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Ambassadors, Community, Hoop Making, Hoop Sizing, Hooping and life wisdom, Hooping flow, Hooping For Health, Hoopologie Team, Meditation, Meditative Hooping

What’s all the Hoopla about?

Welcome Hoopers!

Whether you’re new to hooping and aren’t sure where to start, or are looking to refresh your practice, look no further!

Think back to your happiest memory; where time felt like it was stopped, when your senses were in-tune, and you were completely present. This euphoric state of mind can be achieved through movement, exercise, and creative expression is commonly known as the “flow state”, “movement meditation”, or compared to “runner’s high”. Now, imagine an activity that could transport you to that blissful, peaceful place?

Hula hooping, or hoop dance, is a playful, aerobic exercise, and is fabulously effective in helping reach fitness goals. Hooping also increases energy levels, confidence, dexterity and coordination, mental clarity, as well as providing a sense of achievement. With mental-health issues, stress, anxiety, and depression at an all time high, people are exploring creative ways to emote, express, release, and play. Some are learning a new sport, or a new style of fitness, while some are exploring their favorite childhood toys and pastimes.

If you’re brand new to hooping, internet searches can be confusing and overwhelming. Here at Hoopologie, we’ve created a Beginner Hooper Guide starting with the basics including; beginner hoop recommendations, differences in tubing, grip (tape, sanding, wax), posture, tips for success, and more.

Hoopologie Ambassdor, Hillia Hula describes the “Top 8 Things ALL New Hoopers Should Know”

Lets get started!
What size hoop is best for me?
Hoopologie’s standard Beginner Hoop recommendation is a 40″ diameter hoop or larger, made with a minimum of 3/4″ diameter tubing, but preferably, 7/8″ diameter tubing. Many hoopers’ first hoops are heavy, weighted fitness hoops from their local department stores or internet searches and are often 2lbs or heavier. Our heaviest fitness hoops are 1.2 – 1.5lbs, making a mid-weight hoop that is suitable for hoopers developing their muscle memory, while light enough to not leave bruising and soreness.

What different kinds of tubing are available and which one should I choose?
Polypropylene (Polypro): Polypro tubing is the most widely available and popular type of tubing on the market today. Polypro is a light, bouncy, and responsive tubing that is loved by hoopers of all experience levels. While quite durable, polypro has its weaknesses. It can be fragile in extremely cold climates, suseptable to warping and misshaping in extreme heat, and can crack under pressure.
High Density Polyethylene (HDPE): HDPE is a fan favorite amongst hoop makers and hoopers alike. HDPE is a light, durable tubing, with a firmness unlike polypro, yet responsive and quick moving. Hoop-smiths everywhere love HDPE tubing for its forgiving attributes, ability to retain its shape, and ease to cut and manipulate.
Polyethylene (PE): PE tubing identical to the black irrigation tubing found at many hardware stores, only Hoopologie made it custom in white. This tubing is a medium weight ideal for beginner – intermediate hoops.
Stardust (Polypropylene): Stardust tubing is a proprietary blend, custom designed by and made for Hoopologie. This stunning, glittery tubing is a show-stopper, especially in the bright sunshine! Stardust tubing is specially made to be more bouncy, more responsive, and more grippy. These attributes can have side effects that can affect this tubing – it is more delicate in colder temperatures and can crack with impacts on hard surfaces. *Stardust tubing is not recommended for newer hoopers or children*

