Whether you are interested in making hula hoops or buying them, figuring out what type of hula hoop tubing you want can be pretty confusing, especially to beginners! There are quite a few types of hula hoop tubing available today, and each kind of tubing generally comes in different sizes.
Here is our easy to understand guide to all the types of tubing used for making hula hoops.
We get readers every week wanting to know if they can hula hoop with a bad back! So, Ruby Hooping has invited hoop dance instructor and speaker Missy Cooke to write a guest blog post for this topic! So can you hula hoop with a back injury? The answer is YES!
If you’re new to the concept of hula hooping for exercise, you may be surprised to find out that hula hooping burns as many as 600 calories per hour! That’s the equivalent to an hour of Zumba or even jogging!
This post has been updated for 2022.
When you think of hula hooping, what comes to mind? I think for most people, it’s the image of swaying hips! So it makes perfect sense to feel some concern about taking on hula hooping after having a hip replacement.
This post has been updated for 2022.
If you’re interested in how to lose weight hula hooping, the size and weight of your hoop are very important factors to consider.
This list has been updated for 2022!
Okay, I realize the line between need and want is a fine line. So the word “need” is being used loosely here. There are just certain things we need as hoopers!
If you’re new to hooping but already know it will be a life long obsession, this list is for you.
Or, if you’re looking for some great gift ideas for the hula hooper in your life, this article should help you out as well.
Updated for 2022!
I really enjoy making hula hoops because:
This post has been updated for 2022.
Hula hooping seems like such a fun, colorful way to get your daily workout in, doesn’t it? Besides the fact that hula hooping burns mega calories, tones muscle and improves your cardiovascular health, I’ve also never seen anyone spin a hula hoop without smiling at the same time. It’s impossible, trust me!
This post has been updated for 2022.
featured photo is of Pippin, by Rion Fish
There are plenty of generic articles on the topic of hula hooping health benefits, so if you’re just looking for scientific data, this probably isn’t the article for you. I’m not a doctor or a scientist.
I’m just somebody who has been hula hooping, teaching hooping, and making custom hoops for people of all body types for 8 years. I can tell you about how much hula hooping has enriched and improved my life, and how I know it will do the same for you.
There are literally so many health benefits of hooping, I could write a dozen articles or more about this topic. It’s hard for me to choose which benefit is truly the best, or has had the most impact on my life. But when it all comes down to it, hula hooping has made me a happier, more grounded, calmer and more confident person – so I have to say the mental health benefits of hula hooping are above all else.
Dagny Sanche pictured, photo by Toastography
When you turn on your favorite music and spend some time just hooping, you will get lost in your hoop. You will feel a sense of peace and calmness inside that you maybe have never felt before. You will enter what is described by experts as a “flow state” – a state of mind where you’re basically in meditation mode – you’re not thinking about when the rent is due, or worrying about the corona virus, and you’re not comparing yourself to others on social media.
You’re focused only on one thing – the hoop swirling around you. It is so refreshing. It is beautiful, and amazing, and it feels SO good.
To see myself and many others hooping in our flow state on Instagram, follow our hashtags #rubyfam and #ihoopforme. I know you will see the look of serenity on our faces and want in on this.
Though I would never be so casual as to suggest that hula hoops should replace proper mental health care from medical professionals, hula hooping certainly can be an instrumental part of an overall wellness plan in your life. Hoops provide relief that nothing else I’ve found can provide.
Hula hooping is so fun and interesting to learn, that before you know it, you’ve unlocked skills that not only will amaze yourself, but will impress your friends and family. You will be amazed at what you can do just using a plastic circle and your physical body. Click here to take my Six Week Beginner Hula Hoop Challenge
This feeling of achievement that we get through our hoop practice is not to be understated – it makes you feel proud of yourself, accomplished, and driven to keep going to achieve more skills with your hoop.
It’s hard to put into words what hula hoops do for us on a mental level. But once you give it a try, you will completely understand.
Charlotte Dillard with her rainbow sectional Ruby hoop
Hooping gives us a feeling of direction when we maybe didn’t feel one before, so it can really help with our sense of self confidence. Pre-pandemic (and hopefully post pandemic soon), I bring hula hoops to all parties and gatherings. I know they will always bring a smile to people’s faces, so these hoops literally give me the power to bring a moment of happiness to people’s lives.
