Hula Hoop

Last Saturday my neighbor had a work out session in her garage, (this garage was almost bigger than our house).  She is a personal trainer and decided to invite all the neighbors. 

We did a quick warm up and overview, then it was on to the fun stuff.  She handed out some hula hoops that she had made.

I haven't used a hula hoop since I was a kid.  I picked it up and after almost hitting the person on my left, I turned and almost hit the person on my right.  I moved back and this time I hit the wall.   This was getting embarrassing.  I moved out and tried again, down it went.  I put my legs further apart and gave it one more twirl and off I went.  I was twirling like I had been twirling my whole life.  This was a weighted hoop which made it easier than the light ones of old.  I was the marvel of the class, I just kept right on going.  We were moving onto another exercise, reluctantly I give back my hoop.  I was quite inspired by the session, it was great fun and I realized I have not been doing enough strength training.  Knitting doesn't really count as an exercise. 

The next morning I got out of bed and noticed that my rib cage and waist were very sore.  We had ordered 10 yards of planters mix to put in a new bed we are making.  The goal for the day was to cart the soil to the backyard.  I picked up my shovel, began to scoop the soil, and did a silent cry out in pain.  I realized that my time with the hula hoop had worked muscles that had not been worked in quite some time.  That night when I crawled into bed it hurt to even lay on these areas, each time I rolled over I relived my hula hooping.

I am thinking of buying one from my neighbor...