Get out your childhood hula hoop for a fun and effective workout!

I wanted a little change with my workouts and wanted to work on my stomach, but things like plank challenges or sit-up challenges where you just try to improve how many you can do each day tend not to work so well for a couple of reasons. Firstly, with plank and sit-up challenges, especially as beginners, you can only manage a couple of minutes before your 'workout' comes to a sorry end... But that wouldn't be so bad if you could do these workouts several times a day, every day - surely you'd build muscle quickly? Unfortunately not, because these measly few minute 'challenges' often leave you with very, very achy muscles the following day - having only got in a couple of minutes of exercise! 

Instead finding a good workout which is a mixture of cardio and muscle building would be perfect, and that's where hula hooping comes in! Now, I beg you not to dismiss this post because you're 'hopeless at hula hooping' because I promise you, progress is amazingly and surprisingly quick and I promise that you will get it!

I recently decided to give hula hooping a try when I found an old hula hoop in the garage and thought 'why not?' Since then, I've read some articles and discovered that hula hooping is actually 'all the rage' at the moment, with power women including Michelle Obama and Beyonce taking to the hoop! And my verdict? I wholly recommend it to everyone!

So why am I currently obsessed with hula hooping?

• It's such a convenient way to exercise. A hula hoop is very cheap to buy and once you've purchased one there are no further costs, unlike some of the well over-priced gym memberships, for which monthly costs of £70 a month are not unusual. You can do it indoors, so for those of us scared of venturing out during the winter months for long runs, hula hooping may be the answer. In fact, as someone who really feels the cold, on those colder mornings I actually grab the hula hoop for 5-10 minutes just to warm myself up a little bit before mustering up the courage to get dressed in the cold. 
• It's easy and everyone can do it. It may take a couple of hula hooping sessions of constantly picking the hoop up from the floor after 10 seconds, but once you find your rhythm and pace, you will make very quick progress and find that dropping the hoop at all is a thing of the past.
• It won't leave you aching for days. Many muscle building exercises can leave you in agony and aching for days and stop you from being able to do any more exercise, but (and of course depending on the intensity of your exercise), hula hooping doesn't tend to do that which means that the following day, or even twice in the same day, you can pick up the hoop again.
• It's a perfect balance between cardio and muscle building. For those of you who are trying to get in your cardio vascular exercise and get your heart going, but also want to trim your belly fat and even get abs, this is a perfect exercise. Like I've mentioned, hula hooping doesn't have the same intensity as something like planking, so you can do 30 minute workouts which would serve as great cardio.
• You can make hula hooping more interesting. If after a little while you become fairly good at hula hooping, never drop the hoop and find that your workout has become boring, you can up your game. There are lots of 'pro' hula hooping moves to spice up your workout like walking, jumping or kneeling with the hoop and many others which you can investigate. You can also upgrade your hoop to a heavier one for a better belly workout.

Hula hooping tips!

• When it comes to what to wear for hula hooping, less is more! Baggy clothing and even long tops will make your workout much less pleasant as the clothing will cause the hoop to fall and ideally you want the hoop to swing around your stomach in contact with it. So it's advisable to wear a cropped sports top, or if not, a tight and clingy vest top.
• If you're a beginner and trying hula hooping for the first time and don't want to spend much money on a hoop, you can even pick up a child's hoop for a couple of pounds. But do be aware that a smaller hoop is much harder to control and the lightness could also make it difficult, so don't be put off if you buy a cheap, child's hoop and don't get anywhere with hula hooping. You can get a Pro Fitness Weighted Hula Hoop from Argos for just £14.99.
• Music, especially a workout CD will make your workout a lot more interesting and enjoyable. You could even watch TV whilst you do your workout to catch up on your programmes and get your workout fitted into your day too!

So give hula hooping a go for an easy, cheap, convenient and effective muscle-building/cardio workout! If you have any questions or comments, please post them below! :-)