WHOOP Podcast - Brittany Mahomes on Motherhood, Training, and Building a Healthy Lifestyle

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

Brittany Mahomes returns on this week’s episode of the WHOOP Podcast! Brittany joins WHOOP Founder and CEO, Will Ahmed, to reflect on welcoming her third child and expanding her family with Super Bowl Champion, Patrick Mahomes. As a former professional athlete, Brittany shares the important role health and fitness play in her and her children’s lives. Brittany outlines her top tips for new moms, the important role of WHOOP in helping her stay fit, and what it means to be a mother of three. (00:28) Unboxing WHOOP MG: Menstrual Cycle Insights, & Healthspan(01:41) Brittany on Becoming a Mother of Three(02:40) The Secret to Restful Sleep While Pregnant(03:48) Brittany’s Top Tips for New Moms(04:39) Brittany’s Go To Exercises While Pregnant(05:25) WHOOP Data and Pregnancy(06:23) Brittany’s WHOOP Metrics(07:10) Labor Preparation and Expectations(08:15) Brittany’s Post-Partum Experience(09:00) The Importance of Breathing Exercises(10:37) Regaining Energy After Giving Birth(11:21) Diet Evolution: Pregnancy to Post-Partum(12:16) Stress Management as a Mother of Three(13:09) Brittany’s Favorite WHOOP Feature(13:28) Brittany’s Wake Up Call(14:37) Passing Down a Focus on Health and Fitness To Your KidsFollow Brittany:InstagramXSupport the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

So one of your tips for new moms or soon-to-be moms would be able to get the right pillow. 100%. What other tips would you have? For new moms, I would just say, like, don't forget about yourself. I think that's a big one is don't forget that, you know, you're still a human and you still need to show up every day for yourself as well as your kid. And so if you're not in the best mental, physical state that you can be, it's very hard to parent and keep up with someone else. Hello. Hi, Brittany.

How are you? Excited to be back with you. We're going to start with what is a big moment for whoop, which is our next generation of technology. So this is the milestone collection for whoop life. Packaging is key. Y'all nailed it. Oh my gosh. Wow.

It gets cooler. Dang. It's got your initials in there. Wow, it has my initials. Remember since 2020? How cute. So this is the Woop MG, which stands for medical grade. Wow.

launching 5.0 and MG. Two different devices. Okay. And what's particularly exciting about WoopMG is it comes with a 14-day battery life. Nice. 7% smaller. Okay. And it's going to enable a bunch of new features. The heart screener with ECG. It's going to be able to detect AFIB. It's going to do blood pressure. We've got a new hormonal health insights feature. So this will be able to track all your cycle data. Yeah. And you'll be able to see kind of how How regular it is and all the sorts of things. So it's a big update for the women's health features. Yeah, that's great.

And then the last feature is HealthSpan, which is going to show you your official whoop age, which is very exciting. I'm doing that. So you've been busy, it seems like? Very busy, yeah. You just welcomed a new one to the family. I did, yep. Little Golden?

Three kids, yes. Golden Ray. Three kids in how many years? Four. So that's pretty good. No wasting any time. No. Nope.

We're done. We're done for a while. Three, I don't know. I mean, I feel like you can never, like, say you're done. But I think three is all I need. How do you feel this pregnancy versus your last two? Is it easier? You know, it was not easier because I have two little ones, you know, running around that I have to keep up with. Pregnancy's not my favorite, but I feel like I kind of knew what was coming. So I braced myself a little bit better and just kind of accepted. You know, with Sterling, it was like I could lay on the couch and take naps all day and just. relax because I didn't have kids to run around with but this one you know keeping up with two toddlers was a lot but luckily they nap at the same time so mom napped when they napped every day one thing that's impressive you shared your whoop data over the course of pregnancy with us and

one thing that's impressive is like your sleep like you're averaging like 98% sleep performance throughout the whole pregnancy yes and I'm curious what like how did you do that sleep is very important in my life. And I make it very important that I need to get my sleep. I make it a priority. But you know what saved me is a pregnancy pillow. Oh. One that wraps all the way around your body. I did get a new mattress too that's go around. So I felt like when I was sleeping, I was sleeping very, very good for sure. Yeah, Lely, my wife and I just went through, you know, having our firstborn. And the pillow thing was a real challenge. Like she went through a lot of Pillars. Same. Yep. You order so many until you find one sticks. So the pregnancy pill, that's like the

narrow one. Yes. There's, I mean, there's a million different kinds. Yeah. You can do ones up, yeah, like wrap around you. They can be squishy. They can be hard. They can be bigger on the sides. I mean, I literally like engulfed in a pillow. So, so one of your tips for new moms or soon-to-be-moms would be when get the right pillow. A hundred percent. What other tips would you have? For new moms, I would just say like, don't forget about yourself. I think. I think. that's a big one is don't forget that you know you're still a human and you still need to show up every day for yourself as well as your kid and so if you're not in the best mental physical state that you can be it's very hard to parent and keep up with someone else and how do you do that you just