Some of my best friends I met through hula hooping. Eight years ago, when it was really hard to find any plus size women like myself involved in hula hooping, I started trying to build a community online and made some of the best friends I will ever have in this life. You can be part of our community by joining our Ruby Hoopers Facebook group.
Our newest sticker design drawn by me, Mama Ruby. Pictures myself and my best friend Hashley
For me, as an introverted personality, I always felt kind of awkward at gatherings just standing around making small talk. I was never good at small talk. The hoop gives me something to focus my energy on, while also entertaining others. These conditions always set the tone for me to feel more confident and personable, resulting in new friends, better existing relationships, and even opportunities I would never expect.
On a more personal level, I also strongly feel that hula hooping helped me gain the beautiful little family I have now. My love of hooping and sharing hooping with others is what bonded me to my husband when we first met, because who doesn’t like a person with passion and purpose in life? Since then, hula hooping has continued to help me be a good partner throughout our marriage because I am able to maintain a sense of peace and clarity through regular hoop practice. And when we decided to grow our family, I was ready physically and mentally for all the things pregnancy and motherhood would bring, even as I gave birth for the first time at age 37. This is because through hooping I achieved a strong body and a confident mind.
Our little family
I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how amazing hula hooping is for bringing families together, since it’s a fun activity everyone can do together. Gather up some hoops, all the kids, and head out to the back yard for some quality, screen-free time in the sun that will make sure your kids sleep good tonight.
As a body positive advocate, I don’t throw the term weight loss around lightly, so I want to be clear that I am not suggesting that everyone who hula hoops should try to lose weight, or that weight loss is always a health benefit. I am only saying that if you want to use hula hooping as a tool to help you lose weight, you absolutely can.
Hula hooping is low impact cardio, meaning it’s great for getting your heart rate up without damage to your joints, so if you want to burn calories, hooping can help you do that.
I personally have used hooping to help me lose weight at various times throughout my life, and I can tell you that half an hour of hula hooping is every bit as effective as half an hour of Zumba or any other cardio activity.
You can also use hula hoops as more of a strength building workout, moving slower and doing repetitions to tone arms, core, legs, and more. Building muscle can be an important component of weight loss, since more muscle means more calories getting burned.
Corrinne Coomes of #TeamRuby
If you’re like me and you’re not really necessarily interested in weight loss as the main goal, but you do want to tone your body so you can have more energy, be able to play with your kids without getting tired so fast, and just feel good overall, hula hooping is really helpful for this as well. Hula hooping requires use of so many different muscles in your body that you probably don’t use much in your regular day to day life, so it really gives you a well rounded workout for all over toning.
The amazing thing about hula hooping is that it doesn’t matter what style of hooping you do – you will still use your core muscles, you will still use your arms and your legs, you will still need your back and chest. You will be moving in ways that may feel unfamiliar at first but over time will start to feel natural as you get stronger. You will bloom into the most graceful, strong hoop dancer as you learn and practice more and more.
It doesn’t matter your size, age, or anything else. Whether you are plus size like me, or petite, whether you are tall, short, young or old, whether you have special circumstances, you can absolutely get stronger and tone your muscles from hula hooping.
Go here to see what size hoop you should start with.
Pictured: Corrinne Coomes of #TeamRuby
I can’t stress the importance of this enough, because high blood pressure is, as we all know, a silent killer, something that affects millions of us across the world but we often never even know it’s a problem until its too late.
Hula hooping regularly gets your heart rate up, which improves cardiovascular health – gets your blood pumping and your heart working like it should to stay in tip top shape. Countless studies have shown that even a simple regimen of physical movement can work wonders for our blood pressure and hula hooping is no exception to that. This is one of the most vital hula hooping benefits there is.
I can personally attest to this; in my late 20s I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, which I had to go on medication for; this was actually the catalyst for me to even find hooping–I was looking for something to help me make a change in my life to become a person with healthier habits including moving my body more. Hooping was the thing that stuck for me, and I was able to bring my blood pressure down before I turned 30 to a point that I no longer needed medication.
