Great Hula Hooping Experiment Results! [Pics! VIDEO!!]

YOU GUYS. HULA HOOPING IS RIDICULOUSLY FUN! See? It’s making me all scream-y and caps-y. But I cannot tell you enough how much fun we had this month. Not only that but this has got to be one of the most commented-on Experiments we’ve ever done (and we’re used to getting a lot of comments/stares/crazy looks). Here’s a sample of what we heard this month:

Q: I could never hula hoop! My hips don’t work that way!

A: Yes, you can! You just need a big enough hoop! Make your own or buy an adult-sized one! Don’t mess around with kiddie hoops.

Q: Does hula hooping really work your waist?

A: Honestly it felt like more of a cardio/dance workout than anything else. It never made my abs sore, even when we used a weighted hoop (not pictured).

Q: Ok, so it’s fun but how good of a workout is hooping?

A: Surprisingly sweaty! While it doesn’t skyrocket your heart rate like Tabata intervals (hmmm… could you Tabata hoop? Will have to try.) as long as you keep moving, it keeps your heart pumping. I’d say it’s similar to Zumba or Hip Hop Hustle or other dance cardio classes.

Q: Are there any toning benefits?

A: Holding your arms up that long so you don’t knock the hoop really (really) makes your shoulders burn after a while! Also, all the squats we did while still moving the hoop got pretty burny too.

Q: (From an African man, this morning) Does hula hooping make you skinny?

A: (From Krista) Well, not really.

A: (African man) Well good. We Africans like our women with more meat on their bones. You girls are too skinny.

A: Umm… thank you?

Q: Would you do it again?

A: I would love to try a real hooping class sometime. While we were able to teach ourselves a lot on our own, I think it would have been a lot better in a class setting.

Without further ado, here’s what we’ve been working on all month! (I am so so so proud of my girls!)

What do you guys think – those of you that are seasoned hoopers (that sounds like a state fair food!), did we do ok? Those of you who aren’t, did we convince you to try it? Ever had a culture-clash comment like the one from the African man?

90 Comments

  1. Oh holy wow that was….enthralling! I have a silly smile. I love it!
    What song is that?

  2. hahaha, ok, you guys crack me up. Looked like great fun. And I like the credit to “Booty”

  3. This is great! Hahaha I love it!

  4. I’m so impressed that none of you lost your glasses! Awesome!

  5. Holy crap. That video was awesome. I’m now dying to get a hula hoop!!! :0)

  6. THAT was magnificent! First the hip hop video and now this. Hilarious.
    What’s the name of the song you used?

  7. That video just made me all kinds of happy — I’m smiling like crazy! Amazing work!!!

  8. OH my gosh, you are hysterical. I’m not sure that I’ll be hula hooping anytime soon, but I do want a neon pink tutu now.

  9. Gym Buddy Krista

    Nice African Guy’s comment did one thing for me….make me want to move to Africa!!! Carrot cake and Jellybeans…I’m Baaaacckk!!!

  10. Alyssa (azusmom)

    Niiiiiiiice!!!!!!! I’m jealous!
    That looks like SO MUCH FUN. I may have to try it, even as uncoordinated as I am.

  11. Ahhhh, I love you and the gym buddies! I wish you all had been in charge of my phys. ed curriculum in elementary/high school!! Seriously, you all look like you’re having so much fun. If I ever come to Minnesota, I’m coming for a GFE gym buddy workout.

    I don’t even want to tell you how many awkward cultural discussions I’ve had. I was born and raised in Canada, and I’m biracial. This apparently opens the door to many people asking ‘what are you?’. My answer “Canadian” (though I want to be snarky, and say ‘a human being’), is often insufficient. My love of maple syrup, BeaverTails, poutine, and spruce beer, in addition to my birth certificate, is apparently not enough to ward off unwanted questions. In addition to the ‘what are you’, many people assume I am from their country, and that opens a whole other can of worms with regards to awkward cultural conversations. I’m now a total pro at avoiding these discussions, even though it means I can be a bit stand-offish, I much prefer that to offers of marriage from random Nigerian men (oh yes, it has happened).

    Re: the hula hooping- I was at a festival this weekend, and there was a booth selling hula hoops, and hula hoop classes! In Calgary! AND, I was at the grocery store, and saw like 5 adults carrying hula hoops this morning! Usually this city is a few years behind the trend…but perhaps you have a lot of secret readers in the city:) You have no idea how excited I was to see the hula hoops at the festival! I was volunteering for the Stampede booth, so I didn’t have time to linger, unfortunately. I’m hoping to catch the hula hoopers in action somewhere around the city…

    • Okay, I just had to go google everything on your list except maple syrup! I am officially not Canadian… sigh. But wow, you’ve had to deal with a lot of intrusive questions! And what I wouldn’t have given to be a fly on the wall during one of those random offers of marriage, lol!!!

  12. I’d hate to see booty not get a credit so I appreciated that part of it.

    What an awesome experiment! Loved the whole 80’s neon vibe! That is 80’s right? Or have I been locked away so long that those styles have come back.

