This post has been updated for 2023.

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 10 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.

#1 Health Benefit of Hula Hooping – Improved Mental State

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.

I’m not suggesting that hula hoops should replace proper mental health care from medical professionals,

But what I am saying is that hula hooping certainly can be an instrumental part of an overall wellness plan in your life.  You can find countless testimonies to this in our Facebook group, Ruby Hoopers.  Hoops provide relief that nothing else I’ve experienced.

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

How hula hooping can improve our relationships

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.

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.

Physical Health Benefits of Hula Hooping

Weight Loss

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.

Start Hooping With My Six Week Challenge Today

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

Muscle Toning

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.

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.

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.

Or, take our quiz to find out what style of hula hooping you are most into!

Pictured: Corrinne Coomes of #TeamRuby

Lower Blood Pressure

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 hooped throughout my entire pregnancy!

I have also monitored my blood pressure closely since my child was born, 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. 

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

Improved Coordination & Balance

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?

Hula hooping has many health benefits!

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. 

Give me a few minutes a day for six weeks of your life and you will experience everything I have written about here today. I promise you that!

Stephanie of #TeamRuby, photo by Toastography

If you’re looking up info on hula hooping benefits, you probably already have an inkling of just how special hoop dance is. Maybe you remember hula hooping as a child, or wanting to. Maybe you saw someone in a video moving elegantly in your social feeds. 

Hula hooping has a magnetic vibe that attracts people of all walks of life, and with good reason. Not only is it an artistic, free-flowing way to express yourself, but it’s also exercise that both burns calories and tones muscle.

And that’s honestly just the obvious stuff.

This is definitely not the only article you’ll find here at Ruby Hooping on this topic.  I have spent a lot of time over the past 10 years writing about hula hooping benefits. There are a lot.

But this is probably the most heartfelt and personal article I have written. I am going to tell you the 5 life-changing ways hula hooping has benefited me.

Hula Hooping Benefit #1 – Relief for Anxiety & Depression

This is the number one most impactful hula hooping benefit I have personally experienced. 

This world is not an easy one to live in at times, and we all experience mental health challenges. Hula hooping, for me, has been instrumental in me gaining a sense of peace and clarity. 

When I’m hooping, here are all the things I’m not doing:

• I’m not scrolling social media.
• I’m not texting with anyone.
• I’m not dreading the next headline.
• I’m not worried about how I’m going to pay my bills.
• I’m not wishing my body looked different.
• I’m not worried about my relationships.
• I’m not scared something bad will happen.

I’m just hooping. Just me and my hoop, and my favorite music. In this moment, I am free to exist without expectation, without fear.

It is the most healing experience. It is relief. 

Hula Hooping Benefit #2 – Improves How we Love Our Bodies

Hula hooping does a lot in terms of helping you get fit. And I’ll get to that.

But first, I feel it’s more important to talk about how much hula hooping actually helps you LOVE your body, regardless of your size, fitness, or age.

Before I found hula hooping, I did not have a vehicle for loving my body.

I was born in 1982 so I come from a time when fat jokes were still extremely acceptable and even cool, and women passed around little pieces of paper amongst their sisters and even young daughters with dangerous diets like “eat only grapefruit and hot dogs for three weeks”. Models looked unnaturally skinny and anything different was viewed as unacceptable.

Our generation pushed back against this. And even though we have fought the good fight our whole lives, we still have to live with the residual effects of growing up like that. 

Before hula hooping, I never really had a relationship with my body, per se. I mainly just knew I didn’t like it. I didn’t like how I looked, and even worse I didn’t feel healthy. I didn’t know what I was physically capable of, but I didn’t think it was much.

And I didn’t have the faintest idea how to change any of that. 

Hula hooping came along and changed that for me. Within DAYS of starting, I started to feel excited.

ME, excited to exercise! That was new. 

I started feeling soreness and a “waking up” kind of feeling in muscles I didn’t even know I had. I could feel my whole body tightening up. My balance got better. My energy levels sky rocketed. 

I started to feel a connection forge between myself and my body. Like I understood for the first time that my body is me and deserves my attention, my love, my respect.

Learning new moves with the hula hoop has such a delicious sense of accomplishment. There is nothing else like it on Earth that I’ve felt.

And in those early days when I just started, it was such a new feeling for me to be proud of things my body was doing. It was an incredible ride I did NOT want off of.

That’s why I’m still here 10 years later, telling as many of you as I can about these hula hooping benefits.

