WHOOP Podcast - Introducing WHOOP Advanced Labs: Bloodwork, Biometrics, and AI Coaching

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

In this episode of the WHOOP Podcast, Founder and CEO, Will Ahmed, and Chief Product Officer, Ed Baker introduce WHOOP Advanced Labs — an all new feature that integrates 65 blood biomarkers with WHOOP data to deliver personalized coaching, clinician-reviewed reports, and actionable health insights. Learn exclusive insight about how WHOOP Advanced Labs empowers members to take control of their health, encourage lifestyle changes, and move closer to our mission at WHOOP to add 1 billion healthy years to people’s lives.Sign up for WHOOP Advanced Labs(00:00) Introduction to WHOOP Advanced Labs(02:51) Biomarkers, Bloodwork, & WHOOP Data(04:03) Uploading Past Bloodwork: How It Works(07:54) WHOOP Advanced Labs Subscription with Quest Diagnostics(12:03) Analyzing the 65 Key Biomarkers with WHOOP(13:34) Healthspan: Applying Advanced Labs Data to Weekly Habits(14:36) Bloodwork and Biomarkers as a Baseline For Sleep, Recovery, and Health(15:43) Data Made Simple(17:13) The Bigger Picture: The Future of WHOOP Advanced Labs(18:45) Privacy Assurance & Protecting User Data(19:30) Impact of Advanced Labs on Daily HabitsThe first 100 members to tap this link will unlock early access to WHOOP Advanced Labs.**Open the link on the same device as your WHOOP app.Support the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Sign up for WHOOP Advanced Labs Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

Okay, folks, we are back on the WOOP podcast. I'm here with the very talented Ed Baker, our chief product officer. And we are announcing Woop Advanced Labs. This now offers the most complete health testing experience. Woop Advanced Labs has tests across 65 biomarkers. We pair that with over 100,000 daily data points as collected by Woop. and it really brings a very powerful coaching experience. Nearly 70% of members said they wanted this experience within WOOP.

So we went out and built it. Now, there's two ways to use advanced labs. You can do free uploads of all of your past blood work now into Woop. So that means you can upload any blood tests that you've taken through any other providers or through your doctor. Very simple. You can upload a PDF. You can take photos of it.

And that date will be ingested into Woop. It'll be visualized for you over time within whoop and then start playing a role in how whoop coaches you on all your other data. Your training, your sleep, your recovery, your stress, so on and so forth. Separately, there's now a Woop Advanced Lab subscription where you can go to over 2,000 quest locations across the United States, starting in the U.S., and you can now take ongoing blood tests through WOOP. And so you do that whole experience through WOOP, you go take it at a quest location. And from there, you're going to get a clinician reviewed report that's going to give

you clear action plans. There's going to be seamless integration of that data in the app, your weekly plans, in the journal. There's flexible options, so you can sign up for one tests a year, you can sign up to six tests a year. And WOOP is privacy first. So all this data is encrypted. It's never shared without your consent. And advanced labs connects clinical results to daily behavior. So it's going to drive change. It's going to support our mission to add one billion healthy years to people's lives. Ed, how did this come to be, man?

Good to be here, first of all. And secondly, I'm super excited that we are finally launching advanced labs. As you said, our goal is ultimately to add more years to people's lives all around the world. let's get to that billion years added to the planet over the next decade. But I think one important piece of that is understanding what's going on in people's biomarkers. And so by measuring these biomarkers, we can find things that are otherwise hidden or that can potentially help explain some of the 100,000 daily data points we're tracking. And this can help us come up with action plans for members so they can actually take action

and address any biomarkers that might be off. Yeah, I think it's a really exciting continuation of our vision to understand the human body and to understand health. And it became clear as we did more research that biomarkers was this missing ingredient and blood work was this missing ingredient. I'm pretty amazed that over 70% of people said they wanted this. Totally. I mean, it's an exciting stat.

Although, when I think about it, it's maybe not that surprising. I did my blood work and was surprised by a couple of the things I found, and I'm excited to address those things. For example, even though I'm in shape and an endurance athlete, I tend to have a lower HRV. I noticed that my cortisol levels were a bit high, and so I'm like, maybe that's part of what's driving that lower HRV, and what's exciting now is I can actually take actions to address that. So I think everyone's probably going to find something, and And you can't really take action until you know what's off. And so this will help people understand what might be off.

