2023 health and wellness trends in WHOOP member data explained

Originally published on December 13, 2023

Health and wellness trends in 2023 showed a clearer split between habits that supported recovery and habits that quietly pulled it down. In Episode 251 of the WHOOP Podcast, Will Ahmed sits down with Emily Capodilupo, Senior Vice President of Research, Algorithms, and Data at WHOOP, to unpack anonymized, aggregate member data from the year. Their discussion explains which activities surged, why walking became the most logged activity, how alcohol and stress shaped Recovery, and which sleep-related behaviors appeared most often alongside better outcomes. If you want a data-backed snapshot of how people trained, recovered, and changed their routines in 2023, this episode offers both the numbers and the context.

To listen to Episode 251 of the WHOOP Podcast in full, head to the WHOOP Podcast on Spotify.

What changed inside WHOOP in 2023?

The biggest internal shift in 2023 was pace. Ahmed said WHOOP shipped 70 releases across software, data science, and research, which gave people new ways to translate daily data into decisions.

Those releases mattered because they changed how people interacted with the platform, not just what they could measure. Stress Monitor gave people a live view of how tense or calm the day felt in their body. Strength Trainer gave muscular work a clearer place inside Strain. WHOOP Coach, developed with OpenAI, made it easier to ask direct questions about sleep, recovery, and training without needing to interpret charts first. Behavior Impacts then closed the loop by showing how logged habits lined up with next-day outcomes.

Capodilupo said 2023 felt like the year earlier technical work became easier to use. She described a pattern where foundational systems built over previous years finally surfaced as simpler member experiences. That same pattern showed up in the questions people asked most often. The top three prompts to WHOOP Coach were how to improve HRV, how sleep quality compares to similar people, and how to improve sleep quality. Together, those questions point to a year where people wanted more than a score. They wanted interpretation.

If you need a primer on the underlying metrics, Podcast 51: Unlocking Human Performance breaks down how WHOOP measures sleep, Strain, and Recovery. For broader year-over-year context, Podcast 201: The Top Trends, Behaviors, and Activities from 2022 shows what the previous year emphasized.

Ahmed framed the scale of that product year directly:

"A total of 70 new releases in software, data science, research, many things that are really enhancing the overall product."

What you should take away

• WHOOP released 70 software, data science, and research updates in 2023.
• Stress Monitor, Strength Trainer, WHOOP Coach, and Behavior Impacts were central 2023 additions.
• The top WHOOP Coach questions focused on HRV, sleep quality comparisons, and sleep improvement.
• 2023 marked a shift from raw tracking toward easier interpretation inside the WHOOP app.

If you want to hear Capodilupo unpack why WHOOP Coach, Stress Monitor, and Strength Trainer mattered in 2023, listen to the full episode on Spotify.

Which activities surged in 2023, and what does that say about training habits?

Once the product changes are clear, the next question is how people actually moved. The 2023 trend list shows two forces at work: genuine changes in activity popularity, and a broader international mix of sports appearing in WHOOP data.

The clearest popularity spike came from recovery work. Ice baths increased 183% year over year, making them the fastest-rising logged activity in the dataset. Hurling camogie rose 110%, Gaelic football rose 88%, pickleball rose 85%, rucking rose 49%, soccer rose 37%, cricket rose 32%, and commuting rose 26%. Capodilupo drew a useful distinction here. Some of those gains reflect growing enthusiasm for certain activities, while others reflect WHOOP reaching more countries and capturing sports that were already deeply established in local culture.

That international layer becomes even clearer when activity logging is mapped by country relative to global averages. India logged badminton 133% more than the world average. Egypt stood out for squash. Canada stood out for ice hockey. Portugal showed unusual concentration in both soccer and surfing. The Philippines over-indexed on basketball, Poland on ice skating, Kuwait on Stairmaster, Puerto Rico on baseball, Denmark on commuting, Russia on swimming, and Qatar on padel.

Viewed together, those lists say less about a single training style and more about how broad the data has become. Earlier year-end coverage such as 2021 Year In Review: Insights From a Year of WHOOP Data highlighted seasonal behavior changes and recovery swings. The 2023 picture adds something else: a wider global footprint and a stronger interest in recovery modalities as activities people actively track.

Capodilupo highlighted the scale of the cold-exposure jump in one line:

The number 1 increased activity with an increase of 183% is taking an ice bath.

What you should take away

• Ice baths were the fastest-rising logged activity in 2023, up 183% year over year.
• Hurling camogie, Gaelic football, and cricket reflect growing international depth in WHOOP data.
• Pickleball and rucking continued their rise as mainstream training choices in 2023.
• Country-level activity patterns show that global averages can hide strong local sports cultures.

If you want to hear Capodilupo go deeper on pickleball, ice baths, and international activity growth, listen to the full episode on Spotify.

Why did walking become the most logged activity on WHOOP?

From the trend list, the story naturally moves to the leaderboard. Walking finished 2023 as the most logged activity on WHOOP, ahead of running, weightlifting, functional fitness, and cycling.

