Hula Hoops: From Child’s Play to Real Exercise


Time Magazine:

To get in shape for her October wedding, Dawn-Samantha Cahill, 25, tried every exercise routine she could think of. Cahill was nearly ready to give up, until one day last spring, she discovered a video on YouTube about hula-hooping. “The woman in the video was so sexy, and the moves she was making with a hula hoop were so cool,” Cahill says.

The woman with the rock-hard body and come-hither hula hoop was Christabel Zamor, author of Hooping: A Revolutionary Fitness Program and founder and CEO of San Francisco based HoopGirl Inc., which offers instructional hooping videos and classes.

It might have ended up as just another passing fitness fad, but hula-hooping appears to have caught on and stuck. Zamor’s HoopGirl began selling weighted, adult-size hoops in 2001, and other companies, including Los Angeles-based Hoopnotica, were founded soon after.

Since then, the activity has gained thousands of followers worldwide. Hoopnotica’s sales have more than quintupled over the past three years, according to co-founder Keaton Koechli, while HoopGirl’s teacher-training program has grown from 24 instructors to more than 350 in 13 countries.

Classes in the U.S. are typically offered in private studios, though Crunch gym members in Los Angeles can now take Hula Hoop Pilates. Enthusiasts also form their own organized hooping clubs like the Bay Area Hoopers, whose founder edits the online magazine Hooping.org

Photo by Hoopnotica.

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