Hooping - an accidental obsession
Until this past April, if someone had told me that at this age I'd own a pile of hula hoops and be thinking about hooping every day, I'd be waiting for the punchline. So, yeah. Thirteen hoops in less than a year. How did I get here?
My mom took up hooping a few years ago in her mid-60s and bugged me several times to try it. When I visited her last October I tried her hoop just long enough to see if I could do it. It wasn't easy to keep it up and I got bored pretty quickly. I figured that was that.
Then a friend decided that she wanted one. She didn't want to waste time on shipping. She wanted one NOW. I bet her that if I posted on Facebook I'd have some leads on local sources within two hours. An acquaintance answered in a few minutes. She had a (40" Hoopnotica) beginner hoop that she'd barely used. She was moving that day, and if I could pick it up then, I could have it for free. So in less then two hours I had a free hoop.
When I got back, we turned on some music. My friend tried the hoop. She managed to wobble it around her a few times before it hit the ground. Wobble. Plop. Wobblewobblewobble. Plop. She tried her damnedest, but it was barely happening.
When she was done I picked it up. With the music playing, it was nothing like the experience at my Mom's. I was able to keep it up indefinitely, and I didn't want to put it down. I spent the next few hours putting together a stack of songs that were fun to hoop to. I hooped for probably an hour. The next day I added more songs. Not counting pauses to tweak the music, I probably hooped for two hours. My friend still couldn't get the hang of it, but she still wanted a hoop. She decided I should keep the free hoop (pink definitely isn't her colour) and she ordered one in green and black. It arrived in a few days. Sadly, it's gathering dust at her house.
Meanwhile, the next day it felt like someone had punched me all around my waist. It was bad enough that I Googled hoop bruises and found several web pages devoted to it. I definitely recommend clicking the link for more info. The upshot was that you wait for a few days for them to go away, then it rarely happens again in the same spot. Also, maybe hooping for two hours on your first day isn't a good idea.
I'd been depressed for several weeks, hardly being able to bring myself to get out of bed for anything but work and basic life functions. Now I couldn't wait to get out of bed to hoop. Aiigh! I used the waiting time to gather more songs and read up on hooping. A few days later, I was free to indulge.
I started out at a half an hour a day. Then I added another half hour session. In a few days I noticed that my muscles were toning up. My back was no longer stiff in the morning. My legs were stronger. My mind was clearer at work and my depression was sliding away. It seemed to have an effect similar to meditation. There were other benefits that my husband noticed that I won't discuss here. :-) Here's my before and after shot from the first 16 days.
OK, so how did I get thirteen hoops?
0) 40" Gift hoop: Passed on to a friend after I started making my own. It seemed only fair to pay it forward.
1-2) 28" Walmart twins: For hand hooping.
3-4) Three home-made hoops from 1" tubing found behind our shed - gave one to another friend.
5) 38" Moodhoops Luna LED hoop (scroll down and check out the video - mesmerizing)
6) 33" Synergy Flow Arts polypro hoop. Quite spendy, but light / springy / pretty / shimmery for single hoop tricks.
7-8) 20" Moodhoops LED twins - Ember and Tigerlily (shown in the icon above - amazing when they're in motion).
9-11) Three homemade hoops from 3/4 tubing bought from Lowe's. This is for making larger hoops, which make it easier to learn certain tricks. I plan on giving one of these to a newcomer and using the remaing tubing to make custom beginner hoops for friends and family and to get some more people hooked on hooping. ( Here's a link to yesterday's post about beginner hoops and hoopmaking.)
I'd let work and life snow me under, so I'd stopped hooping for several months, but with the holidays out of the way and the new year, I'm feeling the pull again. Yesterday was my first time back on the horse, doing 36 minutes a day (including 6 minutes of hand-hooping) for the first few weeks, before I get back into fiddling around with tricks.
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