Hooper Wellness Check-In
Students rate their sleep, stress, fatigue, and muscle soreness from 1 to 7 using the Hooper Index, a tool sports teams use to monitor recovery, and log it week by week. Students practice managing training load and preventing injuries.
How to play
- Hand out a worksheet with a table of four rows, sleep, stress, fatigue, and soreness, and one column for each week of the grading period (1 minute).
- Explain the scale: 1 means very good and 7 means very bad; the total runs from 4 to 28, and lower means better recovery.
- Seated and silent, each student rates all four items based on the last few days and adds up the total (2 minutes).
- Each student compares their total with previous weeks and circles the item that has gotten worse the most (1 minute).
- In pairs, each student takes 1 minute to share one way to improve that item: going to bed earlier, drinking more water, easing off training...
- While worksheets are collected, everyone does 30 seconds of standing calf stretch and 30 seconds of quad stretch (1 minute).
Rules
- Each worksheet is private, and no one looks at another student's scores without permission.
- Answer honestly: there are no good or bad grades here.
- If a total is over 20 or soreness hits 6 or 7, talk to the teacher privately.
- The final stretch is gentle, with no bouncing.
Variations
Easier
Use only three items, sleep, fatigue, and soreness, on a 1-to-5 face scale.
Standard
Use all four items on a 1-to-7 scale and log them weekly.
Harder
Students enter their data into a spreadsheet and chart their index alongside their class training load.
Adaptations
- Limited mobility: do the final stretches seated, with neck and shoulder stretches.
- Visual impairment: provide a large-print worksheet or an oral version with a classmate recording the answers.
- Students on club or school teams: add a row to log their practices outside PE.
Learning goals
- Assess their own recovery using a tool from real sports training.
- Connect rest, stress, and training load with injury risk.
- Propose personal strategies to recover better.
Equipment for a class of 25
- worksheets: 25
- pens: 25
Teacher tip
Always use it on the same day of the week so the data is comparable. Review worksheets with high totals: they sometimes reveal sleep or stress issues worth passing on to the school counselor.
PatioLab has "Hooper Wellness Check-In" and 2499 more activities ready to drag into your lesson and run from your phone in the gym.
More activities like this
More cool-downs for High School
5-5-5 Breathing with Visualization
A breathing technique where students inhale, hold and exhale for five counts each while picturing a peaceful place.
5-Minute Breathing Mindfulness
A short, teacher-guided mindfulness practice focused on the breath and body sensations.
90/90 Hip Switches
A floor sequence based on the 90/90 position, with one leg in front and the other to the side, both bent at right angles, to stretch the glutes and hip rotators.
Active Isolated Stretching with a Rope
A stretching method where students contract the opposite muscle, hold the stretch for only two seconds with help from a rope, and repeat 8–10 times.
Active Listening Partner Debrief
Sitting face to face, each student talks for 90 seconds about a challenge from class while their partner listens without interrupting and then paraphrases what they…
Active Recovery Technique: 5-Min Easy Jog
Active recovery with 5 minutes of very easy jogging where the pace drops each minute until students are walking, followed by a pulse check.