Put some fun in your exercise routine by adding a hula hoop. What was once a child's toy is now a popular exercise accessory. You can hula hoop to music in the privacy of your own home, in your backyard or join a class full of other hula hoopers at a gym. Hula hooping is an aerobic exercise that focuses on the core muscles, especially the waist.
History
Andrew Mer and Artur Melin introduced the hula hoop to the world in 1957 and started a craze. They sold 20 million hoops in the first two months and more than 100 million by the end of the first year. They patterned the colorful plastic hoops after bamboo hoops they'd seen children playing with in Australia and named them after the movement used to keep the hoop suspended around the waist, which they thought resemble the Hawaiian hula dance.
Calories Burned
Hula hooping burns 600 to 800 calories an hour. That's more than you'd burn in an hour of moderate jogging or cross country skiing. Hula hooping is a low impact exercise that doesn't put a lot of strain on your joints. You burn calories through continuous movement, which gradually elevates your heart rate. Hula hooping uses the muscles of the abdominals, including obliques.
Technique
To hula hoop you have to move your hips to keep the hoop suspended around your waist. As the hoop swings around your waist, the actions of your hips keep it going. You can speed up your gyrations and slow them down to a point, though if you go too slow you can't keep the hoop going. You can also twirl the hoop around your legs, arms or neck, though these movements may be more uncomfortable, with the hoop cutting into your skin. Weighted hoops make you work harder. You can even hula with more than one hoop at a time.
A Hula Hoop Workout
Begin your workout with a warm up, hula hooping to slower music at an easy pace. After five or ten minutes, switch to a faster tune and challenge yourself to keep up. Try moving the hoop up and down your body, add a second hoop, or switch to a weighted hoop to increase difficulty as the workout progresses. Decrease the pace toward the end of the workout. Finish with some gentle stretching as you complete your cool down. You can also hula hoop for shorter intervals of three to five minutes several times a day.
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