Once upon a time when I was attempting to find myself at the age of 18 backpacking alone across Thailand and Malaysia, I stopped off in a small, humble town called Pai and met a professional hula-hooper. A job title reserved for only the luckiest of human beings.
One night during my stay, after a couple of cold Chang’s, I found myself bravely attempting to work the multiple hoops she had brought along with her around my nervous waist. My attempts proved fruitless as each rotation ended the same way – with a clatter on the wooden flooring.
Perhaps the challenge was somewhat sullied by the fact I was only eating one portion of pad thai at this time and majorly lacking in energy, or that my embarrassment overshadowed my determination, but I never picked up another hoop again until recently when I ventured to a Hulafit class with Shakira. Shakira tells me that she began instructing in April of 2015 after falling in love with the sport (yes, we’ll call it a sport) and wanting to improve her skills.
I brought along my friend Louise to the class, who by the way promised me she wasn’t any good beforehand. Had I known she was a big old liar and a pro-hooper like the rest of the participants in the class, I would’ve left her at the door. Obviously, I was the only class unable to master one full rotation of the hoop before it dropped to the ground – just like my nightmare back in Pai. Shakira reassures me that a lot of people say ‘oh no I can’t hula!’, “then that soon disappears after about 5-10 minutes”. And she was right, after struggling mercilessly for about 10 minutes, I soon got the hang of it.
Shakira adds: “It really does help with body confidence as you really have to get in tune with your body to get the most out of hula hooping. With the various moves that take place in the class you really get a chance to feel a bit sexy although sweaty at the same time which improves your confidence.”
I don’t know about sexy, but I was definitely sweaty by the end of my class. It’s completely surprising how much of a work out throwing a plastic hoop around your waist can be, but maybe I was just under the impression it was easy because of how effortlessly Beyonce does it in her Work It Out music video.
Sure, I might never look as good as Beyonce does hooping or indeed how she looks ever, but during my class I honestly had not laughed that hard in a long time. There’s something terribly funny about awkwardly trying to gyrating to the beat of Peter Andre’s Mysterious Girl. Shakira says that hooping can improve your strength and coordination all while having fun and learning a new skill – even a possible party trick or too.
Correct. I know that if I’m ever at an event or party in the future that has a hula hoop there, I’ll be the first in line to give it a go and show the world (or perhaps the crowd of children that I’d just bodged out the way) exactly what I can now do.
