Reference tables
Metric Decoder
Your watch says one thing, your training app says another, and a forum says both are wrong. Most of the time they are all right and measuring different things. This page lays them side by side and says which ones Kinoku computes.
The short version
A training number answers one of four questions: how hard was that session, how is the block going, how strong is that for your size, or how hard did that set feel. Numbers from different groups do not compare, even when they sound alike. TSS (training stress score) and Training Effect both score a workout and will never agree, because one has no ceiling and the other stops at 5.
Jump to a section: one session · over weeks · strength for your size · how a set felt.
How hard was that one session
These four all claim to score a single workout, and they disagree because they are measuring different things. Two watch your heart, one watches your pace, one rates the session.
TRIMP (Banister)
In Kinoku- Measures
- Heart-rate strain across a session. Time multiplied by how high your heart rate sat.
- Needs
- Heart rate for the whole session, plus your resting and max heart rate.
- From
- Banister, 1975
- In Kinoku
- Saved on every GPS run that recorded heart rate.
TRIMP (Edwards)
In Kinoku- Measures
- Minutes in each heart-rate zone, with higher zones worth more.
- Needs
- Heart-rate zones. Simpler than the Banister version and easier to read.
- From
- Edwards, 1993
- In Kinoku
- Saved alongside the Banister figure, so you can compare the two.
TSS
In Kinoku- Measures
- Effort against your own threshold over time, with no heart rate needed.
- Needs
- A threshold pace or power you have set.
- From
- TrainingPeaks
- In Kinoku
- Saved on GPS runs. It is what the fitness and form curves are built from.
Training Effect
Ours, on a shared scale- Measures
- How much one session should move your fitness, on a 0 to 5 scale.
- Needs
- Heart-rate zones, plus your resting and max heart rate.
- From
- Firstbeat set the 0 to 5 scale
- In Kinoku
- Ours is an estimate on that scale, not Firstbeat's formula. The per-zone weights are our own.
Body Battery
Not in Kinoku- Measures
- A 0 to 100 read on how much you have left in the tank.
- Needs
- A Garmin watch worn all day and all night.
- From
- Garmin, not published
- In Kinoku
- Not in Kinoku. The formula is closed, so it cannot be reproduced honestly.
How is training going over weeks
These roll a daily load number forward. The first three come from one model, so they always agree with each other. The last two answer different questions and can point opposite ways on the same day.
CTL (fitness)
In Kinoku- Measures
- Your training load averaged over about six weeks. It moves slowly.
- Needs
- A daily training-load number, usually TSS.
- From
- Banister, by way of TrainingPeaks
- In Kinoku
- The Fitness line on the Coach screen's training form card. Free.
ATL (fatigue)
In Kinoku- Measures
- The same load averaged over about a week. It moves fast.
- Needs
- The same daily number.
- From
- Banister, by way of TrainingPeaks
- In Kinoku
- The Fatigue line on the same card.
TSB (form)
In Kinoku- Measures
- Fitness minus fatigue. Negative means you are carrying work, which is where training happens.
- Needs
- CTL and ATL.
- From
- Banister, by way of TrainingPeaks
- In Kinoku
- The Form line. Negative reads as productive, not as a problem.
ACWR
In Kinoku- Measures
- This week's load against the last four weeks. A ramp check, not a fitness score.
- Needs
- 28 unbroken days of daily load.
- From
- Gabbett, 2016
- In Kinoku
- In Pro Analytics, on training stress, and never on distance.
Readiness
In Kinoku- Measures
- A morning read on how recovered you are.
- Needs
- Sleep and heart-rate variability, through Health Connect.
- From
- Every wearable has one, and none of them agree
- In Kinoku
- In Pro Analytics. Sleep, HRV (heart-rate variability) and recent load, with the inputs shown.
How strong is that, for my size
Four scores that turn a total into one comparable number, plus one that is about body composition and often gets grouped with them by mistake.
DOTS
In Kinoku- Measures
- A powerlifting total adjusted for body weight, so a 60 kg and a 120 kg lifter compare.
- Needs
- Body weight, sex, and a three-lift total.
- From
- Written in 2019 for the German federation, not the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF)
- In Kinoku
- In Pro Analytics, with a percentile from real competition results.
IPF GoodLift
In Kinoku- Measures
- The same job, using numbers from the IPF (International Powerlifting Federation).
- Needs
- Body weight, sex, total, and which event you lifted.
- From
- The IPF, from 2020
- In Kinoku
- In Pro Analytics, using the classic raw numbers.
