Hello All!! My name is Kelley and I joined mfp awhile back, but feel away from it, and have now returned again for the steady run. I have just picked up my hoop today (a danskin 2.5) and look forward to using it tonight!!! Ever since I seen the hoopnautica segment on the Today show last year I have been thinking that this is something I will like and enjoy. Recently back in February I was diagnosed with Leukocytoclastic Vasculitis and it tore my legs up pretty bad so had to stop walking for awhile, and still have to be careful. So I see this as a great excersize that will be low impact on my legs as well! I would love to make friends, and welcome any feedback, or pointers anyone has to offer!! So far all the intros on here have been very helpful and great to read!!
HERE'S TO HAPPY HOOPING!!! I let you know how it goes :-)

jrortega, people seemed to think I was silly, too, when I started. But little by little, most find they can't resist a spin inside one of my hoops. I've even gotten a couple people who said they could never do it smiling and laughing and excited upon discovering they actually could. Still, there are those who never quite understand the draw and that's ok, too.

Thank you. I have taken my hoop to work and find that some want to give it a try and others not. I have falling head over heals with Hooping.

Hello all! I am Shannon, mother of 2, at home hoopmaker and coffee addict, haha... I love hooping and do it almost everyday. I am actually extremely motivated to lose 25 more pounds before Hoopcamp starts! This will be my third year going since I started hooping almost 8 years ago! Wow time flies.

I host local hoopjams in my county (I live in the country and all the hoopers I know live in different towns so we congregate by county). And I want to be a teacher but I am lacking some confidence besides being a great hooper. I just want to shed some of my baby making weight and I have been so lethargic until my recent weight loss. I know that as I get smaller my energy levels will soar and I can already feel it!

My goal most of all, besides my Hoopcamp promo video which I also have coming up!, is that I want to learn breakdancing. I want to be able to teach a breakdancing, martial arts, hula hooping fusion course. I would love to be able to climb a tree too. I haven't done that since I was like 12 because of no upper body strength, haha.

Plus it feels really awkward selling hoops for fitness and being curvy. Sure hooping helped me lose 20 pounds in the past, but I have eating issues that I'm fighting against. I love exercise, dance, and all things sweaty, but I have a battle with the dinner plate that I have to conquer to achieve my goal. Feel free to friend me! I have everything public and would love to get to know more hoopers out there!

Hi, I'm Ayla! I'm 22 and I've been hooping just over a year. I started in July 2013, after I saw a beautiful girl using a beautiful LED hoop at a concert. (We have since met and I've expressed my gratitude to her for opening such a wonderful door for me!) I had been a semi motivated exerciser before that, but soon switched all of my exercise to hoop dancing. It was so much fun, I couldn't stop! I practiced every day. Since I no longer hit the gym, I packed on a few pounds and lost some muscle. I feel like I'm one of the only people that GAINED weight after I started hooping >___< Pretty frustrating.

I love being inside of a hoop, it makes me happier than anything else. I feel safe, content, at home. I can get lost in the music and in my mind and let go of any negativity and embrace the beauty that is life and movement! This May I graduated college (bachelors in computer engineering - I want to build robots! And led hoops!) and to treat myself, I bought a fire hoop, an atomic evoke, and four gorgeous shiny day hoops. I could not be happier!

I do gogo hooping and various performances with a group of girls based in Milwaukee. (I've got some neat pictures on my profile, check them out if you like~) I'm the largest in the group, and I am envious of the cute outfits they get to wear on stage. (Thigh high socks, I'm looking at you!!!!) I want to be recognized for my talents, but I need to work a little bit more on my image. I would like to reach my goal weight by the end of this year so that I am ready to focus on festival performance auditions! It is my dream to dance on stage for a big production like EDC Chicago or Electric Forest.

I'd love to make new friends, talk about hooping or fitness or food or anything. Feel free to add me, I log on every day! Let's share successes

I'm working on my basic hooping skills as well up to about 20 minutes a day in practicing. I also am working on my hand hooping.