What kinds of grip options are out there and which one should I choose?
While few things feel as nice as a fresh hula hoop with no scuffs, scratches, or markings, a perfectly smooth hula hoop can be increasingly challenging to maintain a level and consistent spin. There are many grip options out there, here are the most common:
Sanding: Sanding is the most budget friendly grip option and allows each individual hooper to choose their intensity of grip.
TIP: Gently rub a piece of fresh sandpaper around the inner rim of your hoop 1-2x or until desired result is achieved.
Wax: Hoop wax is often made with a bees-wax base and is applied in a similar way as sanding. Hoop wax is made in-house and can be purchased as an addition to your hoop.
TIP: Hoop wax is not recommended for taped hoops
Tapes (gaffer, electrical, low-profile, and 3m): Many beginner hoops made today are crafted with grip tape.
Electrical tape has a smooth, yet grippy texture and is quite durable.
Gaffer tape comes in many colors and widths, making it a great addition to both bare and taped hoops, however, gaffer tape’s adhesive may weaken if exposed to too much moisture.
Low-profile grip tape is a durable, thin, and grippy tape, perfect for bare polypro and HDPE hoops. *Not recommended for taped hoops*
3m is a soft, textured surface at 33 mils (0.8 mm) thick that is durable and abrasion resistant. 3M tape adds amazing grip and cushioning to all kinds of hoops.

Travel Hoops vs Sectionals vs Collapsible
Love taking your hoop every where with you? Many hoops are fastened closed with tape, a connecting joint, or some combination of the two, making it challenging carry your hoop with you. Over the last few years, hoops have begun to be made with a push-button connection.
The Collapsible hoop allows the hooper to disconnect the hoop at its joint and coil it down to attach to a bag, etc.
Sectional and travel hoops are gaining more and more popularity, allowing hoopers to take their hoops any and every where with them – the Hoopnotica Travel Hoop is perfect for beginners and experienced hoopers alike; made with 1″ diameter tubing, push-button connectors, spiraled with beautiful mirror tape and gaffer (grip) tape, a travel strap and can be connected with 6 segments to create a 42″ diameter hoop, and 5 segments to create a 37″ diameter hoop.

Morgan Jenkins – @missmojangles – How To Assemble Your Hoopnotica Travel Hoop

Posture, Stretching, and Breathing exercises.

Hoop dance helps hoopers of all body types increase mind/body connection, coordination, stamina, energy levels, and mental clarity. When you first begin hooping, you may feel muscle activation of muscles you didn’t know existed! You may experience some mild soreness when you first begin hooping, though there are a few postural adjustments you can make to extend your practice times and feel more receptive to new muscle memory connections.
Before hooping: Hydrate, especially if you’re living and hooping in hot or very dry climates, or dancing in the direct sun.
Stretch: With your hoop; lift your hoop over head and do a few, slow, mindful stretches to each side. Forward fold while holding your hoop in front of you, soften your knees and hinge from your hips rather than rounding over your low back. Quad stretch – hold your hoop in front of your body, step one foot the hoop, hook your hoop on your back-leg ankle and gently lift your leg in the air until you feel a stretch in your quad. Repeat on each side. Open your shoulders *hoop optional* – windmill one arm at a time in a forward circular motion for 30 seconds, reverse the rotation of your hand and repeat on each side, in each direction for 30 seconds.
Posture: Keep your knees and elbows soft – don’t lock your joints out. Relax your shoulders down your back, lift your sternum, rest your facial muscles, and find a comfortable and sturdy stance. Intentional breath can immensely help your practice, focus, energy levels, and mood – so don’t forget to take steady and calm breaths and allow your body to move through your flow.

Tricks and Tutorials
Hoopologie’s Ambassadors

Eshna Kutty – @eshnakutty
Nicole Goss – @blackgurlhoopin
Mykah Smith – @bahamahoopyogi
Morgan Jenkins @missmojangles
Amanda Brewer – @misshoopdido
Lee Jeffries – @photographlee
Jocelyn Gordon – @hoopyogini_worldwide
Michele Clark – @michelefrancisclark
Symoné – @symoneforever
Shani Blueford – @shani_anne_marvelous
Chloe Somers Wall – @thechloesomers
Emma Kenna – @hoopingmad
Sanda Safire – @safirehoopdance
Mike Hayataka – @thathoopguy
Ali Padiak – @alihoopmama
Marianna De Sanctis – @mariannadesanctis
Twisted Orbit – Bags & Valentina – @twistedorbit
Gail O’ Brien – @gailobrienhoop
Lisa Looping – @lisalooping
Lisa Lotti – @lisa_lotti
Trixie Turvey – @trixieturvy
Ninja Hoops – Zach & Marria – @ninjahoops
Kenya Fluroscente – @kenyaflowrescente
Kate Ryan – @kateryancircus
Hillia Hula – @hillia_hula
Jenny Tufts – Circle Cirque – @circlecirque
Sky Flow Artist – @skyflowartist
Ben Cirka – @bencirka
Anna Fisher – @annafisher_

Top Recommended Instructors
Deanne Love – @deannelovexo
MadAboutHoops – children’s classes/summer camps – Madison McBurney and Amy Neel – @madabouthoops.