    Oh, and the front hand flip thing where you picked up the two hoops on your way up? Impressive!

    • Ryan, ryan, ryan… neon is TOTALLY back now! So much so I think you should do a whole head-to-toe look. Just to, you know, show how with it you are. Yep, go get on that one.
      PS. And thanks – I was pretty darn proud of myself for that move too;)

  13. Just when I didn’t think you could get any cooler, you go and one-up yourself. Seriously? I can’t take this coolness. I may have to stop reading because of this.
    But no, I won’t.

    I want a tutu. I will make myself a tutu. soon.

  14. Ha! That was awesome, love the tutus 😉

  15. That was fantastic ! I bought a hula hoop (eventually tracked one down – Australia is obviously behind the times !) and am not having much luck.

    I can now go around about twice before it plummets to the ground like a rock ! But that is 1 1/2 more times than when I started ! I was using it in my tabatas because even though I’m not actually hooping the bending down and picking it up counts !

  16. That video made me grin SO MUCH! We have a weighted hoop in our flat, and they are unbelievable fun, especially watching guys do it (it is definitely easier for women, let’s leave it at that!).

    • This is SO TRUE! All the men that have tried it have had such a hard time doing it. Which, frankly, it’s about time I found a fitness endeavor that women are naturally better at!

  17. @Terri – where in Australia did you find an adult-sized hula hoop??? Because now I soooooo want one (not to mention a fabulous, fluoro ra-ra skirt to wear while showing off my mad hoopin’ skillz)!

    Love it, Charlotte, love how you remind us fitness can be so much fun. 🙂

  18. GIRL, you did hooping PROUD!!

  19. Lotsa fun!
    You and I are just about the same skill-level of hooping, although I’m not able to do front walk-overs. I’ve never had the nerve to take my hoop to the Y; all of my hooping is done at home on a 4′ x 6′ living room rug, where I have the added challenge of not breaking anything. You inspire me to try to put stuff together into a dance routine, instead of a bunch of individual moves.

  20. I too loved the outfits. I like wearing those brighter colors with black in the gym. Why are there so many boring workout outfits anyways?

    How in the world did you get all 3 of you to be able to do dance moves with your arms *while* hula-hooping? That’s the part that mind-boggled me.

    🙂 Marion

  21. I personally love hooping. Its fun and if you hold your arms out and twist them while you hoop or do tricep extensions while you hoop there is more burn.

    If you ever come out to the Boston area, I will bring you to my hooping class.

  22. Loved this experiment! I’ve been thinking about getting into hooping for a while (I’m planning on getting a skip it and some roller skates too in order to orchestrate a series of childhood reminiscent workouts), and this has only strengthened my resolve! I also love the colors and how beautiful the pictures/video are!

  23. Ok, that was freaking AWESOME! Love!

  24. that vidio made me giggle. a lot!

    ok what is UP with your with your site!?!??! for weeks now it takes me FOEEVAH to scroll down to read and also to comment. it moves in slow freaking motion and just irritates the bejesus out of me.! annoying!!!

    • Sorry:( It seems to do that for a few people but I have no idea why!! And honestly I’m not sure what to do about it anymore. I swear I have spent SO much time trying to fix this issue! Please don’t stop reading:( I’ll keep working on it.

  25. You guys are having so much fun, I want to be a gym buddy!

  26. Love the video! I don’t think I’ll be taking on hula hooping as a workout any time soon, but it was fun to hear about your experiment.

  27. Fun!! I needed to wear my sunglasses to view this brilliant post, lol!!

  28. Love it! I especially liked the cartwheel into the bridge…very nice!

    one of the best culture comments I’ve ever received was (and this is NO lie!)
    “aren’t you Italian?”
    “yes”
    “I feel like you would have bigger hips then…”
    “um. WHAT?”
    “well, Italians have big families, right?”
    “sometimes…”
    “well, big hips are good for giving birth!”
    (this is when I walked away…)

    adults say the darndest things…

    • Hahah – I guess it could have been worse, they could have said “You must be Italian, you have such big birthing hips!” Adults DO say the darndest things…

  29. A. You are all awesome. Actually, cooler than awesome.
    B. I want a tutu

  30. JourneyBeyondSurvival

    I absolutely love it! This is fantastical. I propose that all Experiments similarly end with a routine to be taped and posted on YouTube. Foreverafterward.

    You guys are awesome.

    • Yeah, you don’t know what you’re asking for! Believe me, some of our experiments you do NOT want to see live. (Sweat, pee, dry heaving… you get the idea)

  31. Awesome video, Charlotte! I, too, was grinning from watching it.

    For those of you looking for adult-sized hula hoops…make your own! I’m not crafty at all and have made a few that work. I haven’t decorated mine to look as awesome as Charlotte’s yet, but they work well and the best part is that you can custom size them for your height! Here’s the link I used to learn how to make mine.

    http://www.jasonunbound.com/hoops.html

    Happy hooping!

    • Yep! This was the website I used to make ours – and the one I linked to in our how-to post! Thanks for posting this again, it’s a great resource!!

