TikTok is the ideal platform for a lot of things. Still, between learning a popular kitchen hack or trying out a super cool trending dance move, you’ll also find a lot of fitness inspiration. If you’re on TikTok, you might have seen that hula-hoops are back with a bang.
The Weighted Hula Hoop trend is one of the most recent TikTok stars that has stolen the show. The hashtag #weightedhulahoop alone has racked up more than 155 million views.
Sure, hula-hoops seem like a lot of fun. Still, can twirling a weighted hula hoop around that waist be actually considered a workout, and does it help lose belly fat?
Several users claim that weighted hula-hoops help burn calories, trim body fat, and strengthen your core muscles. In this article, we’ll look at what different studies have to say regarding weighted hula-hoops and if hula-hooping is actually as beneficial as it is deemed to be.
Does An Infinity Weighted Hula-Hoop Really Help Lose Belly Fat?
Infinity weighted hula-hoops are the new trend, and they have become incredibly viral across various social media platforms. This fun-filled equipment, which basically looks like an exercise hoop ring, has taken the internet by storm, and its reviews are insane.
Women are incredibly content with using this weighted hula hoop and enjoying losing weight, which sounds unimaginable. However, several people are confused about how much truth lies in the statement, “Does it really work to lose belly fat?”
Hula hooping is a kind of cardio/aerobic exercise that really pumps up your heart. Research points out that habitual hula hooping can be incredibly favorable for your health. According to a 2019 study, a comparison of 6 weeks of walking vs. 6 weeks of using a weighted hula hoop on overweight individuals revealed the following results: The participants who used weighted hula hoops increased their abdominal muscles and lost more belly fat than the participants who just walked. The researchers found out that hula hooping had significantly reduced overweight individuals’ LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol).
Regarding the effectiveness of a weighted hula hoop, it was discovered in a 2015 study that it can help you lose a few inches around your waist and hip circumference. Another 2019 study observed that the participants of the research who used weighted hula-hoops had burned a significant percentage of abdominal weight and lost a few inches of fat around their waist.
What Are The Benefits Of A Weighted Hula-Hoop?
Even though we came across limited research findings that were explicitly focused on weighted hula-hoops, there is evidence to support that it can provide you numerous benefits.
1. Improves your aerobic health
According to the Department of Human and Health Services, it is advised to get at least 75 minutes of robust aerobic exercise or 150 minutes of moderate strength aerobic exercise on a weekly basis.
Hula hooping is an energizing and fun way to include aerobic exercises into your daily routine. It also can offer several benefits to belly or salsa dancing. It can lead to improved blood flow, stronger lungs and heart, reduced stress levels, a more robust immune system, enhanced brain function, and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
2. Enables weight loss
Weighted Hula hooping will undoubtedly help you lose weight and even some belly fat if you pair it with a healthy living and eating strategy that works best for you. Moreover, weighted hula-hoop exercising can be even more effective if accompanied by regular strength training.
You can quickly lose around one pound every week if you can manage a calorie deficit of around 500 calories daily via exercise and diet. Moreover, the calories you burn while doing hula-hooping can add to the calorie deficit.
3. Burns calories
As per the Mayo Clinic, men can burn over 200 calories during half an hour of hula hooping while women can burn 165 calories. This is equivalent to several other activities such as walking 4.5 miles/hour, ballroom dancing, or mowing the lawn with a lawn mower.
The American Council on Exercise (ACE) piloted a 2011 study that included 16 participants. It was discovered that doing a half-hour hula-hoop workout session can burn up to 210 calories, which is almost equivalent to a boot camp workout, step aerobics, or cardio kickboxing in terms of calorie burn and heart rate.
4. Shrinks fat around your waist and hips.
A study conducted in 2015 assessed the potential benefits of a weighted hula hooping program for women, which had a duration of 6 weeks.
By the end of this period, researchers discovered that all 13 participants of the study had lost inches around the hips and waist area. In general, participants lost an average of 1.4 cm from their hips and 3.4 cm from their waistline.
5. Reduces abdominal fat
In the 2019 study mentioned above, the potential advantages of a walking program were compared with a weighted hula hoop program for 53 overweight persons. The results showed that the 53 participants either walked 9,986 steps every day or performed hula hooping for 12.8 minutes daily.
The researchers discovered that the participants in the weighted hula hooping burned a considerable amount of abdominal fat, and their waistline shrank by a few inches compared to the walking group.
6. