When I was little I used to have competitions with my sisters to see who could hula hoop the longest. Sometimes we would add in multiple hoops and other times we would use them to “jump rope” with. There were some times when I became bored with my hula hooping, but I continued to swing my hips and let the hoop go round and round. Keeping track of the count was hard at times, but it definitely gave us something to strive for.

Well, I did not realize this, but apparently, hula hooping is making a comeback. I used to think that it was just a thing that little kids did, but that is not the case anymore. Even Michelle Obama is into hula hooping! Last October she hooped for health and was able to get 142 swivels in! She definitely kept up with the best of them!

Why the hula hooping craze? Well, it is a really good source of exercise! The hula hoops used during exercising are not your standard little kid hoops. The exercising hoops are a little bigger and are weighted. This weight, about 2 pounds, will help a lot because you will not really have to worry about the lack of rhythm or being clumsy. Hula hoops are used in exercises to firm, tone and burn body fat.

Using a hoop has a lot of benefits. For instance, they massages your intestines and organs as it circles your waist. Hula hooping can help you have some meditative times, allow your heart rate to go up so you can lose weight, it increases the flow of blood to your brain, increases your energy level, enhances spinal flexibility, and more.

Hula hooping, according to the American Council on Exercise, burns about 200 calories every 30 minutes. That is not too shabby for a childhood “sport!” A lot of people prefer hooping because other sports put too much stress on the body. Another thing about hooping that people enjoy is that it puts a lot of emphasis on strengthening the abdominal area and torso. These are two areas that most people strive to trim down.

Hooping will bring back the old memories while getting fit!

Well, I do not know about you, but I have been less than thrilled with the weather this season. For instance, it is November, but this past week in Boston it has been anywhere from 40 to 60 degrees outside. That is not cold, and it certainly is not the ideal temperature for my favorite form of precipitate–snow!

Well, once the snow comes along, ski season will be in full blast.

Teaching someone how to ski is an interesting experience. It is not too hard to learn, in opposition to first starting snowboarding, but it can be challenging. For those of you who are looking to bring your children out into the amazing world of skiing or to teach a friend how this sport works, here are a few hints.

First and foremost, figure out if they can handle the cold temperatures, the uncomfortable boots, and the rest of the equipment. Speaking of equipment, do not get the cheap stuff. Buying or renting good quality equipment will not only aid your “student’s” overall experience, but it also will make your life easier. Figure out how they learn best–by watching, example, doing, trying, etc?

Start them off on the bunny slopes with the carrot lift. It should be extremely flat and boring for you, but trust me, your child or friend will think that they are going too fast to handle at the beginning on even this slope, so make sure that they are comfortable on these slopes first. Once you can get them to make big turns, how to use the pizza wedge technique, and how to stop, you can test them out on the lift. Take a lift up and take a long green circle trail down. They will learn so much on that one trail and may even find it easier going down on a slope because they’ll have more momentum.

However, I will admit that the best thing to do would be to enroll them in a one hour class. A lot of times you can get a package for beginners for free which would include rentals, a lesson, and a lower mountain pass. Other times you can get some great deal that includes all three items.

You are never too young to play sports and keep fit. Even young children can play, from those just walking to the ones getting ready to start children’s leagues. They might not understand the rules of the game, but they can work on their hand eye coordination and keep their bodies fit by participating anyway.

My three year old son loves to play sports. The park my family frequents has a large grassy play area around the little play structure on sand, so we bring a bag full of sports equipment. In the duffle we keep a soccer ball, a large blue plastic bat and oversized plastic baseballs, as well as wiffle balls and a bouncy ball.

When we play soccer, we concentrate on getting Three-feet-of-fun only to kick the ball instead of pick it up. The whole point of the game is running up one and down the field just kicking the ball. Then my husband and I will stand on opposite sides of each other with our legs apart, making a goal area and have Three-feet-of-fun practice kicking at a target — the goal.

For baseball, we focus on Three-feet-of-fun’s stance and teaching him how to hit the ball. As long as the bat cracks against the ball, it counts, and we run around in a diamond pattern on made up bases. If he misses the ball (we don’t play with a T) we holler out, “Strike!” but he gets as many swings as he wants. There will be time enough to teach him that you only get three strikes and that you can be called, “Out!”

We use the bouncy ball to play catch instead of the baseballs/wiffle balls. Bouncy balls are a lot softer if you don’t catch them and get hit with them instead. So, we play catch, and then we throw the ball as far as we can and race to go get it. Strangely enough, our son wins a lot, but we don’t let him win all the time because we also want to impart good sportsmanship.