Hoopmakers University
A comprehensive guide for hoopsmiths and hoopers – answering all of your questions from deciphering sizing of tubing, tubing types, how to create the perfect connection, the tools you’ll need to create a hoop, and beyond!!

July 20, 2020 by Hoopologie Team

image of Woman in meditative position in front of sun approaching flow state

Community, Hooping flow, Meditation, Meditative Hooping

Find Your Flow State with Hula Hooping

What is “flow state”?

Have you ever been so immersed in an activity that you lose all sense of the world around you? Your attention and focus are honed into the experience you are having, and a sense of peace and excitement takes you over completely. You’ve likely heard people refer to this as “being in the zone”, but that can conjure images of hyper focus and fiendish, hypnotic behavior. People experiencing hyper focus may be described as “captured” by a task, often appearing as though they find little enjoyment in the activity they’re doing. While flow state shares some qualities with hyper focus and is characterized by the complete absorption in the ongoing activity, the resulting transformation in one’s sense of time is positive. You lose yourself and move on instinct.

How do I find my flow state?

A common misconception is that you won’t be able to get into your flow state until you have been practicing for months or years, or that you’ll need to know quite a few tricks to show off… Others may say it is something you’ve got to go searching for because it won’t just come to you. That is not true! The moment you pick up that first hula hoop and feel the spark in your soul, you have the opportunity to have a transformative experience.

At Hoopologie, we are truly committed to inspiring our customers and creating a fantastic relationship with you. Hula hooping is an art form and an exceptional alternative to traditional fitness. Helping you find your FLOW is important to us and a part of our mission. Your journey starts with us.

Hooping for Physical Activity.

On top of all the incredible mental health benefits, there are many physical benefits of hula hooping you may not have considered. It’s not just a great activity for you, but one for the whole family! If you’ve got kids in your life, you may find a quick partner in crime when it comes to hooping. Getting started is easy, fun, and once you start you’ll quickly find it improves back pain, burns calories, and even helps you build confidence.

Hoop making is a great hobby.

Did you know you can make your own hula hoop? There is nothing quite like crafting and customizing your own hoop from start to finish. It is not as intimidating as it may sound, and once you have your supplies, you’re ready to go. Luckily, you don’t need to figure it all out on your own. Check out our video on how to make a beginner hula hoop for step-by-step visual instructions.

Finding your flow state is a truly liberating, thrilling experience, and will certainly help you fall even more in love with hooping. Set your mind free and allow yourself to completely explore your space and hula hoop. If you’re looking for more inspiration, you can find hours and hours of videos and tutorials by visiting the HOOPMAKERS University page.

Still have questions? Check out some of the Common Questions and Answers Regarding Hoop Making page and let us know if you’ve got something specific you’d like to know more about. We can’t wait to hear from you!

July 14, 2020 by Hoopologie Team

Meditation, Meditative Hooping

Meditation vs. Meditative Hooping: Why Should You Practice Both?

What enters your mind when you think of meditation?

For many hoopers, hooping itself becomes so freeing, so opening, that the focus on our awareness and presence inside the hoop allows us to enter the ethereal flow state. Our thought process slows, and the movement takes a hold, providing a complete release from the need to think about how or what we are going to do next. Because this state creates such powerful feelings, often leaving hoopers high from the release, the term “meditative hooping” frequently comes into play. And once this state is felt for the first time, it almost always keeps us coming back for more. There are, however, some big differences between meditative hooping and meditation techniques where stillness is key.

