Core By Hyperice Puts The Power Of Meditation In The Palm Of Your Hands

The world has seen a huge increase in the acceptance of mental health issues and treatment, especially since we all went through the collective trauma of the Covid-19 pandemic. More celebrities, influencers and mainstream outlets have talked up the need for psychotherapy and other mental health remedies, including the ancient discipline of meditation. If you’re like me, you’ve attempted meditation in the past but were left wondering if you even got anything from it.

Your meditation experience is about to level up with Core by Hyperice. Designed to build inner strength and awareness of the connection between body and mind, Core is a small hand-held device engineered to meet you wherever you are in your mental health journey. From beginners in meditation to those with more experience, users of Core receive custom guidance from professionals who have built their careers in wellness and mental health.

Recently, I added Core to the tools for my mental health journey. Here I’ll be breaking down the ins and outs of my personal experience, this device and its attached app while also bringing you direct insight from Hyperice CEO Jim Huether.

Let’s dive in and see if Core is worth the cost to add to your routines.

The origin of Hyperice’s Core device

Since long before Hyperice acquired Core in July 2021, it has offered a variety of personal care devices for physical recovery. Given its focus on enabling users to take charge of their own health, perhaps it was only a matter of time before Hyperice began expanding into the world of the mind. The Core device has become the bridge to offering customers a more holistic approach to self-care and personal growth.

The Core product grew out of a collaboration between Sarah McDevitt, now head of mind tech at Hyperice, and Brian Bolze, who works in the same group. Both wanted to create a visual and tangible connection between the user’s body and mind. By drawing on McDevitt’s background in engineering and athletics and Bolze’s background in data analytics and software development, that intention for inner connection became a reality with the launch of Core.

McDevitt and Bolze have created a device that tracks your electrocardiogram (ECG) data and connects to an app via Bluetooth. The ECG data indicates how often the heart beats (heart rate) and how regularly it beats (heart rhythm). The device and app follow this biofeedback during the guided meditations supplied through the app. Your meditations are accompanied by vibrational patterns coming from the Core device. These vibrations keep you anchored in the present and focused on your intentions. Ultimately, these patterns and the data collected allow you to connect more intimately with your own internal regulating systems.

Your body and mind react to each other through the parasympathetic nervous system, with your heart being the driving force regulating that feedback loop. If you are calm during a meditation, your body is at rest; thus, your parasympathetic nervous system is dominant. If you are in a state of focus thanks to meditation, your heart rate variability (HRV) increases, causing your cardiovascular and nervous system patterns to train and strengthen your parasympathetic nervous system. By tapping into the power of your mind through the self-awareness that Core brings, you can restore balance in these systems and live in a healthier way. Not only are you then able to better regulate stress, but you are also influencing respiration, heart rate, digestion and how efficiently your body consumes energy.

As soon as you start setting up the Core app on your phone, you receive a custom experience specific to your needs. As you figure out what you need for a particular day, moment or feeling that you’re experiencing, you can select a meditation that will benefit you the most.

When I set up the app, I found the process quick and straightforward. I didn’t need to share much personal information, because the device runs mainly off of what it learns about you through biofeedback data. You can select a general area of growth or self-care that you want to focus on, which directs the app to suggest specific guided meditations and courses. I chose the “Self-Discovery and Growth” category when I set up my profile, but there’s no need to stress too much over this selection, because you can easily change it later. The app is full of different topics and focus areas, especially if you purchase the optional premium content, which I will investigate later.

How does the app use biofeedback data to help in meditation? To understand the value of meditating with the Core app, I’ll begin dissecting the ins and outs of the Core device itself.

The Core device

When you unbox Core, you’ll find the sphere-like Core device—a simple design easy to hold in your hands—along with a charger base connected by a C-USB charger and a very simple manual. The device has been carefully engineered to act as a meditation companion while collecting data rather than being distracting. During its development stages, there were even focus groups who used clay to create a shape they found most comforting and easy to hold.

The device has two symmetrical sets of small metal dots in a slightly curved form; this is where you place your thumbs during meditation as you hold the device. The dots are so sensitive that even if you hold the device gently, it will still accurately pick up the ECG data from your body. This helps you feel more relaxed and allows you to focus more on the meditation than whether you are holding the device properly.

The unit is made of lightweight hard plastic, only 0.6 pounds, and quite small, 3.5 x 3.5 x 3.5 inches, allowing it to almost disappear into your hands as you dive deeper into your meditations. However, you can still feel vibrations gently pulsing inside it. These vibrations are set to match whichever meditation you choose. You may be new to using vibrations to anchor your mind in meditation, which is why the app has four “Core Basics” sessions, each under 10 minutes, that you can go through when you’re starting out. These short, simple sessions teach you how to use your breathing along with the device vibrations to get the most out of your meditation.

