Not such a good idea after all

Tweet

I’m not much of a one for doing exercise for its own sake. I ride my bike a lot as a means of transport and I work in the garden fairly often and go dancing about once a month. But that’s about it. Every now and then I wonder if I should do a bit more, but I want something fun otherwise I know I won’t do it. I have a skipping rope I sometimes use but I really need to do that outside and when the rain is pouring down that’s not ideal. So when I saw this in a charity shop I thought it might be a good idea. I wouldn’t pay full price for something like this but for a few pounds I thought it was worth a try. It’s a weighted hula hoop, so better for exercise than one of those flimsy hollow plastic ones for children. And it comes in sections, so easier to transport if you want to take it with you somewhere. Well it turned out not to be such a great idea. I can see why someone donated it! First of all it’s actually quite a pain to assemble, so it’s not as if you are going to put it together afresh every day and then pack it away again. So far I just put it together once and now it’s just getting in the way. Secondly, it is rather on the heavy side, perhaps too much so; it actually hurts my ribs and/or hips (depending on how good I am at getting it spinning) to use it. When I get it right it isn’t too bad but the many attempts where I don’t get it going properly are positively painful. I guess that’s a good incentive to get better! The third problem is that it isn’t the kind of thing you can easily do indoors, after all. Spinning a heavy hoop actually requires quite a lot of space and even though we have a big house it’s surprisingly hard to find an area large enough where I don’t bash the hoop into the table, sofa or even the aquarium! I might be able to do it standing on the bed, if I’m careful, but of course that isn’t too stable and the bed isn’t meant for standing on either. So all in all I wouldn’t recommend one of these. Maybe there are better versions out there, anyone else tried one? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2024.