And I'm glad you brought up that example because I think it really crystallizes the value of doing these tests and identifying specific things and then connecting it to your whoop data. Advanced Labs as a feature is really two different things all under the same umbrella. The first is uploading past tests and the second is being able to do ongoing tests. Let's talk about that first experience. Okay. Any existing WOOP member can upload any blood work testing they've done in the past as much as they'd like. And one nice thing about uploading multiple tests from the past is that you can see your trends. So you can see how have certain biomarkers been changing over time. So that's, again, a feature that's available to all WOOP members.

And we use our AI coach to give you kind of an action plan based on the results of those tests. Yeah, I think this is a great piece of functionality for all members, like whether or not you decide to take a bunch of tests through a whoop, just uploading all of your past results and seeing them in one place. I mean, I found it super valuable. I, you know, I've got this concierge doctor and I do blood tests with different people and, you know, some through my doctors, some through other providers over the past few years. And it would take me like 45 minutes to just figure out one biomarker, like what were the last three readings I had gotten. Totally. And so now you can upload these tests and now you're going to have beautiful visualizations over time, regardless of where you took it. And WUPL will, you know, store exactly when each data point was collected.

And it'll also quantify for you whether a biomarker was, you know, optimal, sufficient, or out of range, according to all of our research. That's right. And one thing that I really like about the interface is it's very different from experiences in the past where I'd just get a PDF of all of my. You know, biomarkers, and I have to scroll down, you know, looking for what might be off, and it was sometimes hard to even identify if something was off and if so by how much. Whereas now I just open up the Woop app and I can look at, you know, this really simple design where the ones that are out of range, you know, are right at the top. So I can focus on, okay, these three biomarkers are out of range.

And I love just being able to tap on each of those and talking to the AI coach about those different things. It's just like a very simple experience. Yeah, I will say also that we've updated the AI coaching experience alongside this launch. We're using now some of the latest models from OpenAI. We've built an agent that sits on top of this data. We've pulled in a lot of our own research on biomarkers. And it's a really rich experience I found just saying, okay, you know, my iron is lower than I was expecting. Why might that be? and all of a sudden the whoop coach writes, you know, three or four paragraphs and gives me very specific feedback.

And by the way, ties it to how I was sleeping or what city I was in or fill in the blank. And it's just like, it makes sense of this information. Totally. You know, I was having a recent conversation back to that cortisol example where the coach said that, you know, cortisol can cause my HRV to be lower. And then it also told me that sleep consistency and sleep duration can help improve. cortisol levels. So it kind of completes the loop. It ties it all together. So, you know, a lot of those metrics were already tracking 24-7 as you wear your whoop strap. This was kind of like one of the

missing pieces now that completes that loop. And again, all of this is included if you're a whoop member. So everything that we've just described, the ability to upload your past test, the ability to have it integrated with all your other whoop data, the ability to talk to the AI interface inside the app and get feedback on it. Like, that's all part of your membership. That's right. And so should feel like a meaningful leap forwards in your experience. And it's available across all tiers, whether you're Whoop 1, Whoop Peak, or Whoop Life, this is something we're making available for free to all of our members. Great.

Now, on top of that, you can also now collect Advanced Labs through Whoop, and you can do ongoing blood tests through Whoop. And we've partnered with Quest, Quest Diagnostics. Why them and what does that mean for access and reliability? Exactly. So Quest has 2,000 patient centers all around the United States. And so they're a great provider of these blood tests, no matter what city you live in in the U.S., there's probably a Quest location, not far from where you live. And scheduling an appointment is as simple as just going into the app and basically finding a place nearby and selecting a date and time.

So it's a really seamless experience. You go in, you get your blood drawn, and then when the results come in, they'll live. appear in your app. It's as easy as that. It's a really slick experience, I have to say. I mean, again, if I just compare it to previous experiences, I'm like texting with my doctor's office, trying to figure out where I was supposed to go, what time, what's the location, oh, I'm trying to find some confirmation email. All of it just lives in the Woop app, and it makes it really clear where you're supposed to go and at what time, you show up, you do a blood test, literally takes 15 minutes. And then from there, WOOP starts tracking how quickly you're going to get your

results. And I was pretty amazed also how quickly the results start coming in. I think I got my first results. So there's 65 biomarkers. I think I got my first results in maybe 24 hours. And then over the course of the week, they all came in. That's one other advantage I found to using Woop Advanced Labs was that most people don't realize this, but they actually only get the results. normally when all of the results are done. Whereas the way Whoop and Quest have set this up, you'll just start getting the results in the app in real time as they come through. That's right. It's exciting to kind of see that dial of how many of your 65 biomarkers have come in and seeing that increase over time and seeing, you know, which ones are optimal,

which ones, you know, need improvement. Yeah, there's a beautiful dial that the team designed, which Ed was just describing, where it shows essentially how many biomarkers are green, is optimal, blue, sufficient, and orange, which is out of range. And so you kind of see this wonderful dial to see what your status is. So once you've done the test within advanced labs and you did it through WOOP, what follows from there? What can people expect? Sure.

