It might be an activity that's done more for fun than fitness, but make no mistake -- hula hooping can be quite a workout. In fact, as CafeMom recently posted, it can even be used to help you slim down.

You can tone your tummy with a Hoopilates class or pick up a hooping DVD that will show you the ins and outs of getting fit with the hula hoop. Make sure you're using a weighted one for an extra challenge, and check out these easy moves that can get you started. Keep in mind that you don't always have to use your hula hoop in the traditional manner -- it can be used to tone all your muscles, not just the abs.

So it's no wonder Hula Hooping is catching on all over the place -- even Michelle Obama is doing it!

When the first season of Dancing With the Stars started, I thought it would be terribly cheesy. Kind of like this decade's version of Circus of the Stars. (Do you remember that? Or did I just age myself terribly?) Well, Dancing With the Stars is terribly cheesy, but it's also oddly enjoyable. If you've watched the show, you've probably seen celebrities like Joey Fatone and Marie Osmond lose weight during the season. All their hours of rehearsal and hard work paid off on the scale.

Dancing is a fun and effective way to exercise. It adds variety to your routine. You can join a dance class if you'd like, or, if you're a bit shy about dancing in front of others, try one of the many dance fitness DVDs on the market. There are options ranging from hip-hop to latin to bellydance to ballroom.

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Break out your hula-hoop. You'll need it for exercise class. Well, a modified hula-hoop is what you'll need really, one that's larger and heavier and requires a lot more dexterity than your typical childhood hoop.

In "hooping" classes set to music, exercisers learn lots of moves, work lots of muscles, and get a whole-body fitness experience – all while burning about 400 calories per hour. Check your area for hooping studios and classes. And visit Hoopnotica for instructional DVDs, hoops, and more.

If hula-hoops aren't your thing but you need a little fitness variety, give "suspension" a try. Designed by former Navy SEALs, it's a total body resistance program that uses heavy-duty nylon webbing attached to wall brackets. Users do traditional exercises but get increased resistance. Ask your personal trainer about TRX (Total-body Resistance Exercise) or look for these three letters at health-club chains.

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Dancing is the latest trend in fitness, particularly of the belly, salsa and exotic variety. What about Hawaiian Hula dancing? Here, it seems to be considered no more than a fun way to burn some extra calories but apparently, it's serious business in Japan -- and it's bringing in some serious dollars ... um .... yen. The Hula craze is spreading like wildfire throughout Japanese fitness clubs, and stores are cashing too in by selling traditional hula outfits.

Hula dancing is based on balanced motion between the left and ride sides of the body. According to instructor Yayoi Iida, the bottom half of the body is used to keep the rhythm of the dance, while the upper half expresses the meaning behind it. Wow, sounds complex ... and kind of fun. What do you think?

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Although hula hoops are most commonly thought of as a little girls game they're becoming more and more popular as a means of fun fitness for adults. I think adults hula hooping is fine and dandy, but this Hula Chair just makes me laugh. I guess it goes along with our increasingly sedentary lifestyles that we'd want to hula while sitting down! I honestly have no idea if this gadget has any health benefits or not because I couldn't stop laughing long enough to find out. But I do know laughing is good for you, so if nothing else check out this video of the Hula Chair and get your dose of laughs in for the day.

Seriously!?


Via Shiny Shiny

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I'm all about trying new things when it comes to getting in shape -- I think it's a combination of fighting boredom, and secretly hoping that whatever outrageous "too good to be true" claims they're making will actually happen for me. Today many gyms are offering all kinds of fun sounding "novelty" fitness classes where you can do things like hula hoop or striptease your way to a better body, and most of them sound like a lot of fun.

But how can you tell if that flashy class can really help you, or if it's just a gimmick the gym came up with to make money? iVillage.com came up with these 4 tips on how to tell if you're getting any real benefit, which include things like taking an honest look at how hard you're working physically and for how long. If you're really serious about working out then a fun class is a great way to do it -- but you have to be honest with yourself and choose one that's worth something.

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"Candace from the whirlyGirlz will be doing a hooping circle," said the executive director of the children's non-profit whose board I sit on. It barely registered, was it sewing hoops or hula? I didn't even know.

Cut to six weeks later, and I'm in the middle of a park, surrounded by hundreds-year-old trees, a variety of adventurous types ages one to sixty, and piles of wildly-colored hoops. And we're suddenly hooping.

Gone are the Hawaiian roots of the hula hoop, and replacing them is a mystical part-Nia, part-power of positive thinking, part-50s zaniness amalgam that emphasizes staying in tune with your body and bringing it. According to Candace's web site, hooping benefits your body through "core isolation, meditative flow, and intrinsic massage in the organs and tissue of the muscles." Basic hooping classes teach how to move the hoop around various parts of your body (the waist, it is just the beginning), how to move with your hoop, and how to interact as part of a hooping circle. For the more advanced, the logical next step is hooping performance and hoop jams.

Hooping is surprisingly easy; by the end of a 45-minute session, even the clunkiest among us had gotten the hoop to spin around us and managed to find at least one hooping specialty to call our own. To find a class in your own neighborhood (San Francisco, LA, Portland, Vancouver and New York are all hooping hotspots), check out Hooping.org magazine.