The main problem I found with the device was that it needed to stay on the charger base when not in use, or else it would drain the battery. It would also send Bluetooth pairing requests to my phone when it wasn't in use, meaning that the device was still powered on and trying to connect to the app. Additionally, the device rests loosely on the charger base and can easily be knocked off, possibly causing damage.

Otherwise, I had no issues with the meditation trainer device. Let's dive into the companion app and the categories it offers.

Inside the Core app

The app is broken down into sections that offer different ways to explore meditation. Thumbnails let you see how long a session is. A section called “Breath Training” focuses on the breath, allowing you to choose the duration. I loved this because, once I went through the guided tutorial on breathing techniques, I could set the timer in the app and continue to use the given pace, vibration and music to practice breathing.

New meditations are added to the app daily, and each week a new “Self Care a special Sunday” session is added to help you prepare for the week ahead. If you want sounds and music without any guides, there is a section for that, too. You can use the vibrations with these sessions, again setting the timer to the duration you want (including an "endless loop" setting), or you can choose device-free mode to use the audio without the Core device. I especially enjoyed this mode while using the rainfall audio within the "Nature" subcategory. I would choose the endless loop setting and listen to the rain while reading or sleeping.

The professional coaches who guide you through mediation and inspirational reflections raise this app's credibility and value. There are even bilingual meditations from some of the coaches; Dutch, French, Danish, Swedish, Finnish & Norwegian. The Hyperice team carefully picks these licensed and certified coaches, who are qualified in unique areas—exercise and sports psychology, stress reduction, trauma-informed mindfulness, yoga, psychotherapy and more. "Diversity is important to us," Huether said as he told me how they choose instructors. "We are always looking for a mix of teaching backgrounds, languages, locations and areas of expertise."

Meditation by itself can be incredibly valuable for helping you learn about yourself and handle the chaos of life. Add in something tangible that assists you in understanding the rhythms of your body, staying grounded, remaining motivated and being guided by professionals, and it seriously levels up your mental health game. You aren't just receiving value while using the device; you are also gaining skills and self-control that you can use throughout your day without the device.

If you want the best value from the device, I recommend opting for premium access in the app. Hyperice offers the Core device for $179 and premium access at $69.99 per year. You can also bundle the two for $199 per year. There is also the option to try premium access for two weeks free. You can purchase Core through the Hyperice website here.

Core is not only for people who want to commit to a daily meditation routine for growth. The app supports many different types of users and areas of intention: athletes looking to focus better and gain a performance edge; parents who want to calm down after a chaotic day; professionals who need a boost to motivate themselves through a challenging project.

As Jim Huether puts it, "Core is for anyone who wants to prioritize their health and wellness. Mental wellness is fundamental for everyone, whether you're an elite athlete or an individual who wants to live better. So if you're looking for relief from a difficult time or a boost in focus for your next big goal, we believe that taking care of the mind is at the core of everything we do."

Hyperice’s commitment to wellness

Hyperice is finding unique ways to collaborate with others to expand its impact in holistic wellness and mental health. For starters, it is using Core to contribute to its Mental Health Alliance. Core’s biometric-driven meditation program collects data from more than 100 participating organizations, including Whoop, Gatorade and the PGA Tour to help identify actions that can measurably improve mental wellness at home or in the workplace. Hyperice has committed to impacting one million employees of participating organizations by 2024.

Whenever I see a company extending itself past a product or a profit to significantly impact human lives, I want to believe in them even more. Hyperice’s passion for helping people is evident, which alone speaks volumes for the company’s brand.

Besides the Mental Health Alliance, Huether told me, “We just announced an exciting collaboration with the launch of a new guided meditation narrated by four-time Grand Slam [tennis] singles champion and mental health advocate Naomi Osaka, now available in the Core App and developed by global workplace mental health platform Modern Health. Naomi is a Hyperice athlete-investor and Modern Health’s chief community health advocate, and is on a mission to destigmatize mental health and make self-care more accessible for all.” You can read that full press release here.

Wrapping up

I have used other wellness devices developed by Hyperice, and I've continued to be amazed by the ingenuity and value they bring to at-home physical training needs. Their primary focus during their growth has been massage devices that assist the body’s recovery from training and injury; the company has proved the value of these products for professional athletes, average Joes and anyone in between who are looking for relief from muscle fatigue, aches and inflammation. With Hyperice's extension into the world of the mind through the release of Core, the brand is continuing its commitment to helping a wide range of people. Considering the potential for Core to profoundly change how users care for themselves, the constant improvements to the app and the new collaborations for promoting mental health, Core clearly has a lot of potential to do good in the world.

As I continue using Core as a preferred tool for myself, I look forward to seeing improvements and future developments within the device and the app. I'm also looking forward to seeing more from Hyperice as it continues to develop its holistic approach to wellness.