So after you've gone to Quest, gotten your blood drawn, and the results come in, you will get a clinician reviewed report from a licensed clinician. that will share insights about your biomarkers, including which ones are off and what that means. And then there will also be an associated action plan with actions that you can take to address any of those biomarkers that might be off. It's the first time we've kind of ever done something like this where we have a clinician in the loop. But I think we're going to see a lot more of this going forward. Yeah, I've found in the past when I've tried to talk to a doctor about my blood work. It's almost like I've had my Woop app there and he's got my blood work and we're like

trying to trade notes on what causes what. And in this case, the clinician actually is able to use your Woop data alongside your biomarkers to give this report. And it's, it's quite a powerful experience. And we've had some people in the office or in our beta group have like life changing results from this analysis. So it's just, I think it shows the potential of putting all this data under one roof. 100%. And we'll have integration with your weekly plan, with your journals. So there will be a way to actually track progress you're making against those biomarkers. So for example, if you see that your vitamin D levels might be off, maybe you track taking supplements. If you, in my case, another one of my biomarkers that was a little bit on the high end was cholesterol. And so I can do

things like track my zone two training time and my diet, for that matter. You know, last night we were at dinner and I ordered fish instead of steak. And I did that because of my advanced labs, you know, results. So I'm already seeing it change my own behavior. And I think that this will just help people actually change their behavior in ways that will help them live longer, healthier lives. Yeah, I think it's a really powerful report that you end up getting as a member. It's clearly structured. I'm just looking at mine right now, but it's clearly structured around what needs work, what's optimal. And you can dive into all these different categories like glucose control is athletic grade, vitamin D in the performance sweet spot. You know, I tap in this and there's

like a write-up. It shows me the relevant biomarkers to the theme of what it's talking about. And then if I look at the action plan, here it's telling me, okay, I need to average a certain number of hours of sleep, I go improve sleep consistency, it's talking about dim lights, and any of these things, because again, it's tied to my biomarkers, I can add any of these things to the weekly plan. And so, you know, for what members who are familiar, that then means on your homepage, you're going to see are you actually following along what you're supposed to be doing. and, you know, avoid iron supplements before repeat labs.

Okay, I'm supposed to avoid that. I'm going to add that to my weekly plan or avoid alcohol this week. Like, it's a deeper action plan or weekly plan now because it's incorporating these biomarkers. Totally. And we will also help you make that connection between your biomarkers and your health span contributors. So, you know, we have these nine health span contributors that determine your whoop age. and this will just be one more thing that helps you understand why some of those contributors might be off. There's the Homa IR score, which is the gold standard for measuring insulin

resistance. That's a very important one. There's APOB, which is the most accurate marker of LDL particle concentration, and therefore cardiovascular risk. And then there's cortisol, which is most commonly known as a stress hormone, and it affects recovery, sleep, focus, and energy regulation. You know, why is your sleep duration lower than you'd like for it to be? Maybe you're waking up more and not sleeping as well because one of your biomarkers is off. And once you address that, you'll be able to sleep better at night as an example. So that's another connection that I'm excited we'll be able to make. How do lab results become like a foundation for personalized recommendations on call it sleep or nutrition or recovery?

Sure. So what these results do is they make something like sleep, not just about sleep, but about the larger picture of your health. So for example, let's imagine that you find out your glucose or your HBA1C are out of range, and we're able to pinpoint that you average about six hours and 15 minutes of sleep, and that's contributing to it because it's not quite enough. and maybe your sleep consistency is off a bit as well. So we can then coach you to say, you know what, it's important to go to bed on time, improve your consistency, get a bit more sleep

duration. And it's not just about feeling better tomorrow, but it's actually an investment in your long-term health. So I think this will give people a longer-term view of their health and not just think about what I do today is going to impact how I feel tomorrow. It's about what I do today is actually going to add years to my life and help me live a longer, healthier life. So it's 65 biomarkers. I mean, I know when I've done tests through my doctor, maybe it was like 40 biomarkers that he thought were the right number. We obviously went a little bigger than that. I think some tests have, you know, even more than 65. We've been pretty intentional about this number. And I think you've designed an experience that is really compelling. How did we

