Free tool · Recovery and training load
Hooper index calculator: a daily wellness check
Short answer
The Hooper index adds four 1–7 self-ratings, sleep quality, stress, fatigue and muscle soreness, where 1 is best and 7 worst, for a total from 4 to 28. Rating them 3, 2, 4, 3 gives an index of 12. It means most against your own usual score: a run of higher-than-usual days is the signal Hooper's research looked for.
Last reviewed 28 October 20263 published sourcesNot medical advice
Reps keeps track of this for you on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
Get Reps freeHooper index calculator
Rate each item for today, first thing in the morning. Lower is better on every scale.
Rate all four items to see today's Hooper index.
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere.
| Rating | Sleep quality | Stress, fatigue, soreness |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Very, very good | Very, very low |
| 2 | Very good | Very low |
| 3 | Good | Low |
| 4 | Medium | Medium |
| 5 | Bad | High |
| 6 | Very bad | Very high |
| 7 | Very, very bad | Very, very high |
How the index works
Hooper and colleagues followed 14 elite swimmers and asked them to rate sleep quality, stress, fatigue and muscle soreness each day; those ratings predicted staleness, accounting for 76% of the variance (Hooper et al., 1995). Their recommendations for monitoring overtraining built on that work (Hooper & Mackinnon, 1995).
Each item is scored from 1 to 7. Sleep runs from very, very good to very, very bad, and the other three from very, very low to very, very high; the Hooper index is the sum of the four (Selmi et al., 2022), so it runs from 4 to 28.
A single high day says little. Track it alongside your heart data with the HRV baseline calculator and your workload with the training load calculator.
Add an objective signal from your watch
Reps reads the HRV your Apple Watch already records and turns it into readable trends you can compare with your recovery and training.
Free to download · iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch
Common questions
What is the Hooper index?
It is the sum of four daily self-ratings, sleep quality, stress, fatigue and muscle soreness, each scored from 1 (very, very good or very, very low) to 7 (very, very bad or very, very high). It grew out of Hooper and Mackinnon's 1995 work on monitoring overtraining in swimmers.
What is a good Hooper index score?
Lower is better, from 4 to 28, but there is no universal cut-off. The score is most useful against your own usual value: compare today with a normal training week rather than with someone else.
Why track subjective wellness?
In Hooper and colleagues' 1995 study of elite swimmers, daily well-being ratings predicted which athletes went stale, accounting for 76% of the variance.
Sources
Figures on this page were checked against these publications on 28 October 2026.
- Hooper SL, Mackinnon LT, Howard A, Gordon RD, Bachmann AW. Markers for monitoring overtraining and recovery. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 1995;27(1):106–112. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7898325/
- Hooper SL, Mackinnon LT. Monitoring overtraining in athletes. Recommendations. Sports Medicine. 1995;20(5):321–327. doi.org/10.2165/00007256-199520050-00003
- Selmi O, Ouergui I, Muscella A, My G, Marsigliante S, Nobari H, et al. Monitoring psychometric states of recovery to improve performance in soccer players: a brief review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022;19(15):9385. doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159385
More recovery and training load tools
- ACWR calculatorAcute:chronic workload ratio from four weeks of load, with the sweet spot and its caveats.
- HRV baseline calculatorA log-based 7-day HRV average, your normal range and day-to-day variation.
- Training load calculatorWeekly session-RPE load, monotony and strain from how hard each session felt.
- TRIMP calculatorBanister's heart-rate training impulse for any session.