Hula hoop as a workout – that’s right! It’s not just for kids. Adults are coming to hula hoop as workout equipment they can keep around the house. In fact, when you take a look, there are actually a lot of reasons to give the hula hoop a fair try. Here are a few of them.
Hula Hoop Builds Your Core
Your core is the most important muscle group in the body. All your strength is there. To keep a hula hoop up, you have to learn how to move your hips. This intuitively strengthens your core and improves the power of your abdominals, obliques, and hip muscles.
Hula Hoop Burns Calories
Hula hoop gets you up and moving, something that’s key to burning calories. Hula hoop is comparable to aerobic exercises like salsa or swing dancing and belly dancing. On average, doing hula hoop burns up to 150 calories for every fifteen minutes of activity.
Hula Hoop Helps You Lose Weight
Hula hoop is effective at burning body fat and cutting inches off your waistline. A 2015 study publicizing the benefits of hula hoop exercise demonstrated how over the course of 6 weeks, participants lost on average 3.4 cm around their waist and 1.4 cm around their hips.
Hula Hoop Helps Better Your Balance
Better balance equates to more control over movement. Hula hoop allows you to get more accustomed to the dynamics of moving. You improve posture and form, building stability in balancing the hoop.
Hula Hoop Reduces Stress
Any sort of cardio work or exercise like this is going to help bring down stress in your body. This is not just mentally, either. You ease the workload on your heart, can improve cholesterol levels, relaxes muscles, and is as much a stimulant as it is a stress-reducer.
Hula Hoop Helps Your Cardio
Hula hoop builds cardio. You work your heart and your lungs, improving oxygen transfer throughout your body. The more you do this over time, the stronger these systems become. Eventually, this will mean burning even more calories and even more blood flow.
Hula Hoop Builds Your Lower Body
You may look at a hula hoop and think it’s all about the cardio. It is but it isn’t. A hula hoop strengthens the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves, especially when using a weighted hoop.
Hula Hoop Can Be Done Anywhere
So long as you have a few feet around you, hula hoop exercises can be done anywhere. Toss your hula hoop on when you’re watching a movie. Take five minutes in the morning, at night, or while you’re waiting for supper, and pull out your hoop if you want. Anywhere. Any time.
Hula Hoop is Fun
Lastly, the hula hoop is fun. It’s easy to get the hang of. You can customize the workout with an intensity level appropriate to you. You can also do it with family or friends. You don’t have to be a competitive weightlifter to enjoy the benefits of it.