Hooping: 2 Weeks Later

   I've been hooping now for about two weeks - that's not including the two weeks before that of just hooping 3-5 minutes a day - and I've worked up to twenty minutes a day. I've got myself a DVD to use but I'm waiting until Monday to start using it.

   I have to admit that, as simple as it seems, hooping is so much fun, and takes a great deal more concentration than you'd think, especially when using a weighted hoop. It's also kind of difficult. Initially, you're likely to start spinning it counter-clockwise around your waist, and that's fine, but you also have to spin it in the other direction after about five minutes. I tried this when I was doing ten minutes a day, and spent the five clockwise minutes spinning it about three times then dropping it over and over again. After a few days, though, I got the hang of it, and can now confidently spin it in both directions for prolonged periods of time.

   The hoop is quite hard to use actually, and you do work up a sweat if you're doing it properly. You have to use your abs, not wiggle your bum. You don't spin your hips, you move them back and forth. After a while, the hoop will spin faster and it'll just get caught in momentum and virtually spin on its own with little help on your part, and that's not much good. If that happens, slow it down. The slower you go, the harder you have to work to keep it up.

   Hooping really works at toning all around your waist - your abs, obliques, your back, and it works your core. If you relax your shoulders, you'll find your arms are getting a bit of a workout (and once you're confident that you can keep it spinning, you could do a few dumbbell lifts in the process and give your arms, co-ordination and concentration a better workout), and your legs get a bit of work, too, all from just doing basic hooping.

   I've actually noticed a shrink in my waist over these two weeks, though only a minor one, but I definitely feel the muscles having been toned a little. I'm firmer right the way around, and that's an amazing feeling.

   As for the bruising I mentioned at the beginning of the month, it's almost totally disappeared because my body has toughened up, but also because I have a better idea on how to actually spin it properly (I can't really explain how to do it, you'll just feel it when you do it right, and it won't try to spin downwards so much). I do still get the occasional bruises, but they're usually yellow, so they fade fast, and they tend to form coincidentally after I've bumped it on my hips in the wrong way, so they're all my own fault and easily avoidable. But regardless of bruising - it's only bruising - I really do recommend it. It's such good fun!

   I'm going to give a write-up of the DVD I've got either a week from now, or at the end of the month with the result write-up. Unfortunately there are DVDs by a group called Hoopnotica, but they aren't available in the UK unless you use a region-free DVD player (ouch), so I've had to go for a UK alternative of which there is only one level, not three. Here's hoping more will come out while the hula hoops are still hot!

   For now, though, I'm having plenty of fun hula hooping for twenty minutes a day. I put The Simpsons on while doing it, but I do have to make sure I concentrate on what I'm doing. It's not easy. Either way, so far, so good!