A couple of weeks ago, I told my wife the biggest flex I have going right now is that my WHOOP age is eight years younger than my chronological age. 

Like any good wife that keeps her husband grounded, she turned and said ‘Well, you don’t look that much younger.’

For nearly four years I’ve worn a Whoop on my wrist. If you’re not familiar with Whoop, it’s a fitness device used to measure your sleep, heart rate variable, etc. There’s other similar products like an Oura ring and Apple Watch out there as well. 

Last week I noticed an update on Whoop where it lists your Healthspan gives you your Whoop age. WHOOP Age is a metric provided by WHOOP that reflects your physiological age based on your long-term health trends, as opposed to your chronological age. It’s essentially a measure of how well your body is aging compared to the average person your age. WHOOP also provides a “Pace of Aging” score, which indicates how quickly your WHOOP Age is changing.

When I saw that new feature, it got me thinking—what if more of us tracked health this way instead of only worrying about the bathroom scale or how our jeans fit? Numbers like weight and body fat are only part of the story. But your “health age” tells you how your body is actually performing.

So what affects your WHOOP age—or more broadly, your “real” healthspan? A few things:

• Sleep: Not just how long you’re in bed, but how much time you spend in restorative deep and REM sleep.
• Recovery: Taking a rest day, stretching, or even going for a walk can help lower stress and improve long-term performance.
• Exercise: Strength training, cardio, and mobility all play a role in keeping your body biologically younger.
• Nutrition: The quality of what you eat directly impacts inflammation, energy levels, and cellular health.
• Stress management: Your body doesn’t know the difference between work stress and workout stress—it all adds up.

What I love about the WHOOP age feature isn’t that it gives me bragging rights (although I’ll take it). It reminds me that the daily habits we practice really do add up over time. You don’t need a fitness tracker to know this either—you can measure progress by how you feel, how well you move, and how much energy you have for your day.So instead of focusing only on how old you are in years, ask yourself: “How young does my body feel?” The good news? You have more control over that number than you think.