How Does Proposing on Live TV Affect Your Heart Rate?

Todd Cochran grew up outside Philadelphia as a two-sport athlete who played lacrosse and soccer in high school. His lacrosse skills were good enough to earn him a scholarship to Georgetown University, where he competed at the Division 1 level for four years. After graduating in 2009, Todd moved to Manhattan and got a job in finance. He’s spent the last several years working for a variety of different software startups.

Nearly a decade after his college career came to an end, Todd still takes the field in the summertime in the Gotham Lacrosse League. He remains active in the winter, hitting the gym for an hour-and-a-half 4-6 days per week, doing everything from lifting weights to riding a stationary bike. In his own words, Todd battled a “rough string of injuries” both in and after college, including hip surgery, two ACL tears and an Achilles tear. The 30-year-old joked that these days he’s “just trying to keep things together.”

There isn’t anything about Todd’s current athletic regimen that stands out as far as noteworthy WHOOP user data goes. However, there is something else that does: He just got engaged on live national television.

Todd and his new fiancee Mallory watch The Today Show on a regular basis. When he saw the show was looking to air a proposal live on Valentine’s Day, Todd jumped at the opportunity. “I’m a big fan of the grand gesture,” he told WHOOP.

After selecting Todd’s application, the producers came to him with a few different options to surprise Mallory. Todd chose a plan which entailed Mallory taking their puppy Irving for a regular morning walk in a nearby park. Al Roker would then approach her on the street with the news that someone had an important question to ask her.

Unfortunately heavy snowfall the day before limited the park’s access, and they were “forced to come up with a really good ruse” to get Mallory to Rockefeller Center Plaza instead. The story they gave her was that Todd had submitted Irving to a “love your pet on Valentine’s Day competition,” with the puppy getting chosen to be on the show.

Todd was wearing his WHOOP Strap the entire time, and he was kind enough to let us share his data. Despite a subpar sleep performance the night before (can you blame him?), he was very well recovered for his big day:

Below is a graph of Todd’s heart rate data from 7:30 to 8:30 that morning:

He arrived at the NBC studios at 7:35 am with a heart rate of 70 beats per minute. It rose steadily as he was prepped for the show, reaching 130 when he was brought out to the set at 7:57. At that point, Todd stood and waited for a few minutes with just his family around him–clearly they were a calming and soothing influence. His heart rate then began climbing rapidly as Roker led Mallory outside, peaking at 132 when the moment happened (circled).

And don’t worry, she said “Yes.”

Make sure to check out @whoop on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.