do this so we're not overwhelming members with just more data. Sure. So, you know, we worked with a clinical team to come up with the right 65 biomarkers that we view as the kind of most comprehensive view of your well-being. And then what we really wanted to make sure we do in the app itself is have it feel very intuitive and simple so that you can just tap on which biomarkers were tested, and then it can show you, like, at the top, which ones are out of range. You can scroll down and see the ones that are sufficient or optimal. And with any of those, you can tap on them to go a layer deeper. So it's much more interactive than kind of the old way of doing these types of tests where you'd get an annual physical and, you know, get the results sent

over email or in a PDF or something. With these, you can really, like, dig into the ones that are off for you to better understand what they are and then not be too concerned about the noise of all the others if they're if they're within range. So if you're listening to this right now, Woop Advanced Labs is rolling out via the wait list. It's going to start in the United States and then we're going to go globally with it. As Ed mentioned, we're also going to be adding specialized tests, which is a big deal. So look for that over the coming quarters. And I think it really all ties to this bigger concept of a health operating system where you put all of this data under one umbrella and you use AI and sophisticated systems to explain that to the end member.

That's right. I mean, at the end of the day, we're building an ecosystem here that brings together the most important data, insights, and services to deliver personalized action plans that improve your overall health and quality of life. So we'd really like Woop to become the home for your health and a place where you can really collect all of that data that in the past has maybe been dispersed in different places and using AI, you know, take out the insights that really matter the most that can help you come up with an action plan for things you can do to improve your health, whether that's behavior changes like exercise, sleep, and diet, or if it's things like supplements or even prescriptions, we really want a place where we can bring all of that together.

Yeah, it's really exciting. And I think members will start to feel it as they upload some of their data and they start interacting with the coach. Obviously, this is only possible with a real focus at Woop on privacy and security of data. Talk a little bit about some of the work we're doing there to really keep this as secure in private as possible? Privacy and trust is a non-negotiable. So when we think about how do we, you know, where do we put resources in terms of what we're working on? Privacy and trust is the first thing we have to make sure we check that box before we can do anything else. We have a team that's just dedicated to working on that, doing everything to ensure that your data is private and secure. And we're going to be rolling out very shortly two-factor authentication.

which is a leap forwards in that category as well. Exactly. Are there any amazing anecdotes you've heard from people who have tested advanced labs so far? I think I mentioned the dinner last night where I wasn't the only one who ordered fish instead of steak. One of our other colleagues did the same thing. And he also told me his cholesterol was high without realizing it. I think that we're probably going to see a lot more as this rolls out. There is an addictive element to it where you start to see, okay, there's three things out of range.

immediately start implementing changes. Totally. Like in the back of my mind, I'm kind of like, okay, when am I going to do my next test? Yeah, I already want to do my next one. Yeah, and I've heard that from other people. So anyway, hopefully, hopefully our members appreciate that they can upload their past tests. And if they want to do tests through whoop, they can now do it. And look, the big picture is that this really contributes overall to preventative health, right? Being able to understand some of these biomarkers before they become a problem, being able to weave that into your whoop data and figure out lifestyle and behavior shifts that you can make to be healthier, that to me feels like the future of healthcare. And it's not just showing up to a doctor's

office on some random day of the year and trying to figure out what the state of things is. It's a 24-7 understanding of your body and your health. That's right. And it's so much easier to address problems when you catch them early before they become serious problems. So like you said, it's all about preventative health, getting health information early and often, and making long-term health a daily conversation. And I think that's what we're doing with Advanced Labs. Well, congratulations, Ed, to you and the whole product team and software team, data science team, for launching this feature. I think it's phenomenal. It's a huge cross-functional effort. So it's all the teams you mentioned. And it's really

every team at WOOP has been involved in building this and launching this. So it's a really exciting day for the company. Yeah, it's pretty cool, just how integrated this is. For all of you who are in the United States, this is now rolling out. You'll be coming off the waitlist and the order that you signed up or how long you've been a member. And then if you're interested in this, you can now go into the WOOP app. You can sign up for the waitlist and you'll be notified when you can start uploading and taking tests. And there's more to come. Like we're going to keep building this out. We've got a whole pipeline of specialized tests and functionality. And we hope you love but all right thanks ed thank you if you enjoyed this episode of the whoop podcast please leave a

rating or review check us out on social at whoop at will omit if you have a question was answered on the podcast email us podcast at whoop dot com call us 508 443 4952 if you think about joining whoop you can visit whoop dot com sign up for a free 30 day trial membership new members can use the code will w i l to get a 60 dollar credit on whoop accessories when you enter the code at check out. That's a wrap, folks. Thank you all for listening. We'll catch you next week on the WOOP podcast. As always, stay healthy and stay in the green.