Now, just because there are important differences between them that should be noted, that doesn’t at all imply one modality is “better” than the other. Rather, I’ve experienced a breathtaking synergy occur when both movement and stillness forms are practiced in every day life, and I wish to share in the hopes that you, my fellow hoopers, may experience it as well.

Meditative hooping becomes so transfixing to the hooper practicing it because it provides a release from the near constant thought process of our human reality. Mixing this release with movement (which inherently makes us feel better and is its own release in and of itself) ultimately allows us to expand our perception into a greater frame of reference. We receive in unconditional self-love, confidence, joy, and self-power, while simultaneously releasing fear, doubt, and worry. We can simply be the movement we are creating. And creating feels good. Very good.

The upside is that when meditation and meditative hooping are practiced on a regular basis, the benefits are utterly overwhelming and penetrate every facet of your life.

So what’s the difference? Why should you consider incorporating one or more meditation techniques in which the body is still into your daily routine?

While meditative hooping and other movement based meditations allow us to connect with our bodies’ possibilities amongst the various planes of motion, meditation techniques in which we lie or sit still provide the opportunity to focus on the natural rhythms of the body that usually remain in the subconscious. Going even further, these modalities gift us the ability to focus on nothing but pure awareness. While it may seem paradoxical that practicing thinking to the most minimal degree possible sprouts incredible personal growth and new, enhanced thought processes, it remains one of the most important truths I’ve discovered in my life thus far. These types of meditation, such as Zen, Mindfulness, Vipassana, etc… have become so critical to my own personal well-being that I can’t imagine life without them. My body and mind crave that time every day to slow down, relax, and flow into the flow of awareness itself. In these moments I have witnessed myself effortlessly answer important life questions that were pertinent at the time, and quite simply experience raw happiness, which overflows into everyday life once these techniques have been practiced long enough.

Meditation, however, is by no means an easy practice. Just as hooping requires discipline, perseverance, and willpower, so too does the practice of being still. The upside is that when both of these are practiced on a regular basis, the benefits are utterly overwhelming and penetrate every facet of your life. However cheesy and cliché it may sound, I never thought these practices would help me surpass a level of happiness and contentedness I never knew was possible. This is why I implore you beautiful hoopers to give stillness practices a try. Whether it be five minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour every day, every little bit makes an incredible difference.

Below I’ll leave you will a few references to some wonderful meditations to help you get started. If you don’t like the particular voice of the person, that is perfectly okay. Simply search for another one of the type you enjoy, and you will be amazed at the results you discover. There is an overflowing wealth of free resources thanks to this beautiful tool we call the Internet, so take advantage of it! And if you ever have any questions, concerns, or thoughts you’d like to share, I’m always open to share space with you.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction meditation called a Body Scan (this kind is one of my absolute favorites, especially to practice before hooping).

This website provides countless varieties!

Yet another website with quite a few practices.

Just remember: Feel the movement, feel the flow, let go.

To get started hooping, Hoopologie and Hoopnotica sell a number of beginner and advanced hula hoops.

Hoopologie Beginner Fitness Hoops — Hoopologie sells a wide variety of beginner and advanced travel hoops and is the leader in high quality hula hoop supplies.

Hoopnotica Travel Hoops — Hoopnotica sells a wide variety of beginner travel hoops and fitness DVDs.

*Disclosure Hoopnotica is owned and operated by Hoopologie.

April 24, 2019 by Hoopologie Team

Hooping and life wisdom, Hooping flow, Meditation, Meditative Hooping

New Year’s, Personal Growth, and the Beginner’s Mind

The New Year has been a pivotal and celebrated time to humankind for thousands of years. Our modern times have proven that we are no exception, and hoopers everywhere are joining the ranks of celebration and new beginnings. Often times getting lost amidst the hubbub of the “New Year, New You” mantra, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that personal growth and transformation should not only be reserved for the fast to fade excitement over transitioning from year to year. Not to say we should stifle a fun and tribal tradition in lieu of this sentiment, but it is important to remember that our personal growth path is a never-ending one.

