Remember that feeling you had playing with a hula hoop as a kid? I remember loving my bright pink hoop, and hoping to emanate my mother's glory days as a hula hoop champ back when she was a kid in the 1950s. Well it turns out that that hula hoops are still going strong -- and some people are using them for exercise.
Southport Elementary School in Wilmington, North Carolina has teamed up with Dosher Memorial Hospital to promote healthy activity, including a hula hoop challenge with students and teachers. This story from WECT-6 Wilmington talks about the school-hospital partnership.
Hula hoops are also being used for a variety of other health benefits. This Reuters story about the toy's popularity includes the story of a man who's rehabilitation for an injury included hooping. Some exercise instructors are incorporating it into their aerobic classes, and others are using "hooping" for meditation and de-stressing benefits.
There are even hula hoop fitness groups around the country that brings people together to hula hoop. Want to start your own? This story provides step-by-step instructions to gathering your friends together to hoop.
So maybe there was something to that pink hula hoop after all?
Question: Would you hula hoop for exercise? What other types of "play" do you do for exercise -- tag with your kids? Kickball? Please share your ideas in the "Comments" section below.
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