Going loopy for hooping

There’s a hula hoop revolution rolling around Omaha.

But there’s a new spin on the plastic toy snapped up by millions of hip swivelers starting in 1958.

Today, the hula hoop is at the center of a national fitness trend that improves flexibility and coordination, relieves stress, allows for creative expression through dance and even invigorates sexuality, said Omahan Chelsea Taxman, 21, who recently started a local hula hoop troop.

Hula hooping provides aerobic benefits and works core muscles, said Pete McCall, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise. It also works hip and hamstring muscles, quads, glutes and external obliques in the lower back.

McCall said taking up hula hooping can help those who don’t get much exercise to lose weight.

“If they do it 30 minutes a day a few times a week, they are expending a lot more energy than they normally would,” McCall said. “They will find the extra weight leaving fast.”

Working out with something fun like a hula hoop is a step in the right direction, he said.

“They might start feeling they have more energy, gain a sense of accomplishment and think, ‘Hey, this is something I can do,’” McCall said.

Taxman said she has lost 15 pounds while hooping this year. She started in 2005 at a String Cheese Incident concert in Lawrence, Kan. The jam band is known for throwing hula hoops into the crowd and encouraging groovers to swing them around their waist to the flow of the music.

Taxman had never hooped as a child and struggled at first. She couldn’t hoop around her waist for almost two years, but with enough work, she got it. When she returned to school at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., in the fall of 2007, she found her roommates had caught the same hooping bug. They taught Taxman a few tricks and helped her build her own hoop. When Taxman moved back to Omaha last year, she brought the movement with her.

She has taught hooping at community events such as Earth Day Omaha and the Benson Summer Festival and at her job in south Omaha with Camp Fire USA. About two months ago, she started offering free class sessions at least once a week. She calls it Hula Hoop Omaha. About 40 people, from ages 10 to those in their mid-40s, participate.

On a recent Thursday afternoon, eight young women grabbed a hoop and gathered in a circle at Elmwood Park. They stretched for a moment, then the hooping began.

The women, even the so-called newcomers, had no trouble swinging their hoops in a simple rhythmic movement. Some even spun in circles and still managed to keep the hoop steady.

As the participants started breaking off into their own dances, the hoops began to move fluidly from the waist, to the chest, up to the neck, down the outside of the arms and, briefly, around the legs.

They aren’t using the same toy hoops that exploded on the American scene decades ago. These hoops are heavier and thicker. They are also larger, about 30 to 40 inches in diameter, which makes them easier to use.

“It’s an old-fashioned hobby, taken to the next level,” Taxman said.

And it’s not happening just in Omaha.

Actress Marisa Tomei used hooping to shape up for her Academy Award-nominated role as an exotic dancer in “The Wrestler.” In January, she showed off her hooping moves on Ellen DeGeneres’ afternoon talk show. Hip hop goddess Beyoncé Knowles claims to keep her figure by following Hoopnotica, a workout DVD.

And the hula hoop has made it all the way to the White House. President Barack Obama revealed in a People magazine article last year that his wife, Michelle, 44, is an avid hooper.

But not everyone has taken their hooping cues from the mainstream.

Hula Hoop Omaha members Denise Muller and her 10-year-old son, Isaiah, gave the hobby a twirl to cure boredom. They had moved in May and never got around to hooking up the television, so when Denise found a couple of hoops at Goodwill, Isaiah was bored enough to try one out.

“He has played with them every day since,” Denise said.

Isaiah is a skateboard kid. It took some practice, but it wasn’t long before he had hooping down.

“I know it takes time to get something right,” he said. “After a while, it started to make sense to me.”

Now he strides on his skateboard and hoops at the same time.

But his best trick, according to his mother, is when he takes off his shirt while hooping and then puts it back on.

“It’s pretty funny to see,” Denise said.

Contact the writer:

444-3110, joel.fulton@owh.com

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