are mindful of it or are there certain things that you do to really practice that yeah i think just and mine is like self-care and taking time for yourself a big one is for me is obviously working out so I make sure that, you know, I get that in weekly as many times as I can. Obviously, things happen. You're busy. You know, sometimes you can't get it in, but definitely making that a priority. And then just making sure that you're still taking care of yourself so that you can be mentally and physically there for your child. What type of exercise do you like to do while pregnant? So I just do what I can. It gets harder, you know, as you get more and more pregnant. Obviously, you get heavier and you have your own weight on you than. you know, obviously I wasn't carrying weights because I had what I needed, but it gets harder as you go, but I just do whatever feels good, you know, going on walks. Just honestly keeping up with my kids and taking them places like to the park and stuff was huge for me because I'm still being active. I'm just not, you know, in a gym setting, but we go out and about and keeping up with them was

huge for me. But when I could get in the gym, I do like to strength train and, you know, the breathing and the pelvic floor and the keeping your core here and keeping everything. together was super important for me this go around. You know, from a data standpoint, it looks like you had a very healthy pregnancy. I'll show you something that's kind of fascinating. So we discovered about two years ago that pregnant women over the course of their pregnancy have an increasing resting heart rate over the course of the pregnancy. And then seven weeks before, you see it start coming down dramatically. And the opposite is true of heart rate variability, where your hurry variability, it'll be declining, decline, declining.

And then all of a sudden, seven weeks before pregnancy, it'll start spiking. And what's powerful about that is, one, because it happens seven weeks before, you can actually start to understand whether a mother is going to deliver early. Because that inflection could happen earlier than the 33rd week mark. Yeah. But the other thing, just from a physiological standpoint, is it's really a woman's body like preparing for peak performance, right? Because you're essentially, your body's getting like,

later right up into this moment. And so this is pretty cool if you look at it. You can see here your heart rate variability just went straight up. And you can see your resting heart rate went straight down, like right around when we'd expect. And so that's also a sign that the pregnancy was likely to go to, you know, to a full, full term, as they say. 39 weeks, yep. Your resting heart rate went from 77 to 69, 10% decreased just in that period. And your heart rate variability went up 45% just in that. I was ready. Yeah. So like birthing humans literally peak performance. Yeah. My trainer did tell me that. She literally explained this to me because yeah, towards the end, I feel like I was, you know, your energy levels kind of do increase in your body. It feels like

you could take on the world. Yeah. And then the baby comes. And then I feel like I could run a marathon. And now I was just talking to Patrick. He said you were very competitive about the labor process. It was like going to be the best birth ever. Yes. Yes. And it was. was every birth i got better my push time decreased so so you kept track of that yes every yeah every year i'm like okay we got to beat seven minutes we got to beat five minutes we got to do it and we did it's impressive i get the sense you're as competitive as patrick i would think so yeah in your in the right lane so to speak yeah for sure what's up folks if you are enjoying this podcast or if you care about health performance fitness, you may really enjoy getting a whoop. That's right. You can check out

whoop at whoop.com. It measures everything around sleep, recovery, strain, and you can now sign up for free for 30 days. So you'll literally get the high performance wearable in the mail for free. You get to try it for 30 days, see whether you want to be a member. And that is just at whoop.com. Back to the guests. So postpartum, what's been your strategy? for you know bouncing back you're obviously super into fitness you just play professional sport yeah so slow and steady is definitely the approach you need to take after you have a baby you can't just jump back into what you were doing before it could really hurt you but the six weeks once you're cleared from the doctor you can start moving and i think i've really really focused on my core engagement

and my pelvic floor this go around last time i kind of hurt my back and was kind of all over the place so this time I'm taking it very slow you know increasing the weight as I can and just focusing on my core and my pelvic floor to make sure I'm going on the right track this time it's just kind of whatever feels right whatever feels good a lot of breathing and core is probably what I'm doing the most right now what kind of breathing exercises will you do it's hard to explain but podcast question I mean it's like the like 360 breathing I don't know you probably have never heard of this but it's like when you inhale you basically fill your belly up with air. And then when you exhale, it's like you bring everything back in and you keep it tight while you do your exercises. So you have to hold that. Should you do one

breath? Come on. You can coach me through this. This will be fun. So most of the time when you breathe in, it's like everyone just thinks, but like you don't think to expand your belly. So try to breathe in and expand your belly. See if you can do that while you're breathing in. I'm going to be laughing. It's harder to be to do it. I shake when I do it. Like when you're doing it and you're like holding that and you're doing your core exercises,

I literally shake. It's hard. Okay, when you breathe out, squeeze everything in. And then hold that and then try to breathe normal. That was a good breath. Good. I mean, I just breathing. That's good.

But yeah, I don't know. It's hard. It's like, it's hard to explain. And how many of those will you do? I mean, I warm up with them. I mean, I do like anywhere five to ten. I have a very short attention span. So it's like whenever I get tired of doing them, I move on to the next thing.

But five to ten, breasts before you get going. And then you build in like a core engagement with the breasts. And then. So like a plank or. Yeah. You could do that or like where your legs are up and you're holding your legs. And just, you know, basic core exercises. Leg lifts, that kind of thing.

