New Hoop

Ahhhhhhhh! My new hoop arrived. I forgot it's a collapsible, so it didn't need to uncoil. I still unfolded it and left it flat on the floor overnight. Rain was in the forecast today. Ain't no way mother nature was going to interfere with my first hoop sesh with mah new hoop...so I got it done early. All while I technically SHOULD have been at derby practice. Hooping is more fun. And burns about the same amount of calories, actually.

My new hoop is a good weight. It's 125 psi, 1/2" ID so it's about 3/4" thick. It's 36" in diameter. And look at the pretty tonal colors! Alas, white tape gets dirty quickly...it's still pretty!

Chillin' with some Cranberries, unchoreographed, unedited bloopers....

 
Rockin' out with a lil Roxette...

And in case anyone was wondering how you get cardio from a hoop, besides the above, I like to jam out with my bigger hoop (40"), mastering core hooping. This kind of shit burns hella calories!
(can you tell I like 90s music?)

Monday Flow

Flow. It takes practice. Lots of it. Mine is coming along...I'm learning how to feel the music better, use musicality. I need to look like I enjoy it more. I really am having fun, even if my face looks constipated. *wink*

Bit of leg hooping, improving, and isolations, also improving. Then some unchoreographed flow (isn't it obvious?) with my favorite singer...

Flow. It's how you Monday...

More

It's official. I was 199.0 this morning. ONEderland! What I'm doing is working. My life is about more, not less. More hooping. More skating. More fun. More vegetables. More deliciousness. More loving myself, inside and out. More healing. More forgiveness.

I'm almost 40, got just over a year to go. I'm not looking forward to 40. Hell, I didn't do well with 30. But here's to feeling my best and looking my best as I change decades.

Hoopiversary!

Not quite sure the actual first day I hooped last year...but I know when I bought my first hoop.
April 22.

I started out with a weighted fitness hoop at 2lbs, 42" diameter. And just spun around my waist in my living room while watching TV or listening to tunes. I got a fibit in May and could see how gradually the same hoop workout burned less and less calories, so I would step it up a notch. I'd turn in a circle, walk forward/backward, side step, keep my arms elevated above my head, etc.

It was in August of last year that I discovered dance with the hoop. And other core hooping, like shoulder and hip hooping. I bought my first dance hoop at 20oz, 38" diameter and got to work. Dance hoops are much lighter in weight than a fitness hoop. I wouldn't recommend using a fitness hoop for anything other than waist hooping. You might get away with hip or shoulder hooping, but you might bruise. Anything else, that hoop is just going to be too heavy.

Happy 1st Hoopiversary to me!

Here's to many more years of vastly improved skills! And with that, here are three skills I've been working on:

Hoop every day

Hoop every day? I know there are some amazing hoopers out there who would say, duh! But I never though of myself as one. But I won't get better unless I practice a lot, a helluva lot. I have hooped the last seven days in a row. Not too shabby, definitely a first. Tomorrow is derby, so probably won't do any. But hey, if I want it to be a habit, maybe I'll hit some leg hooping for like 10mins tomorrow. To be a hooper who hoops every day, I have to hoop every day. *wink*

Today's sesh was frustrating, probably more so because I was crazy winded. I stayed indoors with my big 40" dance control flex hoop. I worked on breaks and releases on the waist, getting pretty darn good at this. I worked on breaks and releases at the shoulder. The struggle for me here is to transition to something from this, so I would break and release four times, then try to spin it around my shoulders. This was hard.

I also worked on leg/knee hooping. I read a while back that a good learning drill for this would be to shimmy it down your thigh until just before you feel you can't get it back up, shimmy it back up. Repeat over and over, dropping it a little more if you can, until you can get it all the way down to your knees and back up. I can get it about mid-thigh and back up, but if I miss just a beat, and it drops to my knees, I can at least successfully keep it going there finally! But can't get it back up. It's kinda stuck there.

Wrapped things up with vertical hooping, spiraling it forward to chest vertical hooping, then trying to tuck an arm under. I can't quite tuck both arms under without it falling, so I simply worked on shoulder vertical hooping. I can keep this going a little while but not too long. I also worked on breaks and releases in the vertical plane at my shoulders. Gravity is a lot friendlier here.

38 minutes of intense cardio, with stretching. Average heart rate 137bpm. 398 total cals burned.

