The Canadian Press
Studio in Essence hula exercise instructor Monique Ryan during a class
Hula hooping: a fun way to get fit
Class uses hoops to help trim abs, thighs, buttocks and arms
By Lois Legge
THE CANADIAN PRESS Published Tuesday February 19th, 2008
HALIFAX - Hula hoops are in full swing.
And there isn't a kid in sight.
Twenty- and 40-something hips swivel, dip and roll to a pop beat, sweat glistening as faces flush.
"There you go -- you got it!" instructor Monique Ryan encourages as she twirls tirelessly like some tiny tattooed spin top.
The newcomers try to keep up, whirling Ryan's handmade hoops -- bigger and heavier than the cheap plastic variety -- around their waists for as long as possible.
Eventually, all the hoops except Ryan's hit the floor.
But the effort, the Studio In Essence instructor assures them, pays off as about 100 calories are burned in 10 minutes.
Effective exercise doesn't have to move in a straight line or aerobic jump, Ryan, 25, says before class on a recent Saturday.
Hula hooping is a great abdominal workout, she says. And it trims thighs, buttocks and arms, too, while lifting the moods of young and older.
"At the end of the class, I have so much more energy than when I started," adds the petite instructor, whose classes have attracted everyone from junior high school students to people in their mid-50s since they started last fall.
Christina Cheung's daughter takes pole-dancing classes at the Halifax dance and fitness studio. Cheung saw Ryan, also a dancer with the Halifax troupe Pink Velvet Burlesque, demonstrate her hula moves before Christmas. And she was hooked.
Cheung, 54, bought a plastic hula hoop at a department store and started practising at home. But she says it was too light to stay up for long.
Ryan's hula hoops, made from industrial tubing and sold at the studio for $20, are a big help, says Cheung, a Halifax resident who grew up in Hong Kong and is getting a fresh taste of an old plaything.
"It's my first time. I never learned it, even in school. ... So I said, 'Oh, I'm so interested,'" Cheung says between deep breaths after class.
"It was a great, great ... workout," Shannon Nearing, 45, adds after almost an hour of swivelling single or double hoops, rolling the hoop around her hands and trying mid-circle dance moves that Ryan suggested.
"If you're going to work out, you may as well have fun doing it," Nearing says. "It should be fun. It shouldn't be torture."
And hula hooping, she says, is "just total fun."
Ryan thinks so, too, and she has brought what she says is a big Hollywood exercise craze to Halifax after trying it on her own.
"Hula hooping is so much fun that you don't really realize that you're exercising," she says. "So it's not like going to the gym and doing rep after rep."
Ryan says she got the idea after watching Cirque du Soleil performers work wonders with the childhood toy.
"I'm a performer, I'm a belly dancer, and I was just looking for something new to add to my performances and I was looking at Cirque du Soleil videos and I saw a contortionist hula hooping with, like, 20 hula hoops, and doing all these really neat things with hula hoops, and I thought, 'Wow, that's really cool. I want to try that.'"
Ryan can now do some really cool moves of her own, such as holding her hands on her head as she hoops, or double hooping, even hooping while dancing in what seems like a seamless swirl of motion.
"If you feel comfortable, try the tricks," she encourages her class at one point.
The dizzying, tiny dancer expertly leads and the novices follow in a still-awkward, slightly stilted parade of shimmies and swirls.
Soon, 45 minutes has slipped by. And Ryan tells the hoopers they've each burned about 450 calories. And she adds with a burst of energy and a smile: "I can't think of a more fun way to burn 450 calories."
Hula Hoop co-creator has died
Gordon spoke many times about one of the first song he wrote which was about the hula hoop craze. "They were selling them by the millions." ~gl~
