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Roxy Spins Her Weight Loss Hooping

April 3, 2012 in Children, Health and Spirit, Videos

Jeannie, aka Roxy Spins, lost 60 pounds, but she wanted to lose 70 more so she started hooping. She’s been documenting her progress and she’s lost another 52 pounds now, 112 total, leaving her only 18 more to go to reach her goal. Congratulations! Her niece Niah joins her here for a little hooping session with an adorable ending. She lives in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. Soundtrack: “Boyfriend” by Justin Bieber (on iTunes).

The Value of Hooping and Writing Daily: Our Spring 30/30 Challenge is Coming

March 30, 2012 in Features, Health and Spirit

Sheryl Wilson of Fitnotic

Sheryl Wilson of Fitnotic

In anticipation of our new Spring Renewal 30/30 Challenge kicking off this Sunday, we share a little of Sheryl Wilson’s story from Fitnotic.com. She discovered hooping during her pregnancy with her now 3-year-old daughter and she fell in love with it immediately. She writes, “I loved how great a workout it gave me, how it really targeted my core, but worked every muscle in my body, how it made me feel more confident and even sexy at times, and the new friends it brought into my life.” Along the way she decided to take on a “365 Day Last Hooper Standing Challenge” with no exceptions – not sickness, not child birth, nothing. While she didn’t make it a year, she did hoop for 137 days and wrote a little about her experience daily. Sheryl notes, “I never blogged or kept a journal or diary prior to this and that in and of itself was therapeutic for me.” Want some of that kind of therapy in your life? Our Daily Practice Forum is a great space to check in with other hoopers daily and come Sunday we’ll be all be meeting there throughout the month of April when we hoop together for 30 minutes a day for 30 days. And when Sheryl took the time to re-read her notes from her experience – “it was really nice to remember things related to the pregnancy and the kids that I had forgotten – even the difficult times. Equally important, it made me feel proud of myself. I don’t know about you, but it’s not often that I feel that.” Join us on Sunday when we kick off our new 30/30 Spring Renewal Challenge and announce the prize winner of our last 30/30.

Hula Hoop Bruising: Hooping Black and Blue

March 29, 2012 in Features, Health and Spirit

Hula Hoop Bruise

Photo by itendo

[Hooping.org's Editor Philo Hagen looks closely at our bruises.]

by Philo Hagen

If you’re an adult taking your first spins at hooping and you’ve devoted a couple of hours of happy hoop time to your newly discovered wonderland inside the plastic circle, chances are you probably found yourself a little black and blue the next day. Do not be alarmed. Welcome to one of the rites of passage as a hooper: bruising. While it’s not something you hear hoopers talking about too much, most of us have been there and experienced the horror and amazement of finding a purplish spot on our hip or elsewhere that seemed to arrive out of nowhere. In retrospect, however, providing we weren’t inebriated at the time, many of us can recall that at some point, perhaps an hour into the exciting hooping session, we may have noticed that we were getting a little hip-sensitive, but we were having such a good time we kept on hooping anyway. The next day, of course, we then discovered our own discoloration. What is that bruise all about and how can we best treat and prevent bruising ourselves in the future? Read the rest of this entry →

SparkPeople Take a Spin at Hooping

March 23, 2012 in Features, Health and Spirit

SparkPeople Hoopers

The SparkPeople Team

[Hooping.org's Editor Philo Hagen welcomes SparkPeople to the wonderful world of hooping.]

by Philo Hagen

Over at The Daily Spark, the publication side of the SparkPeople diet community, Nicole Nichols and others on staff were wondering “Is hooping really a work out?” So they decided to find out for themselves. Nicole writes, “More and more people these days are turning to workouts that feel less like work and more like play. SparkPeople alone has almost 600 hoopers in one SparkTeam and the website Hooping.org has nearly 8,000 registered members.” Nicole invited several SparkPeople employees to join in the investigation because “it’s best to answer these questions not just with the research available, but also personal experience.” They all ended up taking a class at the Shine Yoga Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, a class led by Leslie Kreines. Cincinnati Magazine readers recently voted Kreines’ class the best fitness class in the city, so one would assume they were heading to a good place to find out, right?

According to Shine Yoga’s web site, however, Kreines’ “passion for hooping got a kick start at the Hoop Convergence where she received her teacher training.” While we’re pretty sure Leslie is an awesome instructor – Cincinnati certainly thinks so – Hoop Convergence isn’t really a teacher training, at least in a traditional fitness industry sense. It’s definitely an awesome weekend gathering of hoopers though, complete with classes, performances, hoop jams and more – held every year in Carrboro, North Carolina. While one most certainly does not need to attend a teacher training or receive a teaching certification in order to teach hooping today, given that there isn’t a set community standard or regulation, teacher trainings and certifications do exist through Body Hoops, Hoopnotica, Hoop Revolution and more. Some are even approved by the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AAFA) and the American Council on Exercise (ACE). So what was our SparkPeople Team of fitness industry professionals in for with their first honest to goodness hooping class? We weren’t entirely sure, but we had a pretty good idea they were going to love it. Read the rest of this entry →

Cathleen Kronemer: Hoop Away Winter Weight Gain

March 23, 2012 in Health and Spirit

Cathleen Kronemer

Cathleen Kronemer

Long-time Fitness Trainer and award-winning body builder Cathleen Kronemer, NSCA-CPT, has been in the fitness industry for over twenty years. With warmer weather on the horizon she reminds us that soon we will be unable to hide those extra winter pounds under bulky sweaters. Her answer? Hooping, of course. She writes, “’Hooping’, as it has come to be known, takes the body through quite a range of benefits. The main difference between hula hoop exercises and push-ups or sit-ups is the number of muscle groups exercised. The motion required during hula hoop exercises recruits every abdominal muscle, and even works the leg muscles, all in an effort to keep the hula hoop from falling. The ‘push/pull’ effect of hooping will stretch the muscles, build strength and create definition, as well as facilitate fat-burning around the glutes and thighs, helping to slim those areas. As for the cardio benefits, experts say that hooping burns as many calories in one minute as running for the same amount of time. The non-impact aspect of hooping makes it particularly desirable over running, especially if similar benefits can be derived. The act of hooping requires a significant range of motion for the spine. Increased practice in hooping can lead to increased flexibility, which can help in the prevention of back injuries. With so many ways to benefit the body, not to mention the FUN factor, hooping seems like the perfect way to break out of your training rut and circle into a fit and sleek spring physique!” She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Hooping Tutorials: Weight Loss Exercises

March 22, 2012 in Health and Spirit, Tutorials

Alexandria Truex of Dutruex Hoops has been on a weight loss journey inside the hoop. In fact she lost another eight pounds in the past week doing these exercises, so she decided to share them with the rest of us. She says, “Hooping saved my life. I was overweight, lonely, depressed and hated myself. Now I’m happy to say I’m not scared to look in the mirror anymore. The more I hoop, the better I feel.” She lives in Missoula, Montana, USA.