I can't wait til I get good enough to start doing some tricks, dear lord ISOLATIONS ARE HARD ( I'm sure I also need a lighter hoop for that to practice with haha ).

I don't know how active this community is, but I just started coming back to this site to see if I can track being a bit more healthy. Anyway, when I was a teen (before Youtube and all that jazz), I used to play out in the yard with a cheap walmart hoop. I had fun--could go from my neck to waist, back up and to my knees (but rarely back up).

My kids got some hoops and my husband didn't believe that I could once hoop, because I could never keep them up. I heard some lady was making them, looked up how to make them, and made a whole bunch. It's great, because my kids can' squish their smaller hoops now.

Anyway, I like hula hooping and I got back to doing it and just decided that rather than getting all obsessed about fitness, I'll just get more active doing something I like--but I kind of feel odd. I'm 35, obese and feel I look a fool. I feel sorta weird looking up hoop trick videos because most of the people I see are gorgeous, trendy young people.

I'm very self conscious. ha! I'm half hoping to lose some weight, and half just wanting to have fun while developing a lifetime of physical health--you know, going to the gym or doing a major workout each night just doesn't seem natural, and while I generally lose weight doing that, I have a hard time keeping up with it and slowly gain all my weight, plus some back.

I live in Florida, so while my house is a bit small for hooping inside, I can do it outside most of the time. I like it because the hoop is relatively portable. I can stop and chase toddlers while hooping in the yard while they get some outside activity. When it gets warmer, I might go up to the beach and hoop there. That might be kind of cool.

Nice to meet you all! Hope to see some activity going on here.

Hi - I am 53 years of age and a guy living in Cornwall, UK.

I took up the hoop because I am more into yoga, calisthenics and things the body can do on its own rather than lifting weights and running endlessly. I love to swim but I prefer outdoors in nature rather than crunching out lengths in a pool.

One thing I notice since starting to hoop is I used to have a horrible pain along my right mid section as if there was something wrong with a pulled muscle, the way I was sitting or something. It felt really painful when I twisted towards the pain. Even yoga did not move it away - just made me more aware of it.

Now after hooping for a few weeks the pain is totally gone. It must have been something sticking there or bad alignment, but hooping has cured it completely.

Hey Hoopers My name is Jen, from Madison Wisc...my hoop alter ego is LoopDLu
So glad to find a hoop group here... I just joined MFP a couple of weeks ago. I am trying to lose about 60 pounds. I hoop 5-6 days a week, try to get in at least a half hour a practice. I run the Daily Practice group at HoopCity which really motivates me to get my hooptime in. I started hooping in June of 2010 so I've been at it a little over 3.5 years. Hooping alone didn't really help me lose weight but it does help me maintain my weight. Now I am tracking calories and working out with kettlebells too. So far so good

My youtube channel is here http://www.youtube.com/user/beckyjen426/videos I don't have a ton of videos but have been adding more as of late.

YogiCarl, I'm sorry to hear about the horrible pain you had...if you feel that pain again, check out this link, she has tips on how to stretch out those muscles and foam roller exercises that help http://groovinmegzz.blogspot.com/2010/03/ah-yes-there-is-one-in-all-its-glory.html

Hi! I just started hula hooping a couple days ago but I love it! It is seriously the only fitness-related-activity that I actually really enjoy. I guess because it's just so silly -- at least right now because I drop it all the time! I have zero rhythm/dance skills but I think I might be learning some from this.

Hi! My name is Diana and I'm happy to be a Chicago hooper!

I was introduced to flow arts in general by some dear friends of mine. I started with poi, but never got truly get excited about practicing. Then, we got into hooping and I am loving it! Waist is doing ok holding the hoop up, and with concentration, I can sink it down to my hips... What little I learned about poi helped when we discovered that 2 beat weave can be done also with hoops! Its enormous and beautiful with shiny hoops! I'm sure youtube helps, but there's a special joy in discovering something works just by trying it and finding out. Even if it results in a bruise or 5 when it doesn't work. Lord knows I got my share of welts trying to whip those poi around. I need more practice though and am happy to do it, especially when learning from others.