Fun Hula-Hoop Exercise Routine

Channel your inner child with this quick and effective workout.

The Routine

You may not have touched one since you were 10, but the humble hula hoop is a bona fide piece of workout equipment that can tone your thighs, abdominals, gluteals, and arms. And it’s just as much fun as you remember. “You barely feel like you’re working out,” says Sunny Becks-Crumpton, a hooping instructor and the owner of Hooprama, an exercise studio in East Nashville, Tennessee. To try it, grab a hoop (Becks-Crumpton’s site, hoopsupplies.com, has easy, DIY hoop kits) and complete this routine three times a week, going through the sequence twice. At first the moves may throw you for a loop, but don’t despair: Practice makes perfect.