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!