Hooping on Good Morning America!

Blessed are those who get to spread the word of hooping around the world.

This morning was a high-point.

Check out Hoop Trainer’s creator, Jackie Hesley, teaching Hoopnotica to Rachel on #GMA.

“Hoopnotica is where I got my start and I LOVE spreading their fitness program with a passion.” ~ Jackie Hesley

Have a look at the segment here and let us know if we can help you to hoop. We really want to.

LINK:

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/kelly-osbourne-loses-70-pounds-hula-hooping-120417393.html

“Hoops are fitness disguised as fun!” ~ Jackie Hesley, Founder of Hoop Trainer

Teaching hooping typically does more for the teacher than the student. We cant explain the bliss that rises up within ourselves when we see a new hooper “get it” for the first time. It’s truly the main purpose for who we are.

Hoop Trainers are not the best hoopers. We don’t claim to be. We are also not the fittest hoopers. What we are is a bunch of ladies who get off on getting happy while we get fit, and that is what a hoop provides for us.

Look, this happiness is not a one time thing or something we propose to be true. 99% of people love hoops. It doesn’t matter their age, race or any of that stuff. People are just drawn to them. Someday we may know why, or not. No matter. We still hoop.

Why?

As adults we focus on fitness, and hooping burns about 400 calories per hour. That’s like a kickboxing class. We all have lost at least a few pounds while hooping, so add that to having fun while working out and you’ve got a winning combo.

Aside from all the weight loss and happiness, what keeps us going as Hoop Trainers?

YOU.

Your face. Your smile. Your impending hoop bliss. We know exactly where it is for you and how to get you there. It is a little piece of personal power we humbly possess and use at will, to make your life more sparkly and shiny, and to help you shed a few pounds.

So, if you haven’t tried hooping, please do. There is a huge about of happiness waiting for you.

If you need a hoop or a class, simply ask.

If you want to become a Certified Hoop Trainer, we will teach you how.

Happy Holidays from Hoop Trainer!

Jackie Hesley ~ Founder of Hoop Trainer, L.A.

www.hooptrainer.com

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Life is a Hoop

by: Patti Olguin

My experience with hooping has done more that increase my core strength and give me a cool trick to bust out at parties.

I believe most things are an issue of timing. Hooping and I found each other at just the right time. I needed to be in the right frame of mind to ‘get’ the message I was being offered.

Initially I wanted to get my wais t back. I had no idea I would get my joy back. Life had become very challenging for many reasons. Mostly it was my own nonsense getting in my way. Isn’t that usually the case?

Then I learned to hoop! Let me tell you, it was NOT pretty at first but I had the good fortune of having a teacher who said we weren’t allowed to say ‘I can’t’ just that we hadn’t yet. This was a huge revelation to me. Having faith in myself was something I had long given up. I began to suspect that this hooping thing might be a bit of a metaphor for life.

Those of you who do hoop know that at first a lot of the exercise comes from bending over and picking up the hoop when it falls. JUST like in life. When we  fall…we get up. When we drop the hoop, we bend over and pick it up. Or we learn to kick it up, duck inside and start hooping. Either way, the lesson that when the hoop falls, the fun isn’t over, it’s just beginning is one that every hooper knows. You can see it in their soul.

I am now fortunate enough to be able offer my experience of hooping to others and I point out to them that like in life, if you try to keep the hoop from falling, you can hurt yourself. Trying to control instances in life almost never leads to the outcome we want, does it?  It took me years and a few bruises to hear what the hoop was telling me. Relax, breathe and feel the joy of the hoop…whether it is when you are whirling in a beautiful circle with your hoop or letting the hoop fall so you can start over and learn something new.

Keeping Vitality in Your Life

By: Marci Javril

Since I’m a dancer, I’m all about vitality and exploring movement on a daily basis. I stretch high to reach my paper supplies and I get down low to scrub the bathroom tiles. I’m always multi-tasking, aren’t you? Getting my “exercise” in practical ways on a daily basis.

A boost in vitality can come quickly from many directions – taking vitamins, feeling the sun on your back, wearing something sexy, thinking about your next vacation, getting that endorphin high after a hike … but what can sustain it?

