fitbody


H P it up for health


A FUN WAY TO GET A GROOVE ON by Ellen Mahoney


Hooping TV Producer Garry Marshall


up a hula hoop 10 years ago, she didn’t know that one day she’d take home a Guinness World


W


hen Betty Shu- rin, aka “Betty Hoops,” picked


First Lady Michelle Obama


Record. But in 2005, Shurin set the pace for the world of hula racing, running Colorado’s 10-kilometer Bolder Boulder event with her bright red hoop continu- ally spinning around her waist. “My goal was no stopping and no dropping,” she says.


Today, like many fi tness trainers across the country, this hooping pioneer teaches people of all ages and body types who are interested in getting fi t, losing weight, shaping up or just having fun. “Hooping changes people’s lives,” Shurin observes. “I love that when I hoop with others, I get to experience


the sheer playfulness of a child.” The hoop has been around for thou-


sands of years, beginning in the form of encircled grapevines and grasses used as a toy by children. The evolution of the hula hoop, infl uenced by the Hawaiian island dance, emerged in 1958 when wooden hoops from Australia morphed into America’s plastic edition, courtesy of the Wham-O toy company.


30 NA Pensacola/FWB Emerald Coast


became an instant hit and a cultural icon, which lost appeal over time until revitalized in the late ’90s at music festivals. That’s when fi tness folks became


inspired to use the hoop for getting in shape.


These days, Shurin, a certifi ed


anusara yoga teacher, focuses her pio- neering spirit on hoop training as artful exercise that blends aspects of yoga, sports and dance in workshops that crisscross the United States. She says hoop exercise realigns and strengthens core elements of the musculoskeletal


system and claims individuals can lose inches around the waist and burn up to 600 calories an hour with her program. Karla Kress-Boyle, a dancer from


Connecticut, says she is much stronger from the hooping that helped her take off weight after having a baby. She adds, “It defi nitely strengthened my abdominal muscles.”


Hula hooping is not exclusive to


women. Philo Hagen, editor of Los Angeles-based Hooping.org, discovered the updated phenomenon at a party and says it immediately helped him quiet the chatter in his head. “I just felt like I was connecting with the music and my body, and wound up hooping for hours.” Hagen soon realized how hooping was also helping him “acciden- tally get in shape.”At heart, he felt he was becoming more centered in both body and mind.


Shurin explains that, “Hooping is similar to the [Sufi ] whirling der- vish dance that emphasizes the laws of physics, metaphysics and quantum physics.” In addition to strengthening the body, she sees the hoop as a wheel- like vortex that enables the hula hooper to receive energy, as well as release it. She recommends using a weighted adult-sized hoop that weighs no more than two pounds; they even come in collapsible travel models. This year, hooping hit the big screen with director Amy Goldstein’s self-proclaimed popumentary, The Hooping Life. She fi rst discovered hooping in Venice, California, where it’s hugely popular. “I’ve noticed that hooping brings


HOOPING TIPS


n Use a hoop weighing 1 to 2 pounds; anything heavier creates too much torque for the organs and spine.


n Stand up tall with good posture and feet a hip-distance apart; don’t look down.


n Breathe deeply from the body’s core and push belly muscles toward the hoop.


n Rock hips back and forth or from side-to-side; don’t rotate the hips in a circle.


n Maintain the rhythm via belly and hip movement; don’t use the knees or lower back.


n If the hoop starts to fall, move faster. Source: Betty Shurin and BettyHoops.com


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