WHOOP Podcast - How 3x World Champion Patrick Mahomes Relies on Sleep and Recovery

Episode Date: September 4, 2024

On this week’s episode, WHOOP Founder and CEO Will Ahmed is joined by 3x World Champion, Patrick Mahomes. Patrick is coming off another championship and gearing up for another grueling season in which he and the Chiefs are trying to accomplish something no other team has done before, three-peat as champions. Mahomes is also getting ready for another major life moment, the birth of his third child. Will and Patrick discuss Patrick’s leadership style in 2023 (1:03), staying injury-free (2:46), nutritional habits (4:35), Patrick’s WHOOP data (5:55), preparing for Super Bowl LVIII (9:31), Patrick’s data from the big game (11:11), and a rapid-fire question round (14:37).Resources:Patrick’s InstagramPatrick’s XPatrick’s Facebook15 and the Mahomies FoundationFollow WHOOP:www.whoop.comTrial WHOOP for FreeInstagramTikTokXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will Ahmed:InstagramXLinkedInSupport 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

Throughout my entire career, obviously, this was probably the longest stretch of adversity that we had kind of dealt with. But there had been times in little pockets here and there where I had to be that leader, and I learned from those moments. Even though every single week in the NFL seems like the biggest thing in the world, it's a long season. And I try to preach that to the guys is we've got to continue to get better and better. And guys did. We were playing our best football at the very end, and that's all that matters. And I was very proud of the guys and how they continue to fight through adversity throughout the season. what's up folks welcome to the whoop podcast we have an amazing guest today Patrick Mahomes

who needs no introduction we're going to talk a little bit about his Super Bowl win his whoop data how he's peeking with his sleep and his recovery tips for you to get better at sleep and then we do a little rapid fire on the new NFL format that's this conversation right now all right what's up man good to be back with you man I know it's been a while I know you've only won a couple of Super Bowls. It hasn't been that long. I know. We're trying to keep winning more, though. Well, congratulations. It's phenomenal to watch your success. And I thought I'd start with just talking a little bit about your leadership style this last year, because it feels like over the course of the season, there was a lot more criticism of the team and of you even than

I think you had experienced in the past. And I'm curious just how you felt your leadership style evolve throughout that? I think just over time throughout my entire career, obviously this was probably the longest stretch of adversity that we had kind of dealt with, but there had been times in little pockets here and there where I had to be that leader, and I learned from those moments. And so even though every single week in the NFL seems like the biggest thing in the world, it's a long season. And I try to preach that to the guys is we've got to continue to get better and better. And guys did. And I mean, if you looked at our season, if you look back at it, we were playing our best football at the very end, and that's all that matters.

And I was very proud of the guys and how they continue to fight the adversity throughout the season. Does it bother you when you hear people criticizing specific players on your team or is it something you kind of just drown out? I think we have a great group of guys and coaches that you don't necessarily hear it.

I mean, you hear it because you get asked the questions and everything like that. But when you're in the building, we're just a family. And I can't speak to every team in the NFL or any sport, but I feel like we have a really tight-knit bond that's the reason why we've had so much success. You lean on those guys around you and you try to do whatever you can to help them have success and keep pushing them to be great every day. A lot of that's also probably great coaching staff.

Oh, 100% great coaching staff. I mean, we have one of the best coaches of all time, any sport. I mean, just Coach Reed, and he kind of has this culture, this environment that started even before I was there. And it's all about being the best you can be every single day and letting everything else kind of handle itself. Now, your body this season was, it seemed like, about his injury. free as it been throughout your career. And I was talking a little bit to Bobby, your trainer, about this. And he was saying actually a lot of that work actually started in the prior season because you were coming back from that ankle injury. Yeah, no, we do a great job. I think Bobby does a

great job. And we talk about it throughout every single season of how we can adapt and be even better than next. And as I get older and play more and more football, you're going to take more and more hits and have little deans here and there. And we try to learn from that. We try to learn from that and prepare our bodies, and the more I've kind of been in the NFL, we've evolved that training regimen, and I think we have it down pretty well to where we're going to do whatever we can to be the best we can with preventing injuries. I mean, they're going to happen, but whenever they do happen, you have to have a plan on how you're going to attack those and be ready for the next week.

One thing that was interesting to hear Bobby talk about is the idea of trying to get your weight a little bit lower to take less pressure off of your ankle. And it sounded like towards the end of last season, and even in the... the off season, you all were focused on that. And then it was something that you actually felt good about. You felt good about that sort of lighter energy. Yeah, no, it's crazy. My weight fluctuates a lot, but we have a good plan of kind of in the early

parts of the season, I'll hold more weight. I'll kind of hold a little bit more weight to take those hits and do those different type of things. But as the season went on, we decided to let's try to cut as much as we can to be light and be fast and be able to move and avoid some of those hits that I might take later in seasons. in years past, and this was the lightest I'd been since high school, playing football, and that was because we had a good game plan of how we're going to attack it, not only with Bobby,

with my chef and everybody like that, and I thought it helped me get all the way to the Super Bowl and stay injury-free. Who's a healthier eater? You or Brittany? Oh, Brittany, 1,000 percent. I mean, it's crazy to see because I try to stay away from some of the snacks. The snacks are what get me. I eat pretty well with, like, the snacking is what gets me.