Creating habits that will work for you even when you don’t “feel like it” will keep you going when your energy tank is on empty. Lately when I’m doing my thing during the day and a great song comes on, I drop everything and pick up my hoop for a moment. This gets my “hoopiness” factor brewing and stirs up my inner smile.

It’s so wonderful to know that just one song with my hoop can positively add to my happiness and vitality. In just minutes I get a cardio burn, a right-left brain activation, a moving meditation, and most of all, a refill of joy! Any short-burst of activity will rock my hips, tone my arms, tighten thighs, slim my waist, and work my ankles for balance and coordination.

No matter your age or size, hooping is accessible to all kinds of people. Your small investment in a plastic shiny ring is priceless, as the hoop can be shared even when words cannot, providing a link for people to express themselves and have fun.

Grab yourself a hoop, put on an outfit that makes you feel great, create a playlist with your favorite music, nevermind the people who will be watching, and just get out there.

Movement + laughter + hoops = Vitality!

BIO: Marci Javril, aka @VitalityMarci, is the “Vitality Expert” for Hoop Trainer. Marci is a lifetime dancer, fitness, and health professional who specializes in wellness and vitality. She is the author of an e-book, “Feel Like Yourself Again“.

Keeping That Spring in Your Step at Any Age

by Laurel Fleming Richie

Have you ever noticed that each season has its own special feel? Summer means leisure and fun, fall is busy with family and getting back to schedules, winter is a time to nest at home, and spring brings a sense of renewal.

This time of year is one of my favorites, full of new beginnings. We can choose to keep that feeling in our every day lives too.  As a hoop instructor, I often hear from prospective students that “I wasn’t able to hoop as a child so I don’t know about hoop class.” Or “I’m in my fifties so I don’t know if I can start to hoop.”  My answer?  Of course you can, just look at me! When I first picked up a hoop at the age of 51, a new beginning blossomed for me.

After I sent my youngest child off to college, I did what most empty-nester moms often do: took a belly dance class. Soon I was lucky enough to be part of a performance troupe. While at a dance workshop, I saw two young women perform with a hoop and knew instantly that it was something that I had to try. A real “A-HA!” moment.

Within a few months, I had started teaching hoop classes and was asked to perform publicly with a hoop. Sharing my passion for hooping through teaching and performing has been one of my own personal “springs.” I have met and formed friendships with so many wonderful people of all ages and gained a renewed sense of mastery and confidence.  Although I have taught hoopers from ages 7 and up, those 50 and older have been particularly heart-warming and taught me far more than I could teach them. From the 60-ish hooper with an artificial hip to the two giggling 70-ish friends who said that hula hooping was on their bucket list to great-grandmothers including one with two knee replacements and spinal rods. These ladies, and all of my hoopers 50 and up, have a fabulous sense of adventure and are not afraid to try new things regardless of age. They are still seeking the “springs” in their lives.

Research shows that hooping builds a sense of well-being as well as the health benefits of cardiovascular conditioning, balance, and hand-eye coordination. All of these are great benefits for any age, but especially for those 50 or older.  Balance, in particular, can diminish with age leading to other injuries from falls.

Hooping is a low impact form of physical activity that is easy on the joints. For those of us who began exercising in the Jane Fonda era with belted leotards and legwarmers, the “No Pain, No Gain” mantra is no longer acceptable. Hooping as exercise falls within the moderate range which means it is a form of activity that will affect body composition. You can tone those muscles and burn calories too.

Besides the physical and emotional benefits, hooping also has important social benefits. Hoopers are an incredibly friendly bunch, always ready to share a trick or two and encourage newbies. Hoop classes are full of smiles and laughter with the students interacting and supporting each other. When a student who has been struggling to hold up their hoop or master a new move makes a breakthrough, the room is full of cheers.

I have learned that the cliché “Do something that scares you” holds true at any age. Find a new class and you may just discover a new passion. Always keep that “spring” in your step!

BIO: Laurel Fleming Richie is a hoop instructor and certified teacher through Hoop Trainer who lives in Shreveport, Louisiana. She is an attorney specializing in insurance defense and a community volunteer. Laurel’s hoop support group includes husband Byron, and children, Collin and Jillian.

