Hey - It Sure Beats Doing Sit-Ups...

Hula hoops – the toy that have recently become a popular piece of exercise equipment. Using hula hoops for exercise is becoming all the rage for three reasons – the hoops are cheap, you burn calories, and it’s fun!

Sure, most of haven’t picked up a hula hoop since we were kids, but the interest in these simple toys is growing. Now, clubs are opening across the country where you can take an exercise class, hang out with other adults who are excited about hula hooping, and buy special exercise hoops and DVDs. Recently Michelle Obama recommended the hula hoop for overweight kids – but why should kids have all the fun?

The round plastic tube became popular as a toy back in 1958, when the Wham-O company first developed it. The toy went out of fashion for a number of years, but it’s made a comeback, perhaps partly because of the popularity of the Tim Robbins movie The Hudsucker Proxy, in which the hula hoop played a central role.

Celebrities that tout the exercise benefits of hooping include actress Marisa Tomei, who recently showed off her hooping skills on the Ellen DeGeneres show, and who has a new hooping fitness DVD coming out soon. Madonna is said to have taken up the hoops, too.

One thing you notice immediately when you pick up one of the new weighted hula hoops for exercise is the weight. Old-style hoops that you used when you were a kid were made of lightweight plastic – and that’s one of the reasons why some children never got the hang of it. The new weighted hoops are easier to keep turning, which makes the exercise considerably more fun. The weights also make you work a bit harder, so you burn more calories.

This is one exercise routine you don’t have to do inside a gym or hiding in your own backyard. The popularity of hula hoops for adults is growing, and many people all over the country are taking to the local parks to join daily exercise groups. The equipment costs are very low, and the fun factor is very high.

Groups of total strangers are discovering that it’s a great way to have fun while meeting people in a happy, low-stress environment. While many slightly out-of-shape people are too intimidated to join in with all those spandex-covered hard bodies at the gym, who can take hula hooping that seriously? After all – this is a toy we’re playing with, as we twirl off the pounds.