Hula hooping opened me up to see myself as elegant, strong, beautiful, even powerful. 

That’s a hell of a benefit in my opinion. One that honestly changed my life. When you’re comfortable with yourself both inside and out, achieving your dreams is suddenly within your view.

Hula Hooping Benefit #3 – It’s a Creative Outlet

The above picture is Scarlet, one of the most creative hoopers in our Ruby Hoopers group on Facebook! She always posts incredibly unique and interesting hula hoop content.

That’s because hula hooping opens up the part of our brains that foster creativity. As you begin to get the foundational moves of modern hooping down, you will start to come up with your own unique ways of moving within and around the hoop.

Your own unique flair will shine through in everything you do with your hula hoop.

You may start making a list of your favorite songs that you want to try hooping to. You may start thinking about what different sizes and colors of hula hoops you want to try.  You might start to feel compelled to share your hooping on social media as a creative outlet for expression. 

You can find the Ruby community on the hashtag #ihoopforme on Instagram and elsewhere!

Creativity is a hula hooping benefit not only because it produces beautiful art in the form of your unique hoop dance, but also because creativity itself has a plethora of health benefits.

There are dozens of studies that show being creative increases positive emotions, lessens depressive symptoms, reduces stress, decreases anxiety, and even improves immune system functioning.

This added element of creativity is something that most exercise and fitness plans simply do not have.

And it’s the reason why nothing ever stuck for me until I found hooping. I needed that extra connection with my workout that I wasn’t getting from following along with steps in zumba class. 

Hula Hooping Benefit #4 – Physical Fitness

First,  I want to acknowledge and honor that we ALL come from a different place in our journeys with physical fitness. All of our bodies are unique and different as you can see in this beautiful snapshot from one of our Ruby Retreats.

We are tall, short, thick, thin, and everything in between. Some of us were athletes in high school and some of us have never felt “athlete” was anywhere near a word to describe us.

This is why size inclusiveness is so important to me and to our brand. Because we are all unique and we all deserve to have this transformational experience of hula hooping.

While physical fitness is the most obvious hula hooping benefit, many people don’t realize just how fit hula hooping can make you. There is not a muscle that you won’t hit using a hula hoop in all the various ways there is to do so.

You can work out your arms, legs, core, back, shoulders, chest, butt, neck, literally every single inch of your body, using a hula hoop.

And hula hooping even just around your waist is proven to burn up to 600 calories per hour, as much as something a lot less fun, like jogging.

I teach you the full spectrum of hula hoop moves in my best-selling Six Week Challenge, which I highly recommend you sign up for if you want to get a strong start in your hoop journey. It is 100% taught by me, Lindsay Redd, the founder of Ruby Hooping. And it is designed to be accessible to everyone, no matter where you are in your fitness journey.

Hula Hooping Benefit #5 – Community

Me and one of my best friends Corrinne, who I met thru hula hooping.

I can’t stress this one enough. And first I need to tell you that I am an introvert.

Now, a lot of people think introvert means shy, but it really doesn’t. I am not shy. I do, however, get drained from being around people too much. 

So when I say that hula hooping benefits me by connecting me with a vibrant community, you know there has to be something extra special here. 

I’m the type of person that would rather be home with my dogs than around a crowd of people most of the time, but hooping actually brings the social butterfly out of me sometimes, and definitely more than any of my other “hobbies” in life.  (I put hobby in quotes because hooping is so much more than a hobby).

There’s something really amazing about hula hooping with others. ESPECIALLY other people involved in the Ruby Hooping community, because in addition to hooping we have an overarching theme of LOVE. Love each other, love ourselves, love our bodies, love life. 

The Ruby community is such a special group of people. We appreciate each other’s differences and what each person brings to the table. We love to share hooping skills with each other. We love to just let go and flow to the music together.

This community grew organically. I have never once ran ads to try to get more people into our Facebook group, or to come to our Ruby Retreat. Everyone involved is here because they were drawn to our brand due to the strong self love while hula hooping aesethetic, or because somebody already in our community brought them in!

We are all happy and grateful to be here. And we are all ready to welcome all newcomers.

Even as an introvert, to know that I have a community like this in my life that I can lean on, and share with, means a whole hell of a lot.

When we get together whether online or in person, we all leave feeling renewed. Fresh perspectives. Inspiration. Encouragement. Wellness!

I hope this article helped you gain an understanding of not just how hula hooping has benefited my life, but more importantly how it can benefit yours.

To find out what kind of hula hoop style you gravitate toward the most, take my quiz now!