Date Achieved:
Thursday 5th November 2020
Where?
Home
Why is this experience on the Challenge List?
When I was in primary school there were the people that could always hula hoop around the waist and then there were others like me that couldnt do that so instead I learnt how to use the hula hoop around my wrist. With this I have learnt how to swap the hula hoop between my arms and do so quite quickly but I couldnt quite understand how to hula hoop around my waist. By putting this on the Challenge List it meant that I was going to finally going to learn how to hula hoop successfully.
Description:
For my 21st birthday, a friend bought me a hula hoop, one of those hula hoops that are very thin and unweighted. When I first got it, it was exciting to start practising until it just kept falling no matter how much I tried. I attempted with the same hula hoop for a few years to come until I came across Deanne Loves HoopLovers where I discovered, what I needed was a weighted hula hoop.
When the weighted hula hoop was delivered I spent 15 minutes that night attempting to hula hoop. The interesting thing that I learnt about hooping from Deanne Love is to keep the hula hoop up you cannot spin your hips with the hoop you need to bend your knees slightly and rock backwards and forwards slightly. For this, I had to retrain myself as for as long as I had tried to hoop I was taught the other way.
Eventually, after many attempts, I was able to keep it successfully up for 10 seconds until my legs become very sore and I could not hoop any longer. For the following few nights I continued to build up the strength in my legs and my record time kept getting higher. Not long after the number of times I was dropping the hoop became less and I was able to just keep it up without dropping it.
In the end, it became easy to hoop for longer than 30 seconds which I think is incredible from where I started having no experience. I am now proud to say that my current record is 7 minutes and 34 seconds, for me this feels like a record. On a side note, can you believe that the current Guinness world record for the longest marathon hula hooping is 100 hours by Jenny Doan, such an incredible feat of endurance!
VIDEO
Would I do it again?
Absolutely, now that I have learnt how to hula hoop the funny thing is I actually do it quite frequently and I love it! I would never have guessed that a few years ago I would have been this excited about hula hooping but it is great. The best part about hula hooping is that I am exercising at the same time, so its a win-win!
Highlight:
The highlight for me is that I have been able to share this experience with so many people. About a week after I learnt how to hula hoop, some children at my work accidentally pulled apart a portable rolling rainbow hamster wheel and found that holding it up was two large circles. With one of the circles, I used it to show the children that you can hula hoop with it as it was a similar size to the one that I bought for myself and it was weighted. Afterwards, the children all wanted to learn how to hula hoop and they all had a turn, some were able to pick this up very quickly whilst others took a little longer but they tried every day and eventually they were able to do it as well. I taught them safety and how to use the hula hoop and the look they gave when they had just performed the hula hooping was amazing as they were so proud of themselves for being able to hula hoop.
I have also been able to teach my brother and when I was learning how to do it all I wanted to do was get past 30 seconds and he was already getting to a minute. He came out with me whilst I was practising and we had time records to see who could do it for the longest.
Cost:
I bought my hula hoop from Hula Hoops Austrlia for $15 and the shipping was $13.77, so altogether $28.77.
Further information:
“If you have tried a kiddies size hoop from the dollar store and felt like a failure don’t worry it is NOT you it’s the hoop!” – Deanne Love from HoopLovers. This was the most important piece of information that I could have ever receieved about hula hooping and this is why I ordered the bigger hoop that was weighted and it changed how I hoop as I have now achieved hula hooping. If you are going to buy a hula hoop make sure it is weighted as it will make a world of difference when you are learning.
Also try looking at Deanne Loves HoopLovers to get some great tips and tricks on how to hula hoop and ways of dancing with the hoops, she is incredible and there are so ways of hooping she can teach you!
There are many benefits of hula hooping and some include; calorie burning, improves balance, builds core muscles and is portable. So why not give it a go?