Hula Hoop Your Way To Fitness - Alan Tan

Have you ever asked the question "Can I lose weight from hula hooping?", if you find yourself asking that question, then good news. I have some great tips here to get you started on how to include the hula hoop into your fitness workout.

Let us first look at how to select a suitable hula hoop to use in your workout. Size does matter, choose the correct sized hoop. Forget those that you find in Toys R Us, they are kid sized hoops, unless of course you are kid sized. So, get an adult sized hoop, if you are a beginner to hooping getting the wrong sized hoop will make it harder for you to pick up hooping.

As a general guide, with the hoop placed upright on the floor in front of you, the top of the hoop should reach your chest. Of course the size of your waist has to be taken into account. So the bigger you are, the bigger the hoop has to be. The speed of rotation is inversely proportionate to the size of the hoop. Bigger hoops will rotate slower and smaller hoops faster. Bigger hoops that rotate slower will make it easier for you to learn hooping initially. Faster rotating smaller hoops are great for doing tricks with and harder to master, but are excellent of exercise.

Try to strike a balance on the rotation speed and difficulty level of the hoop that you pick. Try them out in the store, get a feel of the rotation speed and how hard it is to use. You wouldn't want to get something that rotates slow and doesn't provide a good enough workout or something so fast that you ended up giving up hooping because it is too hard.

To get you started on your very first hoop workout, try this:

1. stand with one foot in front of the other
2. Hold the hoop against your back, slightly above your waist
3. Push the hoop around your waist
4. Shift your weight back and forth on your feet

Try to find the momentum of the hoop's rotation in relation to your body movements. You might find yourself trying to move your hips in a circle to follow the hoop, it is easier if you shift your weight back and forth. As for which way to rotate the hoop, try out both ways, you will instinctively find out which way is more comfortable for you.

Well, that is basically what you need to get started. Once you have mastered these simple steps there are many more advanced and fun techniques that you can try.