We all have a few bad habits! But research has shown that sitting on our bottoms all day at work is more detrimental to your health than you may think! Here are 5 incredible ways that hooping at work can make a difference in your professional life and boost your health! Now that's efficiency to the max!
1. Counteract The Health Risks of Sitting Down For Long Periods of Time by Taking Small, Frequent Hoop Breaks! According to this WebMD article, even taking short breaks from sitting down can be good for your heart and your waist!
"A new study published in the European Heart Journal, suggests that it’s not just the length of time we spend sitting down but the number of times we get up during that time that can influence our health. This study examined the total length of time people spent sitting down and breaks taken in that time, together with various indicators of risk for heart disease, metabolic diseases such as diabetes, and inflammatory processes that can play a role in the blocking of arteries. It suggests that plenty of breaks, even if they are as short as one minute, seem to be beneficial...[and]...that even in people who spent a long time sitting down, the more breaks they took during this time, the smaller their waists..."
So...take a hoop break to slim your waist!
2. Improve Your Concentration Researchers have found that brief diversions can vastly improve your focus. According to this New York Times article, "a growing body of evidence shows that taking regular breaks from mental tasks improves productivity and creativity — and that skipping breaks can lead to stress and exhaustion." While some traditional options for short breaks include taking a walk, leaving the office for lunch or reading a book..why not grab your hoop and head to an empty conference room or to an empty space in your building's parking lot? You will not only clear your head, you'll come back to your desk feeling more focused!
3. Burn Calories...for Hours After You Hoop! Hooping has been proven to burn over 400 calories per hour by the American Council on Exercise, although the calorie-burn from hooping may be as high as 600 calories per hour when other parts of your body, such as your arms and legs, are engaged. To break this down even more, consider that, according to a 2009 AARP Bulletin, hooping it up for eight minutes gives you a good cardiovascular workout and will burn a whopping 50 calories, or a satisfying 6.25 calories per minute! And the ACE reported, according to a study they conducted, that hooping burns approximately 7 calories per minute! Burn, calories, burn! But beyond preemptively burning off your lunch, hooping can increase the amount of calories you burn for hours after you hoop. According to some sources, the secret to permanent weight loss is training your body to be a more efficient calorie-burning engine by maximizing your metabolism. And, studies show that you can continue to burn extra calories after you have finished your workout. Hooping during work will enable you to experience this "afterburn" at your desk!
4. Improve Your Mood & Let Go of Stress & Frustration Besides the wonderful burst of endorphins you're likely to enjoy after just a few minutes of hooping. Moving around after being sedentary for some time can help you work through work-related stress and frustration. After hooping we often feel like younger, stronger, more clear-headed, more confident versions of ourselves...in other words, we feel like better--if not our best Selves. Warning: Confidence, positive thinking, peppiness, and go-getterness may ensue...Taking out your hoop will not only allow you to spin your stress away, but can give you the inspiration, energy and refreshed perspective to come up with creative solutions to your work-related problems.
5. Connect More with Co-workers & Take the Lead in Inspiring Others According to an interview with Niki Leondakis, COO of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, hula hoops play a big role in building important leadership skills and cultivating an excellent rapport among coworkers: "One of the important aspects of working at Kimpton is having fun. For leaders, the ability to laugh at yourself is key, so we use Hula Hoops to demonstrate that...Every year at our annual meeting, we have a general-manager meeting. About 250 people, along with our corporate team, get together for a couple days. This has been a ritual for about 15 years now. Anyone who’s a first-timer, we call them up to the front of the room, and we play the music to “Wipe Out,” and we do this hoop-off. So five people at a time hoop and then there’s a winner. There are usually four to six new teams of people. The winner of all the newbies, as we call them, then has a hoop-off with last year’s reigning champion.
Worried what your co-workers might think? Niki says that she is now known as the "Hula Hoop Coach" within her company: "I used to be someone they laughed at, but now I actually go, “O.K., here’s the technique.” (MORE: Read the Entire Interview by Adam Bryant, New York Times Business Section)
Do you bring your hoop to work? Tell us your story below!
We've always been advocates of multitasking while hooping, whether you are catching up on the latest episode of Scandal, checking your emails on your phone, or timing your workout to that load of laundry you just threw in the machine. Well, some genius has designed a way to make your hoop the ultimate multitasking tool!
We recently heard of the Hula Washer, a unique fitness tool that may soon allow you to wash your clothes while you exercise and save energy!
This 2012 Electrolux Design Lab Entry promises the following:
"The Hula Washer promises to keep you fit and svelte as you wash your clothes. Not only do you save time and money, but the concept also keeps your waistline under control. The energy you use to spin the Hula Washer, like a Hula Hoop is used to clean the clothes loaded into the washer segment. Add clothes and washing liquid to the hollow center of the ring and then start to spin." (Read more on Yanko Design's site)
While the Hula Washer isn't currently in production (and may never be!) it tickled us pink to think that there may be future "gadget-hoops" fitted with features that turn your motion into energy to power a household appliance. \
Which appliance-hoop combo would you like to see them try to make? (Feel free to include your sketches in your answers!)
Morgan Jenkins, of the LA Hoop Team The Hooptown Hotties is the only hula hooper to be given a four minute feature in Pharrell Williams’ recently released 24-hour long music video “Happy”.
You can watch Morgan’s incredible, fun-loving segment here...It’s sure to put a smile on your face!
The Younger Lovers' new song "Hey Now" premiered on MTV this week... In this simple and upbeat video the adorable lead singer Brontez Purnell is featured guitar strumming, dancing with a bouquet of flowers, popping bubblegum and...HOOPING!