And so as we get in the season, I cut down on those. season is where I kind of major in those things. And over the course of the week, it sounds like your weight actually decreases fairly dramatically. So you'll be at like 2.30 on a Monday. And then over the course of the week, come closer to game day, closer to 220. Is that about right? Yeah, 100%. And it's kind of something that I've, like I said, we've mastered over time. I like to, after the games, I'll go have a big meal. And I eat heavy before the games. And then you work all those calories off or all that stuff off. And I eat a big kind of cheat meal,

as I call it, after the game and on Monday nights. And then after that, with Bobby and my chef, we have a plan of kind of eating lighter and lighter all the way up until Saturday. And then the night before the game, I have one more or last big meal to kind of get those calories in because I'm not the best at eating on-game days, but I have to be able to eat something to get me through the game. And you've cut sugar out.

It sounds like after 5 p.m. I try to. I try to. And especially later in the week, later in the week, I try to cut the sugar out. It's definitely something that I still enjoy, especially early in the week as my cheat meal days. But as we get later on towards game day,

I try to focus on getting that out of my diet. Well, we're obviously very proud to have you on WOOP, and you've shared some of your WOOP data with us throughout your season and career. One thing that's pretty fascinating is just how much you ratchet your sleep up over the course of the week, and then even the difference between regular season and postseason. So, for example, like throughout the week on, say, a Wednesday or Thursday, your sleep performance might be in like the high 60%.

And then as you get closer to Sunday, you're in the high 70s, right? Yeah. For sleep performance. And that's in the regular season. And then when we look at your average for the postseason, come game day, you're at 86% sleep performance on Sunday. So it seems like you just keep ratching it up as it gets closer to game day and it gets closer to postseason. 100%. I mean, obviously, it's more important to me to find those times where I either get more sleep or get better sleep.

and that comes with just learning my body and having years of whoop experience and knowing how to get better sleep for myself. And then I always said there's a little bit of that that the football games. There's not many football games as the postseason comes around kind of during the week and that's kind of the only thing that keeps me up

is maybe like a Monday night football game. I might stay up a little bit later to watch the end of the game. And so as you get later in the season, there's less football games to watch and I can focus more on just sleep and get my body right. What are a couple of your sleep tips? Yeah, I think the, biggest thing that I've learned for myself at least is just having the cold room and then having

the very dark rooms. I think that that has been the biggest thing for me that's changed. Kind of when I first started whoop and then when I first kind of, before I was married and everything like that, I would sleep with a TV on or like just getting off my phone or whatever that was in my recovery score stayed in that kind of 40 to 60-ish type of range and I couldn't figure out why. And then it's a part me and then apart Brittany. Brittany's like we're going to be in a cold room, blackout curtains, no TV on. Once I started doing that, my recovery scores started going way up, and I just try to maximize that. And that's like I'm saying, the football game is not being late, and I can turn the TV off early and kind of sit there and just kind of decompress for the rest of the day.

That's what's kind of helped my scores go up. Well, I'm super impressed by your recovery data because, you know, for a professional football player, and we've got a number on whoop, like you spend very little time in the red. You know, only 2% of all of your days are on, are in red. recoveries, which for whoop is obviously a very low recovery. And then you spend, you know, close to 55% of your time in the green, which is obviously really good. And when we look at your recovery scores over the course of the week, it seems like it's going up again leading up to game day, which of course is really what you want to do. Yeah, 100%. I mean, it's, that comes with everything, eating better, knowing your body, and then the experience of just being able to

look at my whoop every single day and know what I did the day prior and how it helped my recovery score. And so that's something that I've gotten better and better at. I'm sure you can find the data every single year. It seems like my recovery score keeps going up and up. And it's not just me. It's people around me and finding that right balance of having fun and living life, but being the best of taking care of your body. 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. Let's talk a little bit about your preparation for the Super Bowl, because again, it seems like you nailed that. If I look at your sleep efficiency, your sleep performance score, like both close to 90%, your recovery, straight in the green. I imagine for a lot of people, especially for someone maybe playing their first Super Bowl, like there's anxiety that night before, right?

And so you actually got your body to be peaking on game day. Is that just experience? What is that? It's for sure experience is the main part about it. I mean, I remember going into the week of the Super Bowl in general and just knowing the schedule, knowing what you had to do every single day

that was extra than your normal football routine, football week, it prepared my body and it prepared my mind. And so that, as well as just being in that position before, it wasn't like I was super anxious or nervous. I mean, obviously there's going to be some nerves there. But more than that, I was focused on just going out there and being myself. And we had a great plan for the entire week.

We had a great plan for the entire season, and I was peeking at the perfect time. Did you find, like, right before going to bed the night of the Super Bowl, like you were thinking about anything different than any other previous game? No, I mean, especially this one. I don't know why this one, that all of them, I felt the most comfortable. just throughout the entire thing, the entire week. It could have been, because we were playing in the Raider Stadium.

