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.
What size hoop a beginner should use depends on several factors:
First of all, what kind of beginner do you want to be? Do you want to hoop around your waist only, or do you want to learn tricks? Do you want to learn tricks only on your body such as hooping around your shoulders, waist, and legs, or do you want to learn off-body tricks only using your hands? Do you want to learn all of the above? What size hula hoop you should get depends on this question.
If you want to only hoop on body doing simple things like waist or shoulder hooping, you will need to start with a traditional beginner hoop, which weighs about a pound or so, and comes in a moderately thick tubing. It has grip tape for a little extra help keeping the hoop going and it’s big enough and heavy enough to learn on.
The most important attribute to a beginner hoop is its diameter, which needs to be big enough to feel comfortable hooping on your body. Therefore, the size of your body matters to help you determine what size beginner hoop to get, and there’s a chart you can look at here to help you figure that out.
If you only want to hoop off body, doing tricks with your hands, your hoop doesn’t need to be as big or heavy, so a traditional beginner hoop is not necessary. I would recommend starting off with a 36″ 3/4″ hdpe hula hoop, which is a nice moderate size for beginners to learn tricks. The size is not dependent on your body size, so this is a versatile size that works for everyone.
I wrote this article to give you the simplest, most straightforward answer to what size hula hoop a beginner should use. You can definitely make an informed decision now when choosing your first hoop! However if you are enjoying spiraling down my carefully crafted hula hoop rabbit hole, there is tons more to read on the subject of hooping. Feel free to stay awhile and drop me a comment to introduce yourself 🙂