Hoop Trainer Class featuring Josie Fernandez

It’s great to spend time in our Marina Del Rey studio in front of the mirrors. It’s a perfect place to tweak our hooping and dance skills and see our progress. We spend time both, in the studio and outdoors, hooping it up and creating fun new moves.

Hoop Trainer, Josie Fernandez, loves to share her combos from class. We love that she shares them!

Try this combo and leave your comments below.

Happy Hooping!

LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBkkRkq74tc&list=UUpZzZHVVlhcDV5FN_PQ-nBg&index=7&feature=plcp

Hoop Trainer Class featuring Josie Fernandez & Jessica Taylor

Hey happy hoopers!

It’s summer time and The Hoop Trainer Girls have been practicing in our studio all winter, waiting for the perfect weather to bust out our new tricks and turns!

We’ve stashed away some fun videos for you from the dark days of winter.

Hoop Trainers, Josie Fernandez and Jessica Taylor donated this gem of a video to you, our hooping fans.

Get your hoop, give it a spin, then try on these moves.

Tell us what you think!

LINK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqsOa9A2cQI&list=UUpZzZHVVlhcDV5FN_PQ-nBg&index=6&feature=plcp

Hooping thru the hard times

Gosh, sometimes life just kicks me in the buns, throws me on the ground and kicks me again. Does it you? For sure it’s not just me.

I find that when I am feeling my worst due to major earthquakes in my world, I typically get stuck in the muck for a while until I remember to move. Get up and move!

There really is something to that thing medical people tell us all to do to fight off the blues, not to mention disease; exercise.  And I know that it’s a fact, but the last thing I want to do when I am down is be up.

So when I feel bad, getting in my hoop is like getting dressed in the morning when I am still 1/2 asleep with no coffee, funky, clunky and weird, but I turn on all the right grooves, move slowly, meditate, and use the hoop to stretch in cat-like ways until the beats over-take me and … I give in… I hoop.

At first it’s all wrong, at least to me. I am doing the movements but thinking of how life’s lessons are too hard, all of my shortcomings, and all of my latest mistakes. I feel blah.

But in less than one minute, I remember to forget. Somehow my mind floats from everything that’s bad to absolutely nothing. All clear space. Nothing is there. At all.

It’s almost as if I am a small plane lifting off from a long, big green field of tall grass. Up into the sky I fly, and there’s no roads up there, just endless blue possibilities and that one hoop trick I am yet to master.

It’s my time to listen and learn. I get I’m not one to sit in one place quietly to meditate, I move, like the medical people say to. I hoop until I can’t do it anymore and when I am finished, my mind is empty and all is ok in my world.

Even if it isn’t.

Hooping = Happiness

Thank GOD.

Take off the Weight … by: Tish Merritt for FitBottomedGirls.com

Hula hooping may seem more like playtime than a workout, but if we know anything, it’s that you’re more likely to stick to a workout when it’s actually, you know, fun! And don’t get it twisted — working out with a hula hoop isn’t a walk (or a swivel) in the park…

I met up with Jackie Hesley, hoop dancer extraordinaire and Hoopnotica instructor, on a beautiful Saturday morning in the Santa Monica, Cali., area and basically got a nice slice of humble pie served to me on a hoop for breakfast. My boyfriend scoffed the hula hoop, stating it wasn’t the kind of workout a guy could get sweat to. Hmph. He came back from running around the park and saw his girl, hula hoopin’ and sweating like I do in his boot-camp classes (he’s a personal trainer and tortures me regularly in class) and his mouth fell open. Score one for the hula hoop.

Don’t get me wrong, the class is totally fun. Jackie plugs up her iPhone to a small speaker system, and we party like it’s 1999.  Plus she’s hilarious and nice to boot. She teaches a hodge podge of folks (men and women), so she’s used to different levels of hula-hoop hossness being in her mix, thankfully. I personally hadn’t hooped since probably kindergarten when my boy crush hula-hooped up to me and said he’d marry me if I could hoop for longer than him. I tried. I really did! But, alas, no love connection.

