I swung my hips every day for a month with a hula hoop and these are the results

I tested the hula hoop fitness trend and was surprised by the results. When I think of a hula hoop, I immediately have lots of funny moments in my head, from when I was ten years old. It’s been a long time since I’ve held one in my hand, let alone circled one around my hips. But whether it’s on Instagram, YouTube, or other digital platforms, I keep running into people my age who have discovered hula hoop fitness for themselves and swear by it. So it was time for me to finally try it out myself—so I bought a hula hoop, watched all the “Hula Hoop Fitness for Beginners” videos, and started training.

Fitness with the hula hoop—expectation

From my one-month hula hoop fitness test, I expect on the one hand a better body feeling and more stability, which will hopefully benefit me in other sports, such as swimming, for example. But more importantly, I want to find out if training with the hula hoop could be something that can be integrated into everyday life in a sustainable way. In my imagination, I’m standing on the balcony swinging the hoop in the morning while enjoying the first rays of sunshine, or I’m doing my workout in the evening after work while looking for the new season of my favorite series. In other words, I hope to find a workout for which I have no more excuses.

How can you learn to hula hoop?

The bitter realization right at the beginning: I am an absolute beginner. So my first goal, before I start a real fitness program, is to learn how to hula-hoop. But what is the best way to do that?

Learning to hula hoop for beginners seems to be a popular video topic on YouTube, luckily for me, so I watch all the content explaining which hoop is best to use as a beginner and which direction to move the hips to keep the hoop up. Here we most important facts at a glance that are essential to learn hula hoop:

Choosing the right hoop

A beginner hoop is best between 1.2 and 1.5 kilograms. It should not be too light, then it is easier. If you are sensitive to pain, you should not choose a hula hoop with massage nubs at the beginning. However, these are beneficial to build muscle. Also, it is important to consider the body size for the hoop size: The length from the floor to the belly button is approximately the diameter of the hoop.

The right stance

The starting position is the be-all and end-all for a fluent hula hoop workout. When trying hula hoop fitness for the first time, it is important to find the right stance for you. For some, placing their legs parallel and hip-width apart works better; for some, placing one foot forward works better.

Don’t get discouraged

Even if the first attempts don’t work at all, keep at it. First successes come faster than you think – I am the best proof for it (but more about that in a moment).

What are the advantages of hula hoop fitness?

I have already mentioned above what I personally hope to gain from my sports test. But of course, there are other benefits to hula hoop fitness, which is why it’s so popular with the masses. Contrary to what you might think, it’s an effective full-body workout that can do much more than just burn calories. For one, it mobilizes the spine, which helps prevent back pain, and it also works the abdominal and back muscles, as well as the core. And that’s exactly what’s super important to me, because my goal is to optimize my posture and especially to train my lower back, since I tend to have a hollow back and am often plagued by back pain.

But hula hoop fitness also makes you sweat, because it gets your cardiovascular system going. So if you’re hoping for a relaxed workout, you’re wrong. Conversely, you also burn a lot of calories. One of the reasons for this is that the abdominal muscles are constantly at work during the hula hoop.