Not only is the video adorable but the song will definitely make you want to grab your hoop! Watch it here!
Happy Hooping!
What is #GivingTuesday?
We have a day for giving thanks. We have two for getting deals. This year help us create #GivingTuesday. A new day for giving back. On Tuesday December 3, 2013, global charities, families, businesses, community centers, students and more will come together to create #GivingTuesday. (Source: http://community.givingtuesday.org/Page/About)
Learn More about Hoopnotica's #GivingTuesday Initiative to connect hoopers in need with new hoops!
Betsy's Story
Recently, a hooper told us about her friend, Betsy, who lost her hoop (among other things) in a terrible flood. We wanted to get Betsy a new hoop so that she would have her feel-good practice back in her life while dealing with the aftermath of the flood.
We were so happy that we were able to reconnect Betsy with a hoop that we decided that, for our first ever GivingTuesday initiative, we want to give hoops to other hoopers like Betsy who are currently hoopless!
Do you know any hoopers in need? Send a Letter to Your Fairy HoopMama! You can nominate a hooper (it could be you or someone you know) to receive a free Hoopnotica hoop by telling us who you nominate and why in less than 300 words and sending it to inspiration@hoopnotica.com with the subject line "Fairy Hoopmama" or by posting in the comments below. Deadline is 11:59 pm Dec. 3rd, 2013.
We will contact you no later than Dec. 5th to let you know if your nominee will be receiving a hoop from their Fairy Hoopmama!'
We can't get enough of the incredible shots in this video!
Where in the world would you like to bring your hoop?
"We were always looking for new jobs, hoping to find that perfect job that paid the bills AND that we looked forward to daily." Sound familiar?
In 2007, Jen and Keith Moore were both morbidly obese, unemployed or between unsatisfying jobs, and feeling very frustrated and unsuccessful. Six years on, 270 lbs lost, and several Hoopnotica Certifications later, Jen and Keith are finally living the hoop dream!
Jen talks about what it means to support their family as Hoopnotica Master Trainers and independent fitness professionals!
Even after almost four years of being professional Hula Hoopers, we still cannot at times believe this is our reality: we are truly living the hoop dream!
It was a process that began gradually, until one day we stopped, looked our lives, and realized this was it-this was the direction we were headed, to support ourselves and our family 100% by hooping and still working way fewer hours than most people!
Many of you are already familiar with how hooping changed our lives forever-with Keith and I losing a total of almost 300 lbs and finally winning the battle over obesity that we had struggled with our entire lives. However many of you aren’t as familiar with the impact hooping has had on us professionally.
Before Hooping...Hoping for the Perfect Job:
Before Hooping, Keith was always in upper level retail management. The money was good, but the hours were long and the jobs were stressful, especially when we started a family. Keith never enjoyed his job, and constantly was job hopping, because he would grow bored with the monotony of the work. (Just to give you an idea, at age 35, Keith has worked at over 80 different jobs!) He was always looking for new jobs, hoping he’d find that perfect job that paid the bills AND he looked forward to daily.
I worked as a nanny, which I enjoyed, but the pay was very low, and once I started having children, I wanted to stay home with them and focus on them, not raise someone else’s children and mine at the same time.Keith decided to go back to school in 2008, because many job opportunities were closed to him without a degree. In 2009 when the economy crashed, he lost his job. We had a 4 year old, a 6 month old, and we were living on $222 a week in unemployment.
When I started hooping and people started asking me if I was a hoop instructor, I thought it was the funniest thing ever. Me, obese, a fitness or dance instructor? HA!! I would laugh about it to Keith every time.
But, then a really funny thing happened: after a few months of hooping, and countless people stopping me to ask me when/where I taught class, I started to consider the idea of becoming a hoop instructor. There were no Hoopnotica Certified Instructors in upstate New York, and maybe I could make a little extra money while Keith kept searching for a "real" job.
Your Dream Job Can Be Your "Real" Job
I got certified through the distance program in January 2010, thinking I would teach in a few months, towards the fall, when I was really “good” and had lost more weight. (I was still well over 200lbs at this time.) I started putting out feelers, and within a few days, THREE gyms emailed me asking me to start the following week.I was terrified, but stepped forward with the idea of “fake it til you make it” and by the summer I was teaching over 20 classes a week and turning down requests for workshops, performances and classes! I told Keith that I thought he should get certified too, until he found that “real” job he was still looking for.
Keith started teaching and by the end of the year, we stepped back and said, Wow, this is a business...there are our real jobs! We are professional hula hooper fitness instructors! We had lost almost 300 lbs by this time and were continuing to change our lifestyles while spreading the hoop love! We had named our business Roc City Hoopdance in February, and it became an offical LLC by the end of the year.
Doing What We Love & Spending Time with the People Who We Love
Now, even as Hoopnotica Master Trainers, running our own HoopDance studio and certifying new Hoopnotica Instructors around the world, we get to spend all day with our children, educating them (our kids are home-schooled) and creating amazing bonds that Keith especially wouldn’t have had if he was still working 60-80 hour work weeks away from home and from our family. And the crazy thing is, we make more money NOW than when he worked all of those long, labor-intensive hours!Going on four years of teaching HoopDance, this is the longest Keith has ever been at a job and every day still brings new and exciting challenges. Even though the basics of hooping never change, the amazing people we get to interact with and the new places we get to go change every day, week and month.
And all of this happened because, for many months, the obese girl (I used to be) in the corner of the gym with her TravelHoop and Hoopnotica DVD playing on a laptop, who never truly thought she could hoop, kept trying and kept trying. Less than four years later, I am healthy, happy, and living the ultimate Hoop fairy tale. If I can do it, so can you!