What's that saying? Find an exercise you love. If you love running, by all means. But you don't have to run to get your heart rate up. Skating and hooping are two of my favorite calorie burners!

Naked Thighs

How exciting! That little swirly trick is working so well for leg/knee hooping. I put on short shorts (those thighs, though!) and allowed the hoop to feel up and down my leg. It really does make a difference. Best part? I was able to keep it going without looking too spastic AND was able to shimmy it back up my legs and onto my waist. Twice!

Get so winded though...talk about cardio.

Hubs took the camera today; stuck with my phone video quality...

Ventured outside with my baby hoop for some more off-body practice. Working on body rolls. These...are scary. And require a lot of walking to fetch that rogue hoop. But I was sorta starting to get it, just need to practice it a couple few thousand times. Ironically, I was also able to knee hoop fairly well with that little hoop. Time to buy a proper dance hoop in that small size. The one I have is cheap, hard plastic. But it's purple!

Breakthroughs

A breakthrough! In more ways than one. I just decided to go out hooping today, free flow, feel the hoop. Doesn't matter what it looks like or how complicated the tricks are. Just dance. I mastered a few new tricks, discovered a love for movement with my hoop, and had a breakthrough with leg hooping.

New trick, a 360 weave. This was one of those where I watched and watched Deanne Love do it online, go outside, and think what the what? How does it go again? Finally got it.

And just leaving the camera rolling captured some quite amazing flow, given my beginner hoop status. You can see me working out what trick can come next, where my hand placement needs to be. I think it's all muscle memory from lots of practice, to make truly beautiful flow. I almost look like a beautiful hoop dancer. Fuck that. I LOOK like a beautiful hoop dancer!

 
I also stumbled upon a new trick during my flow. I dunno if this has a name or not. But I thought it was pretty cool. A weave into a toss.

Leg hooping. I discovered, instead of just trying to bounce back and forth with my knees, if I do a sort of swirling action with the bounce, it seems to work a lot better. I need lots more practice, but I had several attempts that looked pretty much like this. (My camera battery had died, and I wanted evidence of this, so I used my phone, propped up on the speaker.)

 

61 minutes and 569 calories burned later, I'm pooped. And happy.

Turtle

Derby was a good workout last night. I found myself briefly lamenting my slowness and lack of endurance for about 5 seconds until I stopped myself. I chanted in my brain, you are doing it, you are burning calories, you are on skates, who gives a flying fuck that you have endurance for shit and are slow as a turtle. You LOVE turtles.

The pre-skates workout, I was asked to bring my hoops. I've already got one skater excited about hooping from last time. My derby first name is Roxy...I thought, what a fun hoop name would be Roxy Rolls. It applies to both skating and hooping. (hello, body rolls!) I dunno...we'll wait until I'm better before even thinking I deserve a hoop name.

Everything in my life is slow to develop. Late bloomer, as they say. Or never blooms at all.

knocked down

I get knocked down...yea, that was the last derby drill we did Saturday. Knee taps everytime they sang the word, down. I was spent. Mentally and physically.

Hooping is so hard now. I need a bigger hoop (chest height, ~48") but then I'm told a bigger hoop will sag. I cannot shoulder hoop without turning in a circle. Just cannot. And forget leg hooping. I have to spin it WAY too fast, it's so impractical and impossible. And what I CAN do requires such a hyooge hoop (40"), that I can't do any fun off body with it. Forget putting together choreo. I'm just over it.

Life is kicking my ass. But I keep getting up again.

It would be nice to have someone to relate to, someone on my level, either with derby, hooping, or fitness. I feel lonely, like the only one like this. I don't want to read inspirational blogs of people who've already lost weight. And I SURE as hell don't want to read about people who lost weight quickly. 100 pounds in a year? Yea, fuck off. I've been gaining and losing the same damn 5lbs for four years now. Don't talk to me about how suddenly the weight started falling off. I don't care how "hard" you thought it was...if you lost weight that quickly, I don't want to hear your story.

I want to know people like me. But I'm all alone. Maybe my weight will start dropping off, even if at a snail's pace, and I can make the blog I wanted. Since it doesn't appear to exist....

I have about 40lbs to lose. Maybe if I could lose the weight, derby would come easier, hooping would be easier. I dunno. At the very least, maybe I could stop hating myself.