The Unexpected Physical Benefits of the Hooping Habit

Even this early into my hooping practice, I've found a lot of unexpected physical benefits to hooping. Of course hooping can help you tone up and lose weight, but that takes more than a few days. Have you ever seen that infographic illustrating the benefits smokers receive after putting down the cigarette for minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months? It's like that, except that these are benefits to creating a habit instead of kicking one! Now creating a habit takes time (some say 21 days). But after only a few days of hooping, I've already enjoyed these benefits:

Energy boost: I work from home and I spend my entire day sitting in front of the computer. Not only can this cause health problems, it can also just make you get really sluggish. I found myself feeling tired and having trouble concentrating several times a day. Now at the first hint of the midday Zs, I make myself pick up my hoop. A few minutes later, with my heart thumping and my body moving, I feel alert for hours afterwards.

Loosening up cramped muscles: All that sitting leads to cramped muscles, everything from my hips to my back, to my shoulders and neck. On especially tense days, I even get headaches from holding myself so stiffly. Getting up and moving every so often allows me to loosen up, relax, and give those muscles a rest while working out other ones.

Lower back massage: When your lower back is a little sore from sitting all day, the gentle motion of the hoop crossing your body can give a little massage to your lower back and hips. It's really nice, try it!

Dissipating stress: This is more than purely physical, but stress does have a lot of physical symptoms. Adrenaline of the anxiety-producing sort pools in your body in all sorts of nasty little ways. I notice it particularly in my hands, stomach, and jaw--it can feel like trembling or tension. Hooping alleviates this by giving you an outlet for all that fight-or-flight energy.

I'm sure there are many new benefits to come that I will discover as I continue my hooping journey. Even still, these positive outcomes alone would be worth it for me!
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Drop Update: I missed my first two (non-consecutive) days due to some nasty food poisoning! (Unfortunately, alleviating a sour stomach doesn't seem to be among hooping's many benefits.) Despite that, I am up to 113 drops and still hooping strong.