Now, some of you might be asking- what does this have to do with hooping? The answer: everything. Every single hooper I’ve ever had an in depth conversation with has always circled back to the notion that hooping has helped them immensely with multiple facets of their life- AKA, personal growth. However, many of us, myself included, sometimes lose a bit of the excitement and love we first experienced with hooping after doing so for years. There may be periods in which we are hooping every day for hours, and some when we don’t hoop much, or at all. While there are innumerable reasons we experience this bell-curve, a huge one I’ve encountered (and almost every other hooper I observe) is getting swept up in the hooping world that lies outside of myself. When we begin focusing too much on hoop-making, viewing videos of others, taking videos for others to see, learning new techniques and tricks, etc, instead of being intimately alone dancing and flowing with our hoop just for ourselves, it becomes easy to upset the delicate balance of our relationship with our hoop.

By no means am I implying hoop-making, taking and viewing videos, and the like are negative in the slightest (in fact they are immensely beneficial!), but when we neglect our truly “alone” time with our hoop we create the potential to lose out on the profound benefits that hooping has to offer; hence the reason it is such a delicate balance. One of the greatest pieces of wisdom that I have attained with my circle thus far is that hooping is a way of practicing self-love and learning how to carry it with you into your daily life. This practice and absorption can begin to become mute if we dwell too much outside of our own intimate little world with our hoop by focusing too much on others’. In some scenarios it can even add to or create feelings of jealousy, self-judgment, lack of motivation, and the like.

All of these feelings, including many unmentioned, are a part of those innumerable reasons we might find ourselves straying away from hooping as much as we’d ideally like to, adding to the bell-curve. This evidently happens to more of us than we might think, otherwise we would not be witnessing so many hoop challenges on social networking sites motivating us to hoop for a certain length of time every day for x number of days. I personally notice even more of these pop up around the New Year because of the previously mentioned “New Year, New You” mantra that becomes so infectious. While these are all amazing motivations and fun, social ways to get us hooping more, I like to pose and ponder the question, “how can we keep this motivation, personal growth, and self-love alive and kicking every single day throughout the year?” One of the greatest answers is quite simple, really. Go back to the way hooping used to make you feel when you first started- your beginner’s mind.

While it is easier said than done for most of us, even just making the slightest effort and acknowledging that you have the ability to be back in that beginner’s mind in every moment, it will make quite a noticeable difference in your daily practice (even if it’s only for five minutes!). Enjoy hooping for exactly what it is- hooping, dance, movement, art… Enjoy the feeling of your hoop caressing you at every point of contact around your body. Enjoy the moving meditative state that your mind automatically slips into while spinning in circles. Just be aware and allow your beginner’s mind joy to shine through. And always remember- hooping is first and foremost a sacred time for your Self.

As we continually learn and re-learn how to experience the happiness and self-love that exists within each and every one of us, there are ups and downs and turnarounds along the path. Just keep in mind that us hoopers have stumbled upon an amazingly beautiful tool that has the power to help in immeasurable ways when we continue to hone our relationship with it. Pull it out of your tool-belt on days you may be feeling lost and unmotivated, even if only for a few minutes. There is absolutely no need to wait for a new year or even a new hoop challenge to start or continue climbing up the next curve. Toss out that dated New Year’s mantra and replace it with “New Day, New You”, or create something of your very own. Because we are all constantly changing and transforming, we persistently have the opportunity to be exactly what we want to be and experience exactly what we want to experience. Every moment possesses the possibility to be something beautiful.

***Amber Lane of Lucid Hooping is a general lover-of-life and hoop enthusiast. After being diagnosed with degenerative disc disease and two herniated discs at the age of 17, she entered the world of healing and relief. She discovered the hoop and meditation in 2010 when she was 19 and instantly fell in love, not only because they boosted her self-confidence to new highs, but also because these modalities magically healed her chronic pain. Life since then has been a whirlwind of learning and sharing self-healing techniques and manifesting the life of her dreams. Through Lucid Hooping she hopes to help others in their journeys to health and true happiness through self-healing and transformation.

January 13, 2015 by Hoopologie Team