I'd been at that hotel several times in my career. I'd been in that room before. It was a lot of common things, and I was just very calm about how I was taking care of my body. We got workouts in like we usually do. We got practices in. Obviously, there's uptick and media and stuff I had to do, but I'd done it before, so I expected it. And it just took a lot of the nerves away, and I feel like that's why, to me, I played my best Super Bowl I'd played so far. Well, it was an amazing game.

Unbelievable. Let's talk a little bit about the strain of the game because you were wearing your whoop during the Super Bowl, which is fascinating. So first of all, for the Super Bowl, you logged a 20.5 on whoop. So for anyone on whoop, that's like, that's like pretty, you know, the kind of thing like an ultra marathoner might get. It's like a little bit harder than a marathon for most people. So it just shows how insanely intense a Super Bowl is. And then interestingly, your average heart rate for each quarter was progressively going up. Yeah.

And I'm curious if you felt that. So in pregame, your average heart rate was around 120. And then in the first quarter, it gets up to 138. Yeah. And then in the second quarter, you're at 145 as an average heart rate. Then at halftime, you're back down to 133, so your buys relaxing. Third quarter, 156, fourth quarter, close to 160. So it's like with each progression of the game, you were ratcheting up.

Did you feel that, or was that just your body responding to the moment? I think a lot of it was body just responding. I think in the fourth quarter, I definitely felt the intensity of the game. I felt picked up, which it should. It's the Super Bowl. This is for everything that you worked for all year long. And I feel like in those moments is where the best comes out of you. The intensity, I feel like brings in focus, brings in a calm in a sense,

where all you can focus is on football, and you're not worried about everything else that's happening around you. And I think it is cool to see that you progressively got bigger and bigger. And that's what I prepare for is just to have my heart rate keep climbing and climbing. So when I'm the most tired, when I'm the most exhausted, I can be comfortable with that position and be comfortable to go out there and be my best. And that stuff that I work on through my workouts throughout the all season and prepare obviously for end the season. Well, one thing that's unique I've noticed in your data is that actually when you're in

control of the moment, your heart rate will sometimes come down. And when you're actually out of control, that's where some of the stress will seep in. I don't know if you feel that, but guess what your highest heart rate moment was during the Super Bowl? I would say in late fourth quarter, whenever they had the ball and they could get a first down to kick the football to win. So close, it was when Bukker was kicking the tying field goal at the very end of the game. That for sure was it. And your heart rate was at 191. So you were like, you were jacked. Now that you say that, I definitely was like, I love Bucker, and I know he can, he makes those big kicks for us,

but whenever it's out of your hands and it's in those moments, man, your heart gets going a little bit. How did it feel coming down and winning that final drive? Man, it was very surreal. We had been in some moments that were very similar, winning games, but not in the Super Bowl, and not in overtime of the Super Bowl. I mean, that's something that only a few people have been able to do,

and you're very focused, but I think it's almost like a calming relief whenever you throw that ball and the touchdown happens and I think you see me, I kind of run, I don't even know where to go, I'm just running, and I just lay down and it's just like all the adversity

that this season had brought to us, it paid off the grind that we had had every single day. And so that's a Super Bowl that I'll never forget, a game that I'll never forget, and just winning that and that feeling is something that's why you play sports and that's why you go out there with these guys and try to win.

We're going to do a quick rapid fire, okay? So, what's your lowest recovery ever? Like 1%. Would you remember why? Probably after the Super Bowl. I don't know. Celebrating. Yes.

What is, who's your favorite international footballer right now? Right now, I can't pronounce his name, Lameen Yundel, the dude from Spain that he's like 16 years old. Oh, yeah. You just scored that goal. Yeah, so him, he's like the young cat I like, and then I was always a Renaulto fan growing up, so I always love him. Kansas City Barbecue or Texas Barbecue?

I refuse to answer that question. Okay. He's opted out of this. How do you feel about the new playoff overtime format? Man, I just play ball. It's went both ways for me. New kickoff rule. It's going to be exciting.

You like it? No, we're going to see it. It'll be exciting. Christmas Day games? Not my favorite, but I'm going to play better than I did last year. All right, so this is the Patrick v. Brittany session. Who goes to bed earlier? Brittany.

Who's a better sleeper? Brittany. Who's more nervous before a big game? Brittany. Who's more of a softie with the kids? Me. And then in high school, who made the first move? Me.

Okay. Yeah. You know, that match is actually pretty close to him to what she said. We're going to have some whoop data to check on the sleep. The sleep? I mean, like, once I'm asleep, I sleep better, but she can sleep anywhere at any time. So I give it to her, but she does wake up fast.

And if I'm asleep, I'm out. Well, look, we're stoked to have you both on WOOP. Congratulations on the newborn coming. And just so happy for all your success. Appreciate you, man, always. All right, thank you. Thank you, Patrick, for coming on the WOOP podcast. If you want to learn more about WOOP, check us out at WOOP.

sign up for a free 30-day trial where you can literally try this product for free. And then if you want to learn more about the WOOP podcast, don't hesitate to subscribe to the WOOP podcast. Thank you all. Stay healthy. Stay in the green.