Notable features: Fabric band, sleep tracker, no screen display, membership required, 1.5-meter water resistance, no GPS | Battery life: 5 days | Connectivity: iOS and Android compatible, Whoop app

This discreet black strap doesn’t have a screen or any type of display, but if you’re looking for a fitness tracker to give you a holistic view of your overall health, I’d recommend giving the Whoop a try — especially if you’re focused on performance. It measures your strain, or your daily exertion, and gives you a recovery score, which is a combination of metrics measured by the strap sensor (heart-rate variability, resting heart rate, sleep performance, and respiratory rate). Whoop says the higher your recovery score, the more prepared your body is for physical activity. I like using this strap not only for tracking my daily activities (you can’t view your stats during the activity because of the lack of a screen — only on the app afterward) but also for all the time I spend not doing them, such as when I’m resting and sleeping. While other fitness-tracking apps will simply tell me how much sleep I got, I found Whoop’s reports to be much more detailed. It will not only tell me how much time I spent in deep sleep and how many times I woke up, but if I have a less-than-ideal night of sleep, it will calculate how much more sleep I need the next night to make up for poor sleep quality. Its heart-rate sensor will also tell me how much time I spent in a high-stress zone during the day, which is helpful to know throughout the workday. All of this granular tracking might feel exhaustive, but for athletes who geek out on metrics, the Whoop can offer much more data beyond step count and heart rate.

Lots of top athletes (including professional basketball player Sue Bird and Citius Mag founder Chris Chavez) use the Whoop strap. It’s also a good choice for weekend warriors looking to maximize their fitness. Rex Chatterjee, creative director of the digital-media firm Dune Road Lifestyle and a former competitive bodybuilder, says Whoop gives him a holistic view of his body’s current state, and Rachel Lapidos, senior lifestyle-and-beauty editor at Bustle, likes how, compared to a tracker that only measures steps or distance, Whoop provides more personalized feedback on her workouts. “With the recovery score, I feel like I’m doing my body more of a favor since I know that if my score is low, I should take it easy rather than push myself, and vice versa,” she says.

Anthony Chavez, a master trainer at CorePower Yoga, is also a Whoop fan, and like Chatterjee, he appreciates the focus on overall health and behavior. “I’ve even begun to notice trends in the metrics based on how hydrated I am or how a glass (or two) of wine will affect my sleep and overall recovery the next day,” he says. Andrea Fornarola, founder of the barre and dance-fusion studio Elements Fitness, calls the Whoop her “newest obsession,” and Nathan Forster, CEO and founder of the on-demand workout platform NEOU, says it’s his tracker of choice. Swerve instructor-operations director Jenna Arndt and SoulCycle master instructor Maddy Ciccone mention Whoop’s “strain coach,” which, as Arndt explains, guides you “how hard to push based on your recovery level.” And the strap doesn’t come with GPS, so you can’t track distance on a run by wearing the strap alone. You can, however, use the Whoop app on your phone during a distance activity and use GPS tracking for your workout that way.

These are his confessions.

Usher revealed his daily diet and exercise regimen to maintain his fit physique, which includes fasting on Wednesdays, cayenne pepper drinks and meditation.

“Typically I wake up and drink celery juice. I’ve been doing this concoction of lemon, ginger, water and cayenne pepper. I drink it hot,” he told the Wall Street Journal in a new interview published Monday.

“I try to wake up early enough to have a moment of reflection. Some days I may grab a book and read to stimulate my mind. I may sit quietly and meditate. One thing that is a frequent practice is yoga. It really does help to activate my organs and get my mind moving in the right direction.”

For breakfast, the “U Got It Bad” singer, 45, said he sometimes likes to eat “eggs scrambled with cheese” but he mostly likes his eggs “poached or over easy.”

However, Usher shared that he doesn’t like to eat breakfast before he’s “worked out or done something physical,” like “taking a walk, stretching or doing yoga, sitting in the sun and raising my body’s natural heat levels.”

The eight-time Grammy winner also said he fasts in the middle of the week because it’s something his “grandmother practiced.”

“I fast on Wednesdays. I typically try to start around 11 p.m. the previous day, then go the entire day on Wednesday just drinking water,” he told the outlet.

As for what Usher’s fitness regime involves, the pop star usually starts with “walking or certain knee activations.”

“I’ve had minor surgeries on my knee, I had a torn meniscus. Other than that, swimming is a really good thing to get me going and bike riding. Weight lifting, don’t do a lot of that,” he explained.

In February, Usher headlined the 2024 Super Bowl in Las Vegas.

During his 15-minute set, he performed a plethora of his hits song, including “My Boo,” “OMG” and “Yeah!”

Although the “Confessions” singer made it look easy on stage, he told WSJ that the halftime show was “one of the hardest 15 minutes that I’ll ever have in my life” and that he had to work out every day to execute the show the way he wanted to.

“I didn’t really have the time to do a lot of other things,” he said. “I was remedying my body the night before and waking up the next day and eating a very regimented, low-carb diet.”

Walking is one of the most effective and easily accessible exercises. Walking can be easily undertaken by most people, even by those who are suffering from neurological or orthopaedic problems. Regular walking not only enhances cardiovascular fitness but also plays a pivotal role in reducing the risk factors associated with various chronic diseases. It is an effective way to improve health and reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, dementia and cardiovascular diseases. Further, the benefits of walking go beyond physical health and have a significant impact on mental well-being as well. It has been linked to reduced stress levels, improved mood, and enhanced overall quality of life.

Walking helps in weight management, improving insulin sensitivity, and lowering blood pressure, which helps prevent obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. Further, some studies reveal that the health benefits of walking extend to cognitive health, and it can work as a catalyst in reducing the risk of dementia through increased blood flow to the brain and enhanced neural connections.

But can you make walking more effective? Dr Sudhir Kumar, MD, DM Neurology at Apollo Hospital Hyderabad took to X (formerly Twitter) where he has shared some means by which you can make walking more effective:

Vary Stride Length: Take shorter or longer steps while walking. For every 1 per cent increase in step length variability, there is a 0.7 per cent increase in the metabolic cost of walking.

Walk Backwards: Walking backwards can be fun as well as healthy. Walking backwards activates different sets of muscles (hamstrings and calves) and strengthens them. Walking backwards also improves balance and coordination, reducing the risk of falls. It is also good for joint health.

Walk In Greenery: Walking in parks with greenery or in natural forests provides benefits beyond what is expected from the effect of exercise alone. Greenery improves mental & cognitive functions and boosts the immune system as well.

Walk Briskly (faster pace): Walking is beneficial; walking faster is more beneficial. Aim for a pace of 3 miles per hour (or faster) to derive greater benefits from walking.

Walk More: In general, the benefits increase as the total number of steps (walked) increases. If you are healthy and well-trained, there is no upper limit for walking. People who are just starting, or those with heart or joint diseases, need to be careful about the duration (and distance) of walking.

Walk After Meals: Short walks (5-10 minutes) after meals improve insulin sensitivity and help in sugar control and weight management.

Take Walking Breaks During Office Hours: Prolonged sitting may be as dangerous to your health as smoking. As per research, doing five minutes of light walking for every 30 minutes of sitting can help offset the harm.