Is Hula Hooping An Exercise?

To reap the health benefits of exercise, you need to exercise regularly throughout your life. It's common for people to rely on only one or two kinds of exercise activity to keep them fit and to depend on willpower and determination to persevere. While willpower is important, novelty can be just as useful in keeping us engaged in our workout routines. Hula hooping is one of the many new activities you can check out to keep your exercise routine varied and interesting.

Equipment

Although many hula hooping exercise programs use a hoop that is very similar to the one you remember from childhood, some have started to use hoops that are larger in circumference and weighted by about 3 to 5 lbs. This both increases the manageability of the hooping by slowing it down and adds to the difficulty of the exercise, which increases the potential for calorie burn and muscle development.

Routines

You will do a lot of hip circling with your hula hoop workout, but you won't just be spinning the hoop around your waist. Classes and videos utilize the hoop in a variety of exercises to emphasize muscles all over your body as you keep your heart rate elevated to burn calories. As you advance in skill, there are more difficult tricks and exercises to try. The hoop is even incorporated into your warm-up and stretching routine.

Benefits

The biggest benefit of a hula hooping workout may be the potential for fun. You can burn calories and exercise your body in any number of ways that will be effective, but if you have the opportunity to accomplish your fitness goals while you are laughing and having a great time, then you will likely be better able to stick to your routine over the long term.

Calorie Burn

As with any activity, the amount of calories you burn hula hooping depends upon how hard and how long you exercise. As a beginner, you may be more likely to stand in one place for the majority of your session trying to master the basic moves, which would result in fewer calories burned. However, with practice you will likely advance to more difficult moves and engage in more full-body action, which will burn far more calories – comparable to dancing or jogging.