For a lot of people, hula hoops are nostalgic reminders of their childhood. Back in the good old days when we ran away from physical exercises more than actually running to exercise, hula hoops made a good compensation for the lack of activity. They became perhaps the only form of physical exercise during school recess by spinning and swirling almost as much as bending to pick up the fallen hoop. Nowadays, apart from being spatial and aerial toys for kids, hula hoops have captured fitness workouts as they whirlpool their way into gyms. Training programs often use hoop tricks during exercise sessions, and they form the basis of several workout regimens for people of all ages.
Benefits of Hula Hooping
Muscle strength
Hula hooping is a great exercise for core muscles. Regular practice helps to tone your overall physique since the movement takes input from your legs as well as your abdominal region. This improves flexibility and coordination skills, making hula hooping an aerobic routine. You can use the hoops on your arms and knees and efficiently work out your limbs to develop muscle strength throughout your body.
Burning Calories
Weighted hula hoops are an essential component of workout routines. The added exertion equals a full-body workout that helps you burn calories. For reluctant students, even the simple hula hoops without weights make creative sessions for a healthy lifestyle. This is achieved through dance routines and gymnastic moves that use hula hoops so that everyone enjoys their sessions while burning calories.
Cardio Element
When you regularly exercise with hula hoops, you introduce cardiovascular or aerobic benefits into your life. Cardio exercises bring the heart and lungs into action, thereby improving the overall oxygen flow in your body. So, apart from burning calories, hula hooping gives you stamina and helps with reducing stress.
Quarantine Home Games
Families stuck at home during COVID restrictions have found creative ways to spend quarantines. Family activities with hula hoops provide engaging experiences for homeschooling. This encourages kids to study and enjoy their lessons using dynamic strategies that stimulate their minds and bodies to participate. Spatial learning works much better than just using textbooks. For example, by jumping into red hoops for even numbers or saying the most adjectives for “haunted house” before the hoop falls, kids understand and learn faster. And the winner gets bragging rights!
Inspiring Content for Social Media
Hula hooping is a fun hobby. It is also one of the coolest motivations behind weight loss journeys. People often share these personal weight and health milestones on Instagram and YouTube channels to inspire others. Fitness timelines that form the epic before-and-after achievement are the loudest reminders of the fact that a journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
Hoop Tricks
Apart from the standard waist hooping, different tricks can be performed by beginners and expert gymnasts. Hoop dance tutorials and fitness programs are good starting points to practice hoop tricks, some of which are discussed below.
Lasso Style
By moving the hula hoop diagonally to the top, you can hoop in the lasso position by spinning it on your hand. This trick is often seen in dance and gymnastic routines because you spin the hoop just on your hand, so you can simultaneously perform movements from the rest of your body.
Passing the Hoop
This is a simple trick in which you pass the hoop around your body using both hands. It aids transitions between more complex maneuvers, letting you keep up with the momentum as you begin the next stunt. You pass the hoop from one hand to the other; this trick can be stepped-up by passing the hoop around your knees and even under your legs during balance exercises.
Barrel Roll Isolation
The barrel roll isolation is where you spin on one pivoted foot using both hands to grip the hula hoop like a steering wheel. You move the free leg around; at the same time, you steer the hoop as you turn on the spot. As with the steering wheel, your hands stay at the same position on the 3-o-clock and 9-o-clock contact points. This trick improves balance and coordination by isolating the hula hoop and letting you move around instead.
Horizontal Isolation Down
This is another transitional hoop trick. It combines the lasso trick along with basic waist hooping, making the complete sequence appear effortless and graceful to the eye. You start with a horizontal lasso spin above your head using one hand on 3-o-clock, bring up your other hand to hold the opposite 9-o-clock point, and gradually lower the hoop to your waist. It is a seamless transition from above your head to your waist. Since you do not need to pause during the transition, the hoop stays isolated in its own orbit.
Hand Toss
One of the common beginner moves, the hand toss trick is achieved by spinning the hoop on your hand, making a slight knee-bend, and letting go of the hoop in an upward toss. The throw is deliberate and quite small, so you instantly catch the bottom of the hoop when it falls back down. It is important to measure your timing and distancing to prevent accidental hits.
Escalator
Almost opposite to the horizontal isolation down, the hula hoop escalator trick goes up from your feet. You start by holding the hoop to the ground, stepping into it with one foot, raising the hoop and stepping in with your other foot – all the while raising it upwards – so it ends with a lasso on your hands above your head. There are different variations of the escalator trick, including the continuous escalator and the classic escalator moves. You can begin from one foot and complete the loop all the way to the other foot. You can always experiment with your own styles to adapt the original trick – making it end in a pose, swirling around, etc.
Pizza Toss
In this trick, you move from waist hooping to swirling the hoop upwards like pizza dough. When the hoop moves around your waist, you gradually place your hand at the back, ready to grip the hula hoop and raise it above in a pizza toss before catching it – or letting it fall to mark the end of a longer sequence.
Progress by hoops and bounds!
Hoop tricks like those mentioned above are usually combined into dance choreographies and fitness routines. The sequences create acts that look flawless, with easy transitions that blend into the next trick. Gymnasts and dancers often punctuate their hoop sequences with tricks like the pizza toss to build performance bridges that connect the styles. Advanced and complex stunts involve adding more and more hoops to the sequence, creating a hula hoop tornado with you at the eye of the storm!
