fitness

Favorite Hooping Christmas Present

Image posted on by jennabee25

A while back in the Hoopinions days, I wrote a TBT post about my first hoop, which was a Christmas gift under the tree when I was probably about eleven years old.  You can read about it here and how my dad fixed it up for me so it was usable.

That purple and teal hoop was probably the best presents I ever received at Christmas, and so far is my favorite hooping Christmas present!  What’s yours?

I came across a great list of gift ideas for hooper a few weeks ago, too.  I’m sure some of those would be great to find under the Christmas tree.

In short, what I’m getting at, is that I’d like to wish all of you out there a very Merry Christmas, a fantastic Solstice (which is today!), a Happy Hanukkah, and a wonderful New Year.  My best!

Payoff

Image posted on by jennabee25

I looked down at the scale the other day.  I was finally past a number that I had been at a plateau with for quite a while.  All the calorie counting, walking on work breaks, and hard work hooping is toning me up and helping me lose some pounds. Payoff!

I have been noticing a few toning changes in my body.  My arms look leaner and stronger.  My legs are leaner and you can see the muscles.  My core muscles seem more stable, too.  And for someone like me who has back problems, that’s a plus!

During class yesterday, Jenny has me working on footwork and incorporating a lot more dance elements in my hooping.  Yesterday, she had me exploring arm work above my shoulders and head.  I tend to flow with my arms around shoulder height, and she is teaching me to explore other parts of arm work.  “You will sweat,” she said.  And she was right.

I had sort of a crappy day yesterday, so I was looking for some exercise endorphins to help lift my mood a little bit.  It did.  I’m glad I went to class.

I’m finally seeing some payoff!  It’s given me a little extra motivation to work a little harder at what I’m doing.  Perhaps I will get more results, and the thought of that is exciting!

 

Feeling the Burn

Posted on by jennabee25

Ah, you probably think I’ve started fire hooping.  Nope.

This is about my workout from class on Monday.  I know, I’m behind on things…..AGAIN….but this the soonest I was able to write.

Remember my Hoop Fitness Experiment from last week?  Here’s my data from this week’s class, including similar activities, such as doubles hooping.

  • Time Hooped:  61 minutes, including warm up and cool down
  • Average heart rate:  88bpm, with my highest point being 121 bpm.  That’s pretty good!
  • I burned 4 calories per minute, with a total of 206 calories total.
  • I took 2,202 step in class.  That’s a bit more than last week!

Once I have more data points, I will make some cool graphs and we can see how I’m trending workout-wise on Monday night classes.  Sounds like a plan!

In the meantime, if anyone wants to be my Fitbit friend, my public URL is https://www.fitbit.com/user/3QM53S.

Hoop Fitness Experiment

Posted on by jennabee25

The American Council on Exercise (ACE) did a great study a few years back about the fitness benefits of hooping.  (Read and download the study here.)  Basically, a 30 minute workout, with a warm up, choreography, and a cool down, burns on average about 210 calories with an average heart rate of 151 beats per minute.  I wish I had a copy of the video they used on their study subjects.  I would love to compare my own results to theirs.

Speaking of results, here’s where this all comes in.  See, I recently was the winner of a very nice Fitbit.  Jenny gave me the idea of blogging about my fitness results from class last night, so I am.  Here are my stats:

  • I hooped for a total of 63 minutes, including a warm up and cool down.
  • My heart rate average was 99 BPM, with the highest point being 119 BPM. This being said, my heart rate had me in a fat burn zone, according to my charts on Fitbit.
  • I burned 212 calories, at a rate of three calories per minute.
  • I took 1,691 step in class.

That’s about half of what the ACE reported on as average.  Hmmm….

Here’s what was different in my workout, compared to what was used in the ACE study.

  1. Our class was focused on double hoop work with light hoops.  The ACE study participants used weighted hoops, but I’m not sure if they mean those wretched padded ones you get from fitness equipment places, or heavier PE tubing hoops.
  2. Again, I wish I had the video that the ACE used.  I would do the workout and compare my own stats to it.  Perhaps I should ask them for it. Hmmmm, again.
  3. I am pulling stats in for only myself, and not a range of participants.

I think I’m going to pursue this as a further study for myself.  Since Fitbit keeps track of all this lovely data, I may start taking deeper looks into it.