(W)hooping It Up
Most of y’all know I’m a desk jockey – I’m here at my computer most of the day, every day. Sure, I work out – hard - on a regular basis, but I don’t believe in spending hours at the gym. I go there to get strong, not burn calories… thus, when my performance begins to deteriorate, it’s time to hang it up, go home and eat. All told, I don’t spend more than an hour/day lifting; or doing combined cardio, ab work and stretches.
But I keep active, nonetheless, by doing “mini-workouts” throughout the day. It’s no big deal to knock out a set of pushups on my push up bars or medicine ball; chin myself a few times using my door gym; knock out a set of 20 wall squats, or jump rope for a few minutes. It gets my blood moving, and breaks up the long hours of sitting, without interrupting my work schedule.
As a consequence, I’m always on the look out for other low tech, durable ”toys” I can use to expand my range of indoor activities. And this one looks like fun…
Truth is, when I planned this review of fitness hoops and attended a 90-minute hooping class in Santa Monica last Sunday, I did not know that hooping had become a giant fitness trend and that Marisa Tomei used it to get in shape for her role as a stripper in the Oscar-nominated film “The Wrestler.” But I can tell you that it is a smile-inducing, easy-yet-challenging, sweat-drenching, skill-building core workout for an uncoordinated male, and that when I woke up Monday morning I swear my gut had shrunk by an inch or two.
Like the author of the article, I haven’t paid much attention to cardio fitness trends, as my focus is on lifting…but hey, better late than never, I guess.
At any rate, I couldn’t resist…I put an order in for a Canyon Weighted Hula Hoop…should be here soon. I used to play w/hula hoops when I was a kid, and since I still am one (as the Girl Child sez: “Mom are you EVER going to grow up?”), I figure it’ll be a fun addition to my indoor exercise repertoire. Will let you know…
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Makster on 28 Feb 2009 at 1:19 pm #
I know your not a big fan of cardio type things. It will be interesting to see how you do with this.
Keep us posted..
Elissa on 28 Feb 2009 at 6:08 pm #
LOL – you know it.
I used to run quite a bit – up to 10K at a crack. There was a level at which I was happy I could do it, and felt good afterwards, but I never really enjoyed it, per se. So discovering HIIT was a godsend…it’s short, and the level of focus required eliminates the boredom.
This isn’t really going to replace any of my (now shorter) cardio sessions…but add to the short bouts of more vigorous activity I use to break up my work day, which – outside of workouts and errands – largely consists of sitting on my a**.