Get Hooping! Whittle Your Waistline and Have Fun

I'm a hoop girl. I love what hula hooping does for your body. It trims the midsection, tones the arms and blasts calories. Did you know that even a beginner hooper can burn up to 10 calories per minute by just whirling a colorful tube around her waist? The best part is it's totally fun, you feel cool once you learn a few tricks and you can rock out to your favorite tunes while staying skinny.

I spoke with Jackie Hesley, studio director of Hoopnotica, who talked about all the changes happening in the world of hooping. Hoopnotica just opened its first retail store late last month with a hooping studio attached. Hesley has been busy teaching classes and selling hoops at numbers higher than expected. And while hula hoops have been around decades, and modern hooping, as a form of exercise, has been around for years -- more and more people are discovering it every day.

"People are just now getting wind that such a thing as hooping exists," said Hesley. "Someone will walk in our store and say, 'Oh, my God! This is the coolest thing ever.'"

Celebrities are fans of hooping too. "Marisa Tomei uses it, and Beyonce used it to get ready to go on tour and build stamina and endurance," said Hesley.

Getting Started

When you're starting, make sure you use an adult hoop.

"The ones you buy in the Toys R Us store are not the one's we're talking about," said Hesley. "We don't mean the weighted ones, either. These are simple hoops made from tubing with tape on them. They are either made by hand by people across the country, or they're made by a company like Hoopnotica."

There are usually two kinds of hoops, beginner and intermediate. You definitely want to purchase the beginner first. They are larger, use tape with more grip and revolve more slowly around the body so you can learn tricks more easily.

Hesley recommends Hooping.org as a great resource to link you with other hoopers and retail outlets.

Connecting With Others

To learn hooping, try to find a hoop troop in your area through Hooping.org's community page or through Hoopnotica's Facebook page.

You can try some of the DVDs that are out there, too. I actually learned quite a few tricks by searching on YouTube. One instructor I particularly like is SaFire.

There's a great community spirit to hooping: You not only get a great workout, but you'll also wind up making some new friends.

Plus, you can really lose a lot of weight if you hoop regularly.