Capodilupo said walking probably held that place for a long time in real life, but people only recently started treating it as something worth logging. That change matters. It suggests that more people now view lower-intensity movement as physiologically relevant, especially when it accumulates across the week. In practical terms, 2023 looked like a year where people widened their definition of useful training.

The full top 10 list reinforces that point. After walking, running, weightlifting, functional fitness, and cycling, the remaining most-logged activities were golf, box fitness, HIIT, spin, and yoga. That mix blends endurance work, strength work, lower-intensity activity, and recovery-friendly movement. It does not point to one dominant philosophy. It points to balance.

Capodilupo connected walking to a larger appreciation for zone 2 style effort, meaning work that raises physiological load without pushing intensity to the limit. That framing also helps explain another list from the episode. Meditation was the activity with the highest average frequency per week, showing that repetition and nervous-system regulation remained a big part of how people structured their days.

Strength Trainer data added another layer. The top five exercises logged were lateral raises with dumbbells, rope tricep pushdowns, bench press, bicep curls with dumbbells, and pull-ups. That list leans upper body and equipment-light, which hints that many people were fitting strength sessions into standard gym setups or home setups with simple tools.

Capodilupo explained why walking and similar efforts deserve more attention:

"Those zone 2 activities, elevated but still relatively low intensity activities, are so, so important."

For a look back at how activity and behavior patterns were framed in an earlier year-end discussion, Podcast 152: Breaking Down the WHOOP Year in Review offers a useful comparison point.

What you should take away

• Walking was the most logged activity on WHOOP in 2023.
• The top five logged activities were walking, running, weightlifting, functional fitness, and cycling.
• Meditation had the highest average frequency per week, showing strong interest in repeatable recovery practices.
• Walking rose in importance as more people treated lower-intensity movement as meaningful training data.

If you want to hear Capodilupo unpack why walking finally took the top spot and how zone 2 movement fits the year-end data, listen to the full episode on Spotify.

Which behaviors improved or hurt Recovery most in 2023?

Movement only explains part of the year. The stronger signal in the 2023 data may be how clearly sleep-related behaviors clustered around better Recovery.

At the weekly level, Monday had the highest average Recovery score at 63%, which fits the pattern of people catching up on rest over the weekend. The calendar extremes were even more telling. January 1 was the worst Recovery day of the year, and January 2 was the best. Capodilupo attributed that sharp reversal to a familiar holiday sequence: a late, social New Year's Eve followed by a full day to sleep in, recover, and spend time with family or friends.

Country averages were tight at the top. Finland and the Netherlands both averaged 62% Recovery, while Norway followed at 61%. At the behavior level, the strongest positive patterns were heavily sleep-centered. Higher sleep performance boosted Recovery by roughly 11% to 16% once it cleared a strong threshold. Other positive associations included consistent bedtimes, hydration, daylight eating, reading in bed, melatonin, blue light blocking glasses, mouth tape, and sleeping in a shared bed.

The negative side of the list was equally clear. Alcohol carried the largest hit, often lowering Recovery by 12% to 17% on days it appeared among the biggest detractors. High-strain days, fever, illness, sleeping at altitude, considerable time in the high stress zone, ADHD medication, night shift work, late meals, and tobacco use also appeared among the strongest negative patterns. Marijuana showed a wider spread, averaging around a 2% reduction, with outcomes ranging from about 6% lower to 2% higher depending on context.

Capodilupo summarized the structure of the data in a way that helps interpret nearly every one of those findings:

"A lot of your recovery score is made in the bed."

That framing also helps explain why several recovery-oriented habits rose during the year. Creatine logging increased 41%, sauna use increased 37%, steam room use increased 35%, and ice bath logging increased 34%. On creatine, Capodilupo noted that the supplement has been studied for years. A useful reference point is the International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand on creatine, which reviews safety and performance evidence in exercise and sport.

What you should take away

• Monday had the highest average Recovery score of the week in 2023, at 63%.
• January 1 was the lowest-Recovery day of the year, and January 2 was the highest.
• Sleep performance, consistent bedtimes, hydration, and timing behaviors clustered with better Recovery.
• Alcohol, illness, high stress exposure, night shift work, altitude, and late meals clustered with lower Recovery.

If you want to hear Capodilupo go deeper on sleep-linked Recovery patterns, positive journal behaviors, and the biggest detractors, listen to the full episode on Spotify.

What did 2023 data reveal about alcohol, sex, and stress?

Once the strongest Recovery drivers are mapped, the most human part of the dataset comes into focus. Social habits, daily tension, and lifestyle rhythms shaped the year as much as formal training did.

Alcohol is the clearest example. WHOOP members logged alcohol in the WHOOP Journal at a frequency of 29% in 2023. That was down 8% from 2022 and down 10% from 2021. Ahmed added a concrete rule of thumb: one drink typically lowered Recovery by about 4%, which means three drinks could pull Recovery down by about 12% the next day. Capodilupo said that pattern has become harder for people to ignore now that Behavior Impacts shows it directly inside the app.

