Hula Hoop Yoga

Here's a new game.

Type in any hobby, more or less *any* hobby, and the word yoga into Google search. See what comes up? Surprised to discover that someone has "invented" new kind of yoga to go with their very favorite other hobby?

Take, for example, this article in the Metro Santa Cruz Weekly, entitled "Hula Hoop Yoga and You." The hula hooping yogini is an "official" hula hoop yoga instructor. The author writes,

"I immediately learned that this eccentric activity mostly focuses on using the hoop for balance and to intensify stretching by holding it at certain angles around the body. The session began with a few basic stretches with the hoop as support. "Now take a deep breath from your nose and exhale with a loud sigh," Christopher whispered soothingly. "Ahhhhhhhhhhh," we all sighed." 

 There's a few studio websites offering hula hoop yoga (mostly in California where, it seems, they drink an entirely different type of Kool-Aid). Now, a good question might be, why are you the shmo looking into Google for hula hoops and yoga? The answer is that visiting Kripalu recently, I saw yogis on the lawns hooping it up, and had a suspicion that a new craze might be somewhere around a very long corner. 

Now, readers might know that I am a bit supporter of seeing yoga in everything. Even hula hooping. I just get a little twitchy when people start to brand it. 

Hula Hoop Yoga

So go to your closets. Get out your old, dusty hoops. See how you can do traditional (and untraditional) poses with your hoop. Just don't go calling yourself "official."

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