Another WHOOP patent adds to the muscle oxygen picture

WHOOP’s muscle oxygen work is starting to look a little less like an isolated patent and more like part of a bigger project. A newer filing around wearable fit and optical contact could solve one of the main problems with measuring muscle oxygen properly.

Back in April, we wrote about a WHOOP patent covering a pressure-sensitive wearable that could sit on places such as the thigh, chest or arm. The patent talked specifically about muscle oxygen saturation, along with oxygenated and deoxygenated haemoglobin, which immediately made it more interesting than the usual wearable sensor filing. 

Since then, another WHOOP patent application has surfaced. Published on July 16 as US 2026/0198860 A1, it focuses on something much less exciting on paper, making sure a wearable is sitting against the body with the right amount of pressure.

But when you put the two patents next to each other, it starts to make more sense.

Getting the fit right

WHOOP’s idea is fairly clever. The wearable uses its own haptic motor to create a small vibration, then watches what happens using its optical and motion sensors.

From that response, the system can estimate how tightly the wearable is sitting against the body and how good the sensor contact is. It could then tell you to tighten or loosen the strap, or automatically run another check if the quality of the readings starts to drop.

WHOOP also talks about using the system in different places on the body. That includes the wrist, bicep, ankle, calf and torso, and the sensor could even be held in place by elastic clothing rather than a normal strap.

That detail is probably the most interesting part. It fits surprisingly well with the muscle oxygen patent we saw earlier this year, which also wasn’t really tied to the wrist.

Why this could be connected to muscle oxygen

Muscle oxygen sensors need good contact with the tissue underneath them. If the device is too loose, the optical signal can become noisy. If it is too tight, the pressure itself can start affecting local blood flow.

WHOOP talks about exactly those kinds of problems in the newer patent. It specifically discusses poor optical coupling when a sensor is too loose, and problems caused by excessive pressure when it is too tight.

That makes the April patent more interesting in hindsight. That filing combines optical sensing with pressure measurements and specifically mentions muscle oxygen saturation and haemoglobin-related data.

There is still nothing in the filings that directly says these technologies will be used together. So that connection remains speculation.

But it would make sense. One patent covers measuring what is happening inside the muscle, while another tackles the problem of making sure the sensor is pressed against the body correctly.

Strength Trainer gives WHOOP somewhere to use it

There is another reason this is worth watching.

WHOOP has been putting much more emphasis on muscular load through Strength Trainer. The current system estimates how much strain resistance training puts on the body using things such as exercises, weights, reps, sets, motion and cardiovascular data.

That works, but it is still an estimate. WHOOP isn’t directly measuring what is happening inside the muscle itself.

Muscle oxygen could change that. A sensor sitting on the thigh or bicep could potentially track how quickly oxygen is being used, how a muscle responds during repeated sets and how quickly it recovers between efforts.

That would give WHOOP a much more direct way of looking at muscular fatigue. It could also make Strength Trainer considerably more interesting, especially for workouts where cardiovascular strain doesn’t tell the whole story.

None of this means WHOOP is about to launch a muscle oxygen sensor. There is still no obvious regulatory filing, app reference or announced hardware that points to an imminent product.

But there are now enough pieces to make the idea worth following. WHOOP has patents covering muscle oxygen measurements, pressure-sensitive wearables, sensors worn on different parts of the body and systems that automatically check whether those sensors are sitting correctly.

That is a lot of work around one fairly specific problem.