Hot Topic: Exercise with a Hula Hoop

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The hula hoop-you know the plastic and sometimes glitter blasted ring that children use to play outside?  It has been the latest exercise craze!  Have you tried it in a while?  It has been years for me & I'm not sure I could actually sustain it long enough to call it exercise...but apparently some do.  A quick Google search brings up 192,000 hits when searching "hula hoop workouts".  Now that's a lot of information.  This 'new' form of exercise is touted as being FUN! That is something that all our exercise or physical activity should be.  Finding ways to incorporate the things that you love doing into physical activity is the golden pathway to a more active lifestyle.  That means that the hula hoop may not be for everyone.  But for those still interested here are a few info tidbits:

• Start by using a regular child-like hula hoop and when you get the technique down, start using a weighted hula hoop. You can find them online or in sports stores across the nation.  Just look at all THESE hoops! They even have a "travel hoop" that breaks down to increase portability!

Travel Hula Hoop Image Source 

• Read about hula hoop workouts and determine if you would like to do it at home or in a gym setting.  
• Real Simple has an online guideline to hula hooping
• Find an instructor HERE
• Benefits include: increased torso flexibility, core strength, inches lost around the waist
• Like any other exercise, you must be consistent to see results

If you are looking for a different way to get in your physical activity this might be just the type of activity you have been looking for! Let us know what you think after you try it!

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