fitbody
H P it up for health
A FUN WAY TO GET A GROOVE ON by Ellen Mahoney
Hooping TV Producer Garry Marshall
picked up a hula hoop 10 years ago, she didn’t know that one day she’d take home a Guinness world 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 continually spinning around her waist. “My goal was no stopping and no drop- ping,” she says. Today, like many fitness trainers across the country, this hooping pioneer teaches people of all ages and body types who are interested in getting fit, 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
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sands of years, beginning in the form of encircled grapevines and grasses used as a toy by children. The evolution of the hula hoop, influenced 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.
40 San Diego Edition
hen Betty Shurin, aka “Betty Hoops,”
First Lady Michelle Obama
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 fitness folks became in- spired to use the hoop for getting in shape.
These days, Shurin, a certified
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 criss-cross 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 definitely 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 “acci- dentally get in shape.”At heart, he felt he was becom- ing more centered in both body and mind.
Amazing
online videos at: •
TheHoopingLife.com
Shurin explains that,
•
HoopRevolution.com/ performance
“Hooping is similar to the [Sufi] whirling
•
Hooping.org
dervish 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
HOOPING TIPS
n Use a hoop weighing 1 to 2 pounds; anything heavier creates too much torque for the organs and spine.
the sheer playfulness of a child.” The hoop has been around for thou-
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
www.na-sd.com
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