Yeah. It's definitely working from a fitness standpoint. Your resting heart rate's dropped another 12% and your heart rate variability is up 51% just weeks after giving birth. I mean, it's really crazy that I feel that because as soon as I give birth and I'm not pregnant anymore, like I have so much energy. I feel like I can run a marathon. I feel like I can do anything in the world.

But while I'm pregnant, it's like I'm so tired and exhausted, even though I know I'm not tired and exhausted. I'm like, I know I'm not tired. I'm getting plenty of sleep. I'm getting a nap, like, things are great, but you just always feel tired. Even, like, I worked out consistently through my pregnancy, and it's like, I know I'm in shape, I know I'm good, but I still can't breathe. Did you change your- Walking up the steps?

I'm like, it kills me. Did you change your diet at all? During your pregnancy or shortly after, you know, did you see your diet evolve? I mean, while I was pregnant, it was very hard for me to eat and have an appetite, which it should completely be the other way, but it's like nothing. sounds good. So you just try to find what sounds good and what you can eat. But the second I'm not pregnant, I mean, I eat constantly. And I have my appetite back. Everything tastes good. And I'm just constantly eating. But that is with breastfeeding. It's like I am feeding a child. So I have to,

you know, get enough nutrients and stuff that I need for myself and for her. Yeah, that's important. My wife's been doing that as well. And you can really tell when you're not drinking water and you're not eating, like your supply will drop. Like you've got to keep up with your health. It's a huge, I think underestimated element of, you know, raising a child or giving birth is the breastfeeding portion shortly thereafter because that in itself is a whole like maintenance protocol. For sure. It's not easy for sure. Let's talk a little bit about stress. Your stress is actually declined, which is pretty impressive in the aftermath of having a baby. Yeah. What do you think was the most stressful day of the year? I could say Super Bowl. For sure. You'd be accurate with that. So this is kind of

So your average non-activity stress for a given day is about 5% of high stress, which is a sign that you're reasonably calm. I love when my loop tells me I'm not stressed. It's the greatest thing in the world. Okay, hold that thought. So for the Super Bowl, it was 14%, which is a huge outlier in your overall data. Did you feel that? Yes, I did 100% feel that. Three kids to a Super Bowl makes it even more stressful. Is there anything you do to manage that? You're sort of embrace it. race being stressed on a big day, like the Super Bowl. Yeah, it just, it is what it is. There's no getting around that for sure. You've been wearing whoop for a while. Is there anything specifically that you like using it for? I mean, the stress monitor is great because I'm like, okay, if my

whoop's telling me I'm not stressed, then I'm not stressed. Like, there's nothing to stress about, but I would say my favorite is my recovery. And when I take naps, tracking my sleep and then the stress. One of the themes we have with this new product launch and release is the idea of being able to take control of your own health and your own data. The systems around us aren't necessarily enabling us to be healthier. And so what are we doing as individuals to sort of take control of that? A theme that goes with that is just sort of this notion of a wake-up call in anyone's life to take control of their own health. And I'm curious for you, I mean, you've obviously been super healthy your entire life. Was there ever a moment, though, you had like a wake-up

call, like, gosh, I need to really seize this moment or I want to do more with my health and my performance. When I was pregnant with Sterling, I did become pretty sedentary and exhausted. With that pregnancy was the first time I had ever, you know, really taken a step back on fitness and, like, wasn't as active and high energy as I normally was. But I would say other than that first pregnancy hitting me hard and really, you know, letting me know, pregnancy is kind of hard at times. Other than that, I don't think so. I feel like my health and my, me being in shape and staying fit has always been a priority in my life, and it still is a pretty big priority.

How do you think you're going to instill that for your kids? I bring them to the gym with me all the time, and in Kansas City they come work out with me, and mommy's going to work out, and daddy's going to work out. Like, it's some of their favorite things to talk about and favorite things to do. So I really hope that they just kind of see us doing it and want to take it on themselves.

I mean, I would picture them being super active. Oh, my gosh. They're, yeah, very. I mean, Braun's doing bear walks, with his dad in the gym was probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen. But as they get older, the more and more they'll get to do with us and engage with us. And so I think it'll just kind of be a part of their life as they grow up. It's pretty exciting just the stage you're at in life and you and Patrick and, you know, family of three.

And, you know, obviously you're both succeeding enormously in your career. So I'm just super happy for you both. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. Thanks for coming on the podcast. Of course. If you enjoyed this episode of the WOOP podcast, please leave a rating or review. Check us out on social at WOOP at Will Ahmed. If you have a question was answered on the podcast, email us, podcast to Woop.com.

Call us 508-443-4952. If you think about joining Woop, you can visit Woop.com. Sign up for a free 30-day trial membership. New members to use the code Will, W-I-L-L, to get a $60 credit on W-U-A-Sestries when you enter the code at checkup. That's a wrap, folks. Thank you all for listening. We'll catch you next week.

on the Woo P podcast. As always, stay healthy and stay in the green.