Hula Hoop: An Emerging Fitness Trend?

Yoga is so yesterday.

At least, that's the impression one might get when seeing hula hoop fitness instructor Stevie Cohen languidly spin the cylinder around her body.

Cohen teaches the hula hoop fitness classes on Wednesdays and Fridays at Wellness on the Green, 26 West Park Place. The class, begun in April, comes from an emerging passion Cohen said she developed in the hoop about a year ago, inspired by her boyfriend, a hula hoop instructor in New York.

"I am super passionate about it," she said, noting she hoops for about two hours a day.

While many might associate hula hoops with childhood, Cohen said that childhood connection is not only part of the fun gained by hooping for fitness, it is "really good exercise.

"It works your core, your arms, your legs," said the senior psychology major at Farleigh Dickinson University, who currently lives in Morristown. "It is a total body workout."

Besides the physical aspect, Cohen said there are mental health benefits to hula hooping, as well. "It's almost meditative," she said as she spun around and around, moved her arms inside and outside of the hoop, smiling the whole time. She called it "the new yoga" adding, "You don't even know you're working out."

Cohen caters to all different levels of fitness, she said, as she knows it can appear a daunting challenge to someone that either has not hooped since childhood, or has never hooped at all. 

Katsumi Kalan, a friend of Cohen's and fellow hooper, relates one of Cohen's signatures to her classes, where she encourages students to drop their hoops, to make mistakes, to break that fear of making the mistakes. "'I love that sound,'" Kalan shouts, impersonating Cohen. "Everyone drops a hoop. You have to come in with an open mind, let loose and have fun."

Besides her twice-weekly classes at Wellness on the Green, Cohen has put together a few "Hoop Jams", event on the Green where anyone can come out to enjoy "a lot of good pumping music, get tips and tricks and just have a good time," she said.

Despite her boyfriend having been an inspiration for Cohen getting serious about hula hoop, she said she has not had a single male student participate in her class. She said she would like that to change. She said there is a hooping stygma, "that it's a girls sport," she said. "But, male hooping would be amazing."

For everyone, man, woman, young or old, Cohen said hula hooping as a sport "is about being a kid again."

For more information about Stevie Cohen's hula hoop classes and other available classes, visit wellnessonthegreen.com. Private lessons also are available.