Bruises or no bruises I still feel like I am ten years old!!! I love this hula hoop thing. Does anyone remember the toy that you put around your ankle, that had a ball or something tethered to the end and with one foot you got the toy going around and around while you jumped over the ball with the other foot. It might have been called a "skip it"??? When I was seven or eight years old (LBJ may have been president then) I could do it for hours. That would be fun to try too. Anyone remember those things and do they still exist?

Hmmm, might be fun...as long as no one minds the bruised ankles. And the smashed noses when we hit the floor from not jumping fast enough. LOL!

Well I still can't DO my hula hoop LOL. But I will keep trying. I don't work at it all that long at a time. I think it would be easier in a leotard instead of a T-shirt.

And LOL yah those jump toys would be FUN to have!!

http://www.shapeupshop.com/games/jumpropes/jumpers.html

Or here is how to make one

http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf23712256.tip.html

Wow, I never thought of this as exercise! I bet my kids would love this too. Does this also count as cardio? I'm not an exerciser at all! I have to start from ground zero, so it probably won't take much for me to break a sweat!

I'm glad I found this thread. I had wondered if I'm the only one that uses a hulahoop for exercise. I need to find a weighted one to buy. I've been using a regular one for quite a while and keep it up for fairly long periods. Me, my SD, my DD and my son all have hulahoop contests here at home, just for fun. We all enjoy it. Plus, the Karaoke club that me, DS and DH go to once a week has hulahoop contests (I haven't ever won but I do stay in the competition til almost the end). My son actually is usually the winner at the club. LOL. For all of us it is fun activity and good exercise to boot.

I keep my hoop in the living room and use it during commercials when I'm watching TV. Helps get me up off the couch!

I wasn't aware that weighted ones are available. Can't wait to find me one. I'm gonna look at sport's stores and see if they have them or could order me one.

Misti-thanks for the website. I am going to order one. I haven't done one of those things in almost 40 years!!! I hula hooped to music today and it helped a lot. I concentrated more on finding a song with the right beat and then keeping that beat that I ended up doing more revolutions. I am up to about 20 seconds. The song I really liked was "The Way You Move" by Outkast. (I have the edited CD) Anyone else trying it to music? I would love some song suggestions.

This looks and sounds like sssooo much fun!! I would have never thought! Has anyone seen any results yet?

I am going to have to get one, but not yet I am not working and need to save the money that I have. But this is something to look forward too!! Yeah this will be fun!

OK, here's a hoop trick. I don't have a weighted hoop, so I don't know if this works for the weighted ones or not. But when the hoop starts to feel like it's going to drop, I bend my knees a little so my hips get a little further under the hoop, and I add a bit of a swing to my hip. Somehow that keeps the momentum going.

I have a highly overpriced hoop from Betty Hoops. I got it home and said, dang, I could have made this for $10! The quality wasn't great, and it was clearly very homemade. I recommend attempting to make one before buying one from Betty.

I also tried to do the hoop in "reverse" (counter clockwise, for me), and got marginally good at that. I have this symmetry thing, where I worry that if I hoop only clockwise eventually my waist is going to get lopsided or something. Ha ha.

The weight will help you to keep it on your waist, but don't let the cost keep you from hooping. You can pick up the standard plastic hoop at Wal*Mart for less than a buck. That's what I use.

Well, I was trying to make one, but I can't find any tubing around me to buy. and I really don't know if I can wait 2-3 weeks to have one shipped. Any suggestions on where to look for one to buy right now, other than the cheap kid ones at wal-mart, no offense to Heaven, those just don't work for me, I've tried.

Guns N Roses must be my lucky charm - I did a little more than half of "Paradise City" and all of "My Michelle" without dropping the hoop- go me! At least five minutes of moving that hoop around- felt so damn good.

I didn't realize how much of an aerobic workout I got until my daughter, who saw me while swimming in the lake, came in to congratulate me on keeping it up. I wish she hated waited for another song to do so, as the hoop dropped immediately after I saw her. I still have sweat pouring off of me a half of an hour later!

By the way, I learned a new trick that helped me keep it up longer- when I feel it start to go down near my butt area, I speed up the hoop as fast as I can, and it goes back up!

I love this weighted hoop- so much fun, and I finally have the hang of it!!!

What happened to all of my hula hooping buddies?

Awe, sorry to hear that you had a bad day. Here's a to make you feel better.

Don't give up- my oldest daughter has been doing this exercise three times a week for about a half of an hour on those days (for about 2 and a half weeks now), and has already lost 2 inches from her waist and another five pounds! She is looking great, and absolutely loves her hoop to death.

Today, the kids were all outside using them, so I got out my CD player, put it in the window, and played The Chicken Dance, YMCA, The Twist and a few other silly songs. They were hysterical, trying to do the Chicken Dance and YMCA while hooping out in the driveway. Some lady drove by and was smiling, it was priceless seeing teens having fun. I, of course, did mine inside, as I had no idea I'd get the hang of it this afternoon. I can't wait until tommorrow to do it again.

I just made 6 hula hoops myself last week and love them! I made one for me and one for each of the kids, each custom made for our sizes. Very cool and very easy! After much reading, I decided against using any additional weight in mine. Supposedly, both increased weight and increased diameter just make them an easier workout so, being a glutton for punishment, made mine unweighted and no larger than necessary.

I was/am actually able to keep it up and going! I'm amazed! LOL It's an incredibly hard workout for me (funny, I don't remember it being that much work as a kid! LOL) and I'm sweating like a pig the entire time. When it starts slipping down, I just stick out my butt and it rides back up. We won't mention how I can only do it for 5 minutes before I die in an exhausted puddle of sweat on the floor, though.

Lilybelle, I'm in OK, too, down in the southeastern area. If you're anywhere close, I have leftover tubing that you can use to make a weighted one if you want. (or I could make it for you -- it's super easy and fast).

For those of you having trouble finding the tubing, I got ours from a local hardware store. All of our hardware stores, farm stores, and home centers have the stuff around here, called either irrigation tubing/pipe or black poly. I got 3/4" 100 psi.