Hula Hoops

Today, I spent a decent amount of time with two of my sisters, hula-hooping. Hula Hoops became popular as a children's toy in the 1950's, but today many adults also enjoy this hobby for exercise or performance art.

Some time ago, my mother got a weighted hula hoop for working out. These weighted ones are easier for me to use than typical toy hoops that have no weight to them. My mom's hoop has these little bumps all around the inside, supposedly to "massage" you or something. I think the real purpose is to give you little annoying bruises on your stomach for no reason at all, but that is neither here nor there. At family dinners, we all often spend lots of time playing with the hula hoop with the music blaring.

A few days ago, my sister, Traci, received her own hula hoop via the Internet. Hers is not weighted and is free of the massaging bumps. Thanks to several videos from Youtube, Traci has become quite good at hooping and is trying to teach me and Cyndi (another sister) some fun techniques. The "ice cream/exploding soda" analogy in this video was very helpful in our successes as students of hooping:



I definitely still need more practice, but boy, was it fun. The three of us shared a lot of laughter this morning. It was a great way for us sisters to get together and just have fun. With work, school, pets, and relationships, it is hard for us to find the time for stuff like that. Even better, it is a pretty rigorous workout, especially when combined with all the laughing we did!