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- #13
Tornadic Thoughts
VIP Member
If you pick up the ones you typically see in the stores, they'll be much harder to use as they're more sized/weighted for kids. They're great for arm hooping, though, and for games. The bigger and heavier it is, the easier it is to learn to get it going and keep it going.
The homemade ones I've seen for sale in this area at festivals and such cost $25 or more, depending on how intricate the decorations are. They're time consuming..for sure...especially the wrapping of the tape. I also offer "naked hula hoops" so folks can wrap/decorate their own.
The nutritionist/neurofeedback practitioner/author I met through the local time bank wanted to have a hula hoop making party several years ago and had bought the stuff to do it with, but needed a space large enough, so I offered our home....and that's when the seed was planted.
However, I weighed around 300+ lbs. when that took place and was never able to keep the damn thing up, so I just tossed it in a dark corner and forgot about it...until I lost my first 50 lbs. after drastically changing my consumption habits....and after losing a total of 110 lbs, it's easily become my favorite purposeful and fun daily movement, a.k.a. exercise, along with the mini-trampline.
I was determined to learn how to hoop, as all the music festivals and such I attended made me feel super connected to the hoopers...I just knew they were my people and I wanted to learn their ways. lol So I practiced every day for at least 20 minutes a day, and after 2 weeks, I finally got it! I was so excited!!!
Then I was determined to hoop through a whole song, and damn, that was harder than I thought. It took another week or so to make it through whole songs.
Then I signed up for a hoop dance class once a week for 6 weeks at a parks and rec center in a town about 40 minutes away and that was a real hoot. I didn't learn all the moves, but the few I picked up are a lot of fun.
Then I took a couple online classes of how to teach hooping to kids and how to market yourself as a hoop dancer, hoop maker, etc. via Udemy.com. Fun and fascinating stuff, for sure!
Here's the you tube video we used to learn how to make them:
How to Make PROFESSIONAL Hula Hoops (for less than 6 dollars a hoop!)
There's a lot of videos on you tube of folks teaching the elderly how to use hoops for chair exercises, one guy talks of how a hula hoop saved his life from depression and such, lots of instructional stuff, tons of talented hoopers showing their skills....and my first memory of seeing a hoop dance of any sort live and in person was at a Native American pow-wow. Fascinating. I don't remember ever having a hoop as a kid.
I buy my tubing and couplings, and the cutters, at Lowe's and ordered a multi-pack of colored electrical tape online to wrap them with. If I remember correctly, it cost me about 40-ish bucks total my first shopping trip, and less after that as the cutters are a one time purchase and the tape will last a while since I bought so much.
They have small sized duct tape in all types of designs now, too...and glow in the dark duct tape. :) I used that on the first hoop I made. The wide duct tape isn't as easy to work with when wrapping them...but you can use an exacto knife to very carefully cut it in half to make it easier, so they say...I just use electrical tape now.
May you have lots of laughs if you decide to give it a try! It's definitely enriched my life in many ways. Wham-O made the first ones in the 50s....I finally learned how to fully appreciate them in my 50s. Go figure. lol
The homemade ones I've seen for sale in this area at festivals and such cost $25 or more, depending on how intricate the decorations are. They're time consuming..for sure...especially the wrapping of the tape. I also offer "naked hula hoops" so folks can wrap/decorate their own.
The nutritionist/neurofeedback practitioner/author I met through the local time bank wanted to have a hula hoop making party several years ago and had bought the stuff to do it with, but needed a space large enough, so I offered our home....and that's when the seed was planted.
However, I weighed around 300+ lbs. when that took place and was never able to keep the damn thing up, so I just tossed it in a dark corner and forgot about it...until I lost my first 50 lbs. after drastically changing my consumption habits....and after losing a total of 110 lbs, it's easily become my favorite purposeful and fun daily movement, a.k.a. exercise, along with the mini-trampline.
I was determined to learn how to hoop, as all the music festivals and such I attended made me feel super connected to the hoopers...I just knew they were my people and I wanted to learn their ways. lol So I practiced every day for at least 20 minutes a day, and after 2 weeks, I finally got it! I was so excited!!!
Then I was determined to hoop through a whole song, and damn, that was harder than I thought. It took another week or so to make it through whole songs.
Then I signed up for a hoop dance class once a week for 6 weeks at a parks and rec center in a town about 40 minutes away and that was a real hoot. I didn't learn all the moves, but the few I picked up are a lot of fun.
Then I took a couple online classes of how to teach hooping to kids and how to market yourself as a hoop dancer, hoop maker, etc. via Udemy.com. Fun and fascinating stuff, for sure!
Here's the you tube video we used to learn how to make them:
How to Make PROFESSIONAL Hula Hoops (for less than 6 dollars a hoop!)
There's a lot of videos on you tube of folks teaching the elderly how to use hoops for chair exercises, one guy talks of how a hula hoop saved his life from depression and such, lots of instructional stuff, tons of talented hoopers showing their skills....and my first memory of seeing a hoop dance of any sort live and in person was at a Native American pow-wow. Fascinating. I don't remember ever having a hoop as a kid.
I buy my tubing and couplings, and the cutters, at Lowe's and ordered a multi-pack of colored electrical tape online to wrap them with. If I remember correctly, it cost me about 40-ish bucks total my first shopping trip, and less after that as the cutters are a one time purchase and the tape will last a while since I bought so much.
They have small sized duct tape in all types of designs now, too...and glow in the dark duct tape. :) I used that on the first hoop I made. The wide duct tape isn't as easy to work with when wrapping them...but you can use an exacto knife to very carefully cut it in half to make it easier, so they say...I just use electrical tape now.
May you have lots of laughs if you decide to give it a try! It's definitely enriched my life in many ways. Wham-O made the first ones in the 50s....I finally learned how to fully appreciate them in my 50s. Go figure. lol