The drinking data also split by age in a revealing way. Younger people on WHOOP tended to drink less often but consume more drinks on the nights they did drink. Older people tended to drink more frequently, but at lower volume, often below two drinks. At the country level, Ireland averaged four drinks on drinking nights, the highest in this dataset. Australia followed at 3.3, while the United States and Germany both averaged 2.7.

The sex data was lighter in tone but still useful as a picture of behavior logging. The United States ranked highest among countries for reported sexual activity at just over once per week on average. By state, Utah led at 1.4 times per week, followed by Oklahoma and Alabama at 1.3, then Idaho and Nevada at 1.2. Ireland also led the dataset for reported masturbation frequency at 2.4 times per week.

Stress completed the picture. Capodilupo said commute patterns and anecdotal feedback from Stress Monitor made one point obvious: people often underestimate how physiologically demanding routine daily friction can be. Across the week, stress trended down from Monday toward Saturday, making Saturday the least stressful day on average. Across age bands, time spent in low stress increased with age, suggesting that experience, routine, and life stage all affect how intensely the body responds to a typical day.

Capodilupo tied the weekly stress slope back to sleep pressure:

"As you go through your week Monday to Friday, you're becoming increasingly sleep deprived."

The follow-on Podcast 301: Year in Review: The Data Behind 2024's Wellness Trends revisits many of these same categories one year later and shows which patterns kept moving.

What you should take away

• Alcohol logging fell in 2023, dropping 8% from 2022 and 10% from 2021.
• One drink lowered next-day Recovery by about 4% on average in this dataset.
• Saturday was the least stressful day of the week, while stress built through the workweek.
• Time spent in low stress rose with age, suggesting that older people on WHOOP had steadier daily stress patterns.

The bottom line

• 2023 WHOOP member data showed a stronger focus on interpretation, with WHOOP Coach, Strength Trainer, Stress Monitor, and Behavior Impacts shaping how people used their data.
• Ice baths were the fastest-rising logged activity in 2023, up 183% year over year.
• Walking became the most logged activity on WHOOP, ahead of running and weightlifting, which points to a broader recognition that lower-intensity movement still counts.
• Meditation had the highest average frequency per week, showing that repeatable recovery practices remained central to daily routines.
• Sleep behavior dominated Recovery outcomes, with strong sleep performance, bedtime consistency, and hydration clustering with better next-day scores.
• Alcohol remained the clearest behavioral Recovery detractor, with one drink lowering Recovery by about 4% on average.
• Monday had the highest average Recovery score of the week, while Saturday was the least stressful day on average.
• 2023 data suggests that people increasingly used WHOOP to connect ordinary behaviors such as commuting, walking, meal timing, and drinks with measurable physiological outcomes.

Frequently asked questions about things discussed in this episode

How does WHOOP create year in review insights from member data?

WHOOP creates year in review insights from anonymized, aggregate data across people who wear WHOOP and log behaviors over time. Individual identities are removed, and the resulting trends show how activities, sleep, Recovery, and journal habits changed across the full dataset.

How does WHOOP measure Recovery?

WHOOP measures Recovery by combining signals such as heart rate variability, resting heart rate, sleep, and recent strain into a daily readiness score. That score helps show how prepared your body is for training and stress on a given day.

What does WHOOP do for tracking walking and lower-intensity movement?

WHOOP treats walking and other lower-intensity movement as meaningful physiological activity when you log it. In 2023, walking became the most logged activity on WHOOP, which reflects a wider recognition that moderate, repeatable movement still contributes to Strain and overall health.

How does WHOOP identify behaviors that help or hurt Recovery?

WHOOP identifies behavior patterns by comparing logged WHOOP Journal entries with next-day outcomes over time. Behavior Impacts then surfaces those associations inside the WHOOP app so you can see how habits such as alcohol, hydration, or bedtime consistency align with your own Recovery.

What does WHOOP do for understanding stress during the day?

WHOOP helps you understand stress through Stress Monitor, which shows how your body moves through lower and higher stress states across the day. That view can reveal patterns people often miss in the moment, including the physiological load of commuting, work pressure, and poor sleep.

What does WHOOP Coach do with your data?

WHOOP Coach uses your WHOOP data to answer direct questions about sleep, HRV, Recovery, strain, and routines in plain language. In 2023, the most common questions focused on improving HRV, comparing sleep quality, and improving sleep quality.

How does WHOOP show the effect of alcohol on Recovery?

WHOOP shows the effect of alcohol by connecting logged drinks in the WHOOP Journal with next-day Recovery patterns. In the 2023 year-end discussion, Ahmed said one drink typically lowered Recovery by about 4% on average.

Year in review data makes 2023 useful inside the WHOOP app, because the same patterns that shaped global averages can help you read your own sleep, Recovery, Strain, and Stress Monitor trends with more precision.