Every December, I buy myself something. Nothing extravagant — just a small ritual I’ve followed since I started working. A token of appreciation for making it through another eleven months.
This year, the self‑gift was the Garmin Forerunner 165 .
It wasn’t an impulse buy, nor a perfectly intentional one. I’ve always used some kind of fitness tracker — mostly to monitor my heart rate during workouts and tennis, and to keep an eye on sleep and general lifestyle patterns.
For over 700+ days, Whoop 4.0 was my companion. A reliable one, too — except for its subscription paywall, which I eventually grew tired of.
When I started exploring alternatives, I narrowed it down to:
Garmin felt more complete - better ecosystem, better tracking philosophy.
I also used an Apple Watch Series 3 briefly in the past, but it didn’t appeal to me again for this cycle.
As for Whoop — I exported all my data from the entire 700‑day stretch. I’m now using it to calibrate my Garmin data, fine‑tune my workouts, and share insights with my strength coach.
It’s been around twenty days with Garmin so far, and I’m enjoying the experience.
Whoop’s recovery score and Garmin’s Body Battery aren’t identical, but the conceptual overlap is interesting. Whoop is more sophisticated in some ways, but with Whoop 5.0, and the subscription lock-ins I had reservations — I wanted something stable.
Garmin ticked all the boxes.
I’ll write a detailed review later — once I understand the Garmin ecosystem better and see how it shapes my training.