Reacher star Alan Ritchson uses a different fitness tracker for his workouts... Why?

I have a strange hobby. I tend to overanalyse the social media posts of famous buff actors such as Henry Cavill and Chris Hemsworth, and since the mega-successful re-launch of the Reacher series on Amazon Prime Video, I added Alan Ritchson to the ever-expanding list of fitness celebrities I keep a close eye on. It's probably for the best because otherwise, I might have missed this small detail on one oh his recent Instagram posts: a fitness tracker. But not the one you'd expect.

It's not like actors who are into fitness don't wear fitness watches – you'll often spot an Apple Watch on workout videos of stars while Henry Cavill prefers Polar watches to track his runs and workouts. In some cases, you might even see a Fitbit or a Garmin here and there.

Alan's wearable choice is a different fitness tracker, one that was designed for athletes and puts less emphasis on step-tracking and more on calculating workout strain.

Have a look at this post from his Instagram:

I know it's hard to avoid looking at only those pecs and shoulders; they are massive, after all! I'm sure Alan has just finished a workout right before this photo was taken, and the lights are hitting his body at just the right angle but come on. His physique is ridiculously ripped.

Getting this big takes a lot of time and effort, which puts a lot of strain on your body. And the best fitness tracker to measure strain is the Whoop 4.0, the same tracker you see wrapped around Alan's wrist in the photo above. The Whoop band is most famous for measuring stress based on your heart rate variability and recovery (e.g. sleep) and is used by athletes worldwide (despite its heart rate accuracy issues).

The Whoop tracker looks inconspicuous enough to be mistaken for jewellery. During a conversation about this article, one T3 editor said it looked like a "dude bracelet" – go figure. Better still, it's wrist-agnostic; you can wear the band on whichever arm you prefer and swap it around when it gets uncomfortable.

Want to hear the best bit? The Whoop band is free. Quite literally. Unlike other fitness wearable manufacturers, Whoop doesn't make money on the physical device; instead, the company charges a monthly fee to access the app where your data and trend scores are stored. 

I enjoyed using the Whoop strap and found the sleep tracker (and the strain score) particularly helpful. Whoop also gives you weekly and monthly trend reports that put your efforts in perspective. My strain score often reflected how I felt that day – when I felt less energised, my score was high – which helped me a lot not to overtrain.

Fancy giving Whoop a try? You can join the Whoop community here. Or if you prefer a different fitness tracker, have a look at the best fitness tracker deals below.