When I became pregnant at age 36, I was concerned about experiencing high blood pressure during pregnancy which is common, but thankfully I got through it fine. I did hoop throughout my entire pregnancy though I had plenty of days that I didn’t.
I have also monitored my blood pressure closely since my child was born over a year ago, because I gained some weight with my pregnancy that I haven’t lost, and I wanted to see if that was going to make my blood pressure go up. So far, I’m sure thanks in part to my regular hoop practice, my blood pressure is normal and stable.
Pictured: Nicki Dodson at Ruby Retreat 2019
This has been a big one for me, because I honestly am surprised at just how much my coordination and balance have improved through hooping. My husband often comments on how amazing I am at catching things I drop before they hit the floor, for example. My footwork is amazing, I never trip or lose my balance. I am so used to standing and moving through really awkward positions in order to achieve certain hoop tricks, that I can really stay strong and balanced standing or walking or even jumping in all kinds of weird ways!
My coordination is amazing too; I can catch things easier if someone tosses me something, I can just move through my life with more physical confidence and elegance than I could before I started hooping. It feels easier to be productive and multitask to keep my household working, and to keep my hoop shop running.
Now that I’m going to be turning 40 in the near future, it’s more important than ever to me to keep working on my coordination and balance so that I can continue to enjoy all that life has to offer without worrying about hurting myself.
I love rainbows ok?
I didn’t plan on this article being this long, but there’s just so much to say about how hula hooping is impacting lives. If you are curious about hula hooping, I want you to know from knowing me that hula hooping is absolutely magical. It is really helping people from all walks of life and it can help you too.
Stephanie of #TeamRuby, photo by Toastography
This post has been updated for 2022.
Hoop dance is exploding in popularity because it enriches lives so much with just a simple circle. If you’ve ever browsed the glittery offerings of a professional hula hoop shop, you know that hoops come in a lot of shapes, colors, weights, sizes. It can get really confusing, really fast.
So, this article is a must read if you are interested in starting hula hooping.
This post has been updated for 2022.
Short answer: YES. Yes gurl, you can hula hoop if you are fat, skinny, tall, short, young, or old!
When I started Ruby Hooping eight years ago, I was a, shall we say, curvy woman who had been writing about plus-size fitness for a few years. I had made it my mission in life to show the world that we curvy ladies can do anything we set our minds to, and that we should not allow our physical size to be an excuse not to live life to its fullest.
Last year we wrote an article about hula hooping during pregnancy, and we wanted to follow up with some more information on hula hooping after giving birth.
We collected stories and photos from several hooping mamas about their experiences getting into hula hooping after bringing life into this world.
Note: This information is still current for 2022.
Hey everyone! Here at Ruby Hooping, we make all of our hula hoops collapsible so they are easy and convenient to ship and carry!
This post has been updated for 2022.
You may have tried to learn how to hula hoop as a child and, if you were anything like me, you failed miserably. But if you think you can never be a hooper, think again! If I can learn, anyone can.
This post has been updated for 2022.
You’ve started researching hula hooping, and you’re feeling confused about whether big hula hoops are better and overwhelmed by how many different types of hula hoops you can get, from size to weight and even texture. Information overload is definitely a situation many new hoopers find themselves in. Don’t let that scare you away! I’m gonna make it all make sense for you.
Many of us have seen the viral videos on social media, and those hoopers often appear to be using small, thin hoops. (To see me using all different size of hoops, follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok).
First let me answer the big question here.
Are big hula hoops better? It depends. I know, but let me explain…
If you are a beginner, yes big hula hoops are better because they are easier to control. Big hoops leave more space between your body and the hoop, meaning it moves slower around your body. This gives you the opportunity to get used to how the hoop feels going around without it falling constantly. It can really help you learn the rhythm of the hoop so that you can then go back and try smaller hoops and be able to translate that movement to them.
My lovely husband, Brandon.
Big hula hoops are also better for big people, at least for waist hooping and other on body stuff like hooping on your chest, shoulders, and legs. The bigger your waist, the bigger hoop you should start out with. As you gain skills and muscle memory you will be able to move to a smaller hoop if you so desire, but it’s not necessary.
(I think you will find though that if you truly develop an addiction to hooping, you will end up wanting to amass a collection of a wide variety of hoop sizes.)