This meant Jackie had to give me some tender lovin’ care on my first day. I learned how to hula the correct way (engaging my core and calming down those wacky hips of mine), as well as how to dance around in a circle while hooping (this killed my legs!) and hooping around my arms, wrists and hands.

My arms were KILLING me post-workout, folks. I loved it! I don’t know about you, but I want to know my muscles are working. And the best part? The hour flew by without me even realizing how hard I was working. I was just playing around, hula hoopin’ my little core off and trying to be a fairy of fury like Jackie. (She told me a man from her class does a wickedly good impression of her flittering about. It’s true, too. She’s totally a hilarious ball of sunshine.)

If you’re in a rut or you just haven’t found a workout that works for you yet, I recommend trying a hula-hoop class. You can burn up to 400 to 600 calories in an hour, meet fun people and learn what it feels like to throw some exercise into your mix that makes you feel like a kid again. Like Jackie, my hula-hoop hoss told me, you tend to leave all your worries and stresses at home. Hula-heads don’t have time for stress—you’re much too busy trying to make sure you don’t smack your shins with a huge hoop.

I plan to grab a bunch of my friends together and treat them to a class soon. It’s just too awesome not to share. If you’re interested in becoming a hula-head like me, check out the Hoopnotica website to find a teacher near you. New hoopers are always welcome!

Also Read:

5 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Weight Loss

Real Men Do (or At Least Try) Pilates

Eat More Food and Lose Weight—Really!

Original Post by Tish Merritt for FitBottomedGirls.com.

Tired of your exercise regimen? Try this old toy! By: Megan Coleman

This story was written about Hoop Trainers and we are glad to share it with you. Ps…thank you, Megan.

If you’re tired of your same old exercise routine, you may want to pick up an old toy. It’s the new trend in working out.

Hula-hooping classes, a new spin on exercise, are popping up all over Southern California.

The American Council on Exercise did a study which finds hula hooping burns about as many calories as step aerobics and cardio kickboxing. That’s about 420 calories an hour.

Jackie Hesley, who teaches hooping classes, says it helped her lose 42 pounds last year, and is helping others do the same.

“It’s like a moving meditation, you tend to lose yourself in the movement, then time goes by, because you’ve had so much fun, you don’t even realize that you’ve been exercising,” Hesley said.

The hula hoops weigh about 2 pounds and span approximately 45 inches in diameter, which makes them rotate more slowly around the body, offering greater resistance.

In studies, the average heart rate of hula hoopers goes up to about 151 beats per minute.

“We use different size hoops, a really big heavy hoop to start out with to do cardio and fat burning,” Hesley said. “Then we go to lighter hoops for our arms and legs. You’re really using every muscle in your body in a hoop class.”

Babette Rickard started hooping because she has multiple sclerosis, and found that it helps her with her balance and range of motion. “MS keeps you from moving, so my goal is to keep moving, whatever I can… and hooping I can do that cause it’s not a high-impact sport, and I can stop when I need to so I don’t get overheated. So it’s really helped me a lot,” she said.

And hooping attracts all ages. Claire Allen, 14, said hooping lifted her out of her depression. “I was just on YouTube and I saw a video and I just had to try it, so I got a hoop, and I taught myself,” Allen said.

Perhaps it’s because of that additional factor that a treadmill doesn’t have — the happy factor. “It’s fun. I giggle. I drop the hoop and I just move on,” Richard said.

Have you ever tried hula-hooping as an exercise? Would you? Why or why not? What’s your current exercise of choice? Leave your thoughts below.

This is today’s Facebook Story of the Day. To help pick the story, click here.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ORIGINAL POST AND VIDEO: TV News on Hooping

Health Benefits of Hooping

Recently, the Hoop Trainer girls were asked to share the benefits of health and hooping on TV News with Daisy Lin. It was a great day in the park with Hoop Trainers, Jackie Hesley, Babette Rickard and Claire Allen. They all shared their personal stories about hooping and self confidence, weight management, and living with MS.

Hooping for Health with Daisy Lin

Hoop it Up by: Josie Fernandez