Wilks 1 and Wilks 2
In Kinoku- Measures
- The older version of the same job, which many groups still keep on record.
- Needs
- Body weight, sex, and a total.
- From
- Wilks, 1994, reworked in 2020
- In Kinoku
- Both versions, side by side.
Sinclair
Not in Kinoku- Measures
- The weightlifting equivalent, for the snatch and clean and jerk.
- Needs
- Body weight, sex, and an Olympic-lift total.
- From
- The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF)
- In Kinoku
- Not in Kinoku. We do not compute it, so we do not publish a calculator for it.
FFMI
In Kinoku- Measures
- How much lean mass you carry for your height. Not a strength score.
- Needs
- Weight, height, and a body-fat estimate.
- From
- Kouri, 1995
- In Kinoku
- In Pro Analytics, with the height-adjusted form.
How hard did that set feel
Two names for one scale, and one thing that sounds related and is not.
RPE
In Kinoku- Measures
- How hard a set felt, 1 to 10.
- Needs
- Your own read, right after the set.
- From
- Borg, adapted for lifting by Zourdos
- In Kinoku
- Logged per set, where it feeds the autoregulation engine.
RIR
In Kinoku- Measures
- How many more reps you had left, on the same scale counted the other way.
- Needs
- The same read, where RPE 8 is about 2 reps left.
- From
- The lifting rewrite of RPE
- In Kinoku
- Logged per set, and the app treats the two as one scale.
Session RPE
Not in Kinoku- Measures
- One rating for the whole session, multiplied by its length, to get a load number.
- Needs
- A rating and a duration, with no hardware at all.
- From
- Foster, 2001
- In Kinoku
- Not computed as a load figure, so per-set RPE is logged instead.
Three traps worth knowing
- A score from one app does not transfer to another. Two apps can both print "TSS 80" off the same run and mean it, because they set your threshold differently. Compare a number to your own history, not to someone else's screenshot.
- Negative form is not a warning. On the fitness and fatigue curves, a form reading around minus 10 to minus 25 is where fitness gets built. A form of zero mostly means you did not train much.
- A composite recovery score is a guess with a confident face. Readiness, Body Battery and the rest each roll several signals into one number using weights nobody publishes. The signals underneath are real. The single number is a choice someone made.
Common questions
What is the difference between TRIMP (heart-rate training load) and TSS (training stress score)?
TRIMP counts heart-rate strain, so it needs a heart-rate strap and it knows how hard your heart worked. TSS counts effort against your own threshold pace or power, so it needs a threshold and it knows how hard the work was. On an easy run in the heat, TRIMP goes up and TSS does not.
Is Training Effect the same as TSS?
No. TSS has no ceiling and adds up over a week, while Training Effect is a 0 to 5 rating of one session and stops at 5. A three-hour easy ride can score a high TSS and a modest Training Effect at the same time, because the two are answering different questions.
What is the difference between DOTS (a powerlifting scoring formula) and Wilks?
Both turn a powerlifting total into one number that compares across body weights. Wilks came first, in 1994, and was reworked in 2020. DOTS was written in 2019 for the German federation and is now the common cross-federation score. DOTS uses one formula per sex; Wilks 2 changed the numbers Wilks 1 used.
What is the difference between RPE (rate of perceived exertion) and RIR (reps in reserve)?
RPE rates how hard a set felt, from 1 to 10. RIR counts how many more reps you could have done. They are two views of the same thing, and they line up: RPE 8 is about 2 reps in reserve, RPE 9 is about 1, RPE 10 is none.
Does Kinoku have Body Battery?
No. Body Battery is Garmin's, and the formula is not published. Kinoku has its own daily score, called Pulse, which shows the signals it used so you can see where a number came from.
Privacy
This page has nothing to type into and nothing to submit. It makes no network requests at all, sets no cookies, and there is no email box anywhere on it.
Full story
The metric decoder explainer covers which of these to actually watch, why two honest apps disagree about the same session, and what to do when they do.
Track this in Kinoku
The free training form card on the Coach screen draws fitness, fatigue and form from your own sessions, and says what the reading means in words rather than leaving you to look it up. Run analytics saves both TRIMP (heart-rate training load) figures and TSS on every run that recorded heart rate.
Kinoku shows the inputs behind a score rather than only the score. Where a number is our own estimate on somebody else's scale, the page above says so.
Track this in the app
Form Band
A fitness-and-fatigue curve built from the same published family of impulse-response models made popular by TrainingPeaks, and it works across gym, run, and brisk-step load.