explores how trauma and an outcome-driven mindset can shape our behaviors, and shares practical strategies for building greater agency, resilience, and alignment in everyday life.

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(00:00) Trailer 
(00:55) Introduction to Aligned by Dr. Kristen Holmes
(02:25) How A Healthy Nervous System Promotes Healthy Aging
(05:31) Impact of Childhood Trauma on High Performers
(08:22) 70% of Americans Experience Trauma
(10:15) Why Recovery Matters More Than You Think
(16:17) Kristen’s Collegiate Coaching Experience
(22:07) What Overworking and Overtraining Looks Like
(26:44) Importance of Sleep Consistency
(30:17) The HEAL Framework

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Metabolic health is far more nuanced than conventional nutrition advice suggests. On this week’s episode of the WHOOP Podcast, WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist Dr. Kristen Holmes sits down with Metabolic Health Expert Dr. Nick Norwitz MD PhD to discuss why curiosity is one of the most powerful tools for improving long-term health. Dr. Nick Norwitz shares how a ketogenic diet unexpectedly put his inflammatory bowel disease into remission after numerous conventional treatments had failed. This experimentation sparked a career dedicated to challenging assumptions with rigorous science and thoughtful self-experimentation. Together, Dr. Nick Norwitz and Dr. Kristen Holmes unpack the difference between "evidence-based" and truly individualized care. This episode continues to explore why muscle, sleep, and visceral fat play central roles in brain, heart, and metabolic health. From discussions on protein, the microbiome, and emerging therapies to Nick's famous Oreo-versus-statin experiment, the conversation encourages listeners to move beyond one-size-fits-all health advice, and partner with their healthcare providers to embrace safe, data-informed experimentation for a better understanding of their biology.

Shownotes:
(00:00) Trailer Intro
(00:43) Who Is Dr. Nick Norwitz?
(03:07) Nick’s Personal Health Journey
(08:29) Nutrition as a Medical Intervention
(12:41) What Does “Evidence-Based” Care Really Mean?
(16:42) The Key to Optimizing Your Health
(19:17) Debunking Metabolic Health Myths
(20:46) The Benefits of Training and Exercise
(26:29) How Metabolism Affects Strength, Cardio, and Brain Health
(30:03) How Does Sleep Impact Inflammation?
(32:35) GLP-1s and Your Metabolism: What’s Really Happening?
(34:47) Nick’s Take on Self-Experimentation
(35:43) The Oreo vs. Statin Study
(45:19) How to Burn Fat
(49:43) Do We Really Need to Focus on Protein?
(51:25) What Is Visceral Fat—and How Do You Lose It?
(56:08) Why You Should Stay Curious About Your Health

Resources:
Fitness and aging (Nature Aging 2026); https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-026-01150-x  
Visceral fat and resistant starch: (Nature Metabolism 2024): https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-024-00988-y 
Visceral fat and resistant starch, **YouTube Breakdown: https://youtu.be/wnEApLnKDRI   
Visceral fat and brain volume: (Nature Comm 2026): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-71141-4 
Leg power and longevity (twin study): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26551663/ 
600-calorie exercise burn study (Nature Metabolism 2025): https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-025-01236-7 
Microbiome and beige fat study (Nature 2026): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10205-3 
Oreo versus statin study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38276308/
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Heart rate variability (HRV) is one of the most powerful metrics for understanding your recovery and resilience. In this week’s episode of the WHOOP Podcast, WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist Dr. Kristen Holmes and WHOOP Staff Research Scientist Dr. Greg Grosicki explain what HRV actually measures and what it indicates about the health of your autonomic nervous system. They unpack the biggest factors that influence HRV, including sleep consistency, hydration, training load, psychological stress, alcohol, and illness. You'll learn how to use HRV as a practical guide to balance stress and recovery, identify which habits are helping or hurting your physiology, and make small, consistent lifestyle changes that support better performance, healthier aging, and greater resilience over time.

(00:00) Cold Open
(00:35) What is Heart Rate Variability (HRV)?
(01:48) Why HRV Matters For Recovery
(03:20) How WHOOP Measures HRV
(04:44) Why You Shouldn’t Compare Your HRV to Others
(05:43) Understanding the Autonomic Nervous System
(11:28) Why WHOOP Measures HRV During Sleep 
(12:36) How Your Behaviors Impact HRV
(21:30) Impact of Sleep Consistency on HRV
(23:19) The Relationship Between High Stress and HRV
(26:54) How to Improve Your HRV
(30:33) The Habits Negatively Impacting HRV
(36:26) Why You Shouldn’t Obsess Over HRV
(37:51) HRV-CV: Understanding Weekly HRV Trends
(41:49) How HRV Changes Over Time
Listen to Our Episode on Heart Rate Variability Coefficient of Variation (HRV-CV)
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Women's health has long been underserved by research, leaving many women without the information they need to understand their own bodies. On this week’s episode of the WHOOP Podcast, WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist Dr. Kristen Holmes sits down with Dr. Elina Berglund Scherwitzl, Co-Founder & CEO of Natural Cycles° and Nobel Prize-winning particle physicist. The conversation explores how data is transforming women's reproductive health.
After helping discover the Higgs boson, Dr. Berglund Scherwitzl turned her expertise in physics and data science toward her own health journey by creating the world's first and only FDA-cleared birth control app. Together, Dr. Holmes and Dr. Berglund Scherwitzl discuss how wearable technology and physiological data are giving women unprecedented insight into fertility, pregnancy planning, menstrual health, and perimenopause.
The conversation explores the new WHOOP and Natural Cycles° integration, designed to make women's health feel less overwhelming and more intuitive by combining continuous wearable data with advanced insights on fertility, hormonal health, and perimenopause. Dr. Holmes and Dr. Berglund Scherwitzl discuss how body temperature and other biomarkers reveal hormonal changes, why perimenopause often begins earlier than many women realize, and how passive, personalized insights can reduce uncertainty, ease mental load, and empower women to make informed decisions about their health at every stage of life.
(00:00) Cold Open 
(00:37) Meet The Scientist Behind Natural Cycles°
(01:00) Why Dr. Berglund Scherwitzl Started Natural Cycles°
(04:35) The Only FDA-Cleared Birth Control App
(05:54) The WHOOP x Natural Cycles° Partnership
(07:51) The Early Signs of Perimenopause (And How To Track Them)
(13:08) What Really Happens To Your Hormones Over Time
(17:34) Why Understanding Your Body Changes Everything
(19:09) Your Sleep Could Reveal Early Signs of Perimenopause
(22:03) The Small Habits That Make A Big Difference
(24:14) The Most Common Menstrual Cycle Myths
(26:09) What Your Wearable Can Tell You About Your Hormones
(27:07) The Truth About Fertility Timing
(29:16) Knowing Which Symptoms Matter Most
(31:36) HRT: What Women Should Know
(34:10) What You Can Expect From The WHOOP x Natural Cycles° Partnership
(37:05) The Future of Women’s Health
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