  32. This was awesome, I can’t even do the cartwheel into the bridge! The outfits are so cute and went great with the music. Love it

  33. That. Was. AWESOME!

  34. ZOOOMMGGG how many experiments end with a music video?! And neon tutus???!! You guys have way too much fun. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that going to the gym is Serious Business?

    That African guy cracked me up. Maybe y’all are too skinny. Or maybe you’re lucky you don’t live in Africa? 😉

    Also, props for the awesome backflip at 1:33!

  35. You and the girls have mad hoop skillz! Loved it!!

  36. I’m so envious! I have a hoop, and can keep going for a long time, but I haven’t been able to do all the different moves (like the inclines, and hooping around the raised arm). I have a book (Cristabel Zamor’s), and try to follow it, but it’s just so tricky, and I get discouraged. How did you figure them all out?

    • Louisa, try looking for hooping tutorials on YouTube. A lot of the terms of what they’re called are probably in Cristabel’s book, but a lot of people break it down and you can SEE how they do it and it’s really helpful.

  37. I am guessing that MizFit & Tornado are going to be wanting those outfits soon!!! 😉

    AMAZING you are!!! I expect to see you on America’s Got Talent soon! You go girls!!!

  38. There was a girl last year at APD camp that was a seasoned hooper!! Her name (so cute) Ginger Hazard!! Check her out on FB!!!!

  39. ps that looked GREAT!! SO FUN!!!

  40. Wonderfully amazing, inspirational, and ya fill my heart with joy! Thank you.

  41. I just started hooping due to your blog and am totally into it. I bought a hoopnotica hoop because I live in Switzerland and the tubing was not so cheap here. Now my daughter started (6) and my son (3) keeps trying but is too little. As soon as we come to the US we are going to make some hoops with the cousins.
    I love your blog and can relate to you having kids (well not so many…) I miss all the funny fitness fads from the states. Here the fads come a few years later. Suddenly it is Zumba time here.
    Anyway thanks for the great writing.

  42. That was adorable !!!! I did have to watch the video through hidemyass.com though. Youtube has a lot of copyright restrictions and often videos cannot be watched in certain countries. Ever considered using Vimeo or other more democratic video hosts ?

    • Oh no I didn’t even consider that! I’ll def. use Vimeo next time – thanks for the tip!!

  43. You are seriously hilarious and adorable! You guys did and AWESOME job. I took hulu hoop class and you hook my socks right off girl! I nearly gave myself black eyes trying to get the hoop off my body into my hand and you did it with ease! Woohoo!! 😀

  44. Pingback:The Great Fitness Experiment Hula Hoop Routine | Hooping.org

  45. The video was so awesome! I’m glad you guys stuck with it. Do you think you’ll keep the hoop in your routine? One video I have is the Betty Hoops Cardio hoop which is great for exercising with the hoop. It’s all waist hooping (although once I got tired, I’d stick in a few corkscrews/halos).

    I LOVE the tutus!

  46. That video was pretty amazing. Hopefully Web Soup or Tosh.0 gets wind of it.

  47. You made my day! What a fun workout! Seriously considering getting a hoop AND trying a class.

    Keep on having fun!

  48. You guys are so cute! That looked like a lot of fun. Love the sunglasses.

  49. Random question: When you started did you find yourself getting bruised?

    I bought a water wave hoop (to see if I could handle hooping) and I’m getting really bruised…hmmm….

    • You know, none of us did get bruised, even when we used the weighted hoops. I’m not sure why (maybe our hips are used to be abused from all the other crap we put them through?) so I’m afraid I don’t have any advice for you. It sounds painful though and I’ve heard quite a few other people say that they bruise too. I’m sorry! Let me know if you figure out any remedy…

    • Most hoopers actually get bruised up quite a bit in the beginning. Once you start getting the moves down and doing them the right way the bruising stops. I got bruises on my hips at first, on my waist a little, on my hands during hand hooping, on my shoulders when I started shoulder hooping, and especially on my knees and ankles when doing leg hooping and kick starts. Now that I can do those things I don’t bruise any more, but the bruising happens while you’re working on perfecting a move, basically.

      Just remember—if something is bruised after a session of practice/jamming, DON’T hoop on that area of the body until it’s healed. It can be bad for you and lead to blood clots if you continuously hoop on a bruise. Once you’re good and bruised, take a break from whatever the move is and work on a move on a different part of the body (ex. if your knees are bruised work on chest hooping, if your waist is bruised work on hand hooping).

  50. I love hula hooping. It is so much fun and it is great exercise at the same time.

  51. Pingback:Fun Traditions | Journey Beyond Survival

  52. I was watching some fire hooping videos on youtube, really intimidating but inspiring! They convinced me to give it a go. Been learning for a few months now, great fun and my kids love it of course. Fits into my day of being a mommy quite well. Really enjoyed your fun video! Love it. 😀

  53. Pingback:Do We Really Want Un-Photoshopped Pictures? | The Great Fitness Experiment

  54. Pingback:Do We Really Want Un-Photoshopped Pictures? | Elite Daily Diet and Fitness

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