Big hoops are really important for us plus size folks starting out and here’s why. If we try to learn to waist hoop with a hoop that is too small for our body, we will most likely end up feeling frustrated and defeated. For this reason, I always tell beginners to choose the larger size if they are debating between two sizes when checking our size chart for beginner hoops.
You can never get a hoop that is too big, but a hoop that is too small could feel like a waste of money at first and bring on a lot of aggravation.
Click here to read more about plus size hooping – I have a whole section on it!
Another situation where big hula hoops are better is when you feel like zoning out with some simple on body hooping, having a relaxing hula hoop session where you don’t have to react as fast with your body or your mind to keep the hoop going. There are tons of tricks you can still do even with a really large hoop, but you can also just literally hoop around your waist, or throw in some shoulder and leg hooping to mix it up.
We call this style of hooping body rocking, and big hoops are the most enjoyable for it. And ALL hoopers enjoy a good body rock sesh – so you should never feel embarrassed to use a big hoop. It’s not something that should ever be looked down on nor does it indicate anything about your skill level.
Now, on the other hand, if you’re not really interested in on-body hooping, but prefer to stick to off-body style which is mostly hand tricks, then any size hoop you want will do just fine, and there is no need to start off with a big hoop. So in this particular scenario, no, big hoops are not necessarily better. Hand tricks are mostly easier with smaller, lighter hoops.
To be clear, small hoops have their place too and can be really fun. In addition to the thousands of hand tricks and off body hula hooping, small hoops are great to spin two at once, which we call twins or doubles, and that opens up a whole new world of stuff you can learn. You can get a great workout with a small hoop, or multiple small hoops, and learn so many rewarding skills.
If you are ready to take that magical journey into the wonderful world of hula hooping, check out my Ultimate #Rubyfam Combo Package, which includes both my Six Week Beginner Hula Hoop Challenge for All Bodies and a set of 4 hoops perfectly crafted for your unique body and preferences – this combo is at a DEEP discount!
If you need an even more budget friendly option, try the Quick Start Combo, which comes with two plain hoops and my Six Week Challenge!
In my course, I will teach you how to use both big hoops on your body and small hoops to do a lot of fun tricks. That’s why I offer the combo packages with the variety of hoops. You will have an amazing foundation to develop your own unique hoop flow!!!
If you are new to our website, you might not know yet that I have a special place in my heart for plus size hoopers, mainly because I am one, but also because I started this hoop company so that people of all body types could experience the vast benefits of hula hooping. Whether you are big or small, tall or short, young or old, or if you have special challenges you can still hula hoop.
There are so many different ways to spin these circles, I hope you’ll give it a try soon. Feel free to drop me a comment or come and see me on social media – I’m @rubyhooping pretty much everywhere – and we can talk some more.
Rachel and Nikki at the Ruby Retreat 2019, learning hoop balancing.
This post has been updated for 2022.
Today we answer the number one hula hoop question of all time:
Why does my hula hoop keep falling down?
It usually goes something like this: You see a video of a grown person hula hooping on Instagram and you go grab your kid’s 3 dollar hoop from Walmart and give it a try. The hoop falls immediately and you chuckle to yourself, thinking you probably won’t be a hula hoop star anytime soon.
Then, next time you’re at Target, you spring for one of those ultra-clunky hoops in the exercise section of the store.
You rush home, eager to become the hoop goddess you know you were born to be.
When you first start hula hooping, there is a lot to learn. You start researching what kind of hula hoop to get and before you know it, you’ve gone down a rabbit hole reading about hula hoop sizes, weights, and…grip.
This post has been updated for 2022.
If you’re worried about not being able to hula hoop, finding out what size hula hoop to start with is the best way to ensure you will be successful.
Trust me, I know how confusing it is to figure out what size hula hoop you need to start. When I first started hooping, I did exactly what most people do: I bought a hoop on a whim in the toy section at Walmart, rushed home, tried it out and couldn’t get the hang of it at all.
This post has been updated for 2022.
It can sometimes feel like the hula hoop community forgets about us bigger folks. It’s like going to the mall and all the stores only have clothing up to size large. Yo, can I get some XXL up in here?