One simply cannot do a private hooping session outside without drawing attention, even on a quiet afternoon. As I am hooping in my front yard, with my personal hooping trainer, people honk horns as they drive by, an elderly woman with her caregiver smiles and stops to take in the scene, and a mother pushing a stroller asks what we’re doing.
“We’re hooping,” I call out. “Want to join?”
What Mandy Harvey, my personal hooper trainer, and I are doing is the latest trend in exercise. Although, it barely seems like exercise because it is so much fun. “That’s why, in the hooping world, this is often called ‘exercise in disguise,’ ” says Harvey, who runs Sugar Hoops. Harvey started hooping 13 years ago when she was a DJ at a music festival in Nova Scotia. “I saw some girls hooping,” she says. “And I had to try it. I bought a hoop and I never looked back.”
These days, Harvey not only makes a living teaching hooping, but she can barely keep up with the demand. In addition to going to private homes, she runs hooping classes across the city, and, starting this month, weekly hooping classes in parks. (A private lesson starts at $75 an hour. Group classes in studios start at $15.)
“There is now a global community of hoopers,” she explains. “I hoop every day and look online every day because there is always a new move or trick to learn. I talk to hoopers in Australia, Berlin and the U.K. There are hoopers all over the world.”
And, of course, there are hoopers in Toronto. Recently, Harvey was hired to do a surprise bachelorette party that ordered custom-made hoops to match their dresses.
When I talk to Harvey on the phone to book our “training session,” I tell her that I’m not sure if I can hoop.
“Don’t worry,” she tells me. “I’ll get you hooping in less than two minutes.”
And … she does. The trick — who knew? — is not to move your hips side to side, but rather to use your core to move back and forth, with the hoop spinning right below your belly button. Within two minutes, I’m hooping like a champion. Ten minutes in, I’m completely out of breath.
“Hooping promotes movement, and you’re not thinking about fitness and having to go to the gym. And everyone smiles when they see a hoop. You get to see a side of yourself that you’ve never seen or haven’t seen since you were a child,” Harvey says.
Harvey, whose love for hooping is infectious, has lost 30 pounds over the past two years by hooping.
“I have had regulars who have lost 65 pounds over two years just by hooping. I’ve even had boyfriends of my clients come to me and say, ‘Wow, my girlfriend’s body is looking amazing. She can’t stop doing this!’ ” she says.
So many women, Harvey says, are dropping pounds while hooping without even realizing it. This is definitely “exercise in disguise.” My hands are up in the air and I’m doing lunges while hooping. For the next two days following my session, I can definitely feel that my abs have gotten a workout, and it feels as if I had done a hundred sit-ups.
People from every career — from doctors to teachers — join Harvey’s classes in Christie Pits (which start in June) and in Withrow Park (which start in May). “There are so many friendships that come out of it, too,” she says. “People want to show each other new tricks they have learned.”
As a novice hooper, I start with a larger hoop (42 inches). As I get better, I move onto using a smaller hoop (34 inches). Harvey shows off tricks, like spinning around while hooping and twirling the hoop around her wrists and fingers.
Inside my house, she takes out a ring of paint samples (like she’s a decorator) and shows me the 50 different colours she offers for custom-made hoops. I order one, letting my daughter pick out the sparkly green, pink and silver colours for me. The hoops are not like the plastic Hula Hoops we used as kids. These are serious hoops that can be folded up and kept in a yoga bag. Brilliant.
“Once you develop a rhythm for hooping, you can really let go,” Harvey says. There is a lot you can do once you learn to hoop. For example, you can watch television, or take in the thousands of hooping tutorials on the Internet. She says that eventually I’ll be able to dance to my favourite tunes while hooping. “It’s really addictive,” she says. “People are always looking for something fun.”
I can’t disagree. I will pick up my own hoop on Monday and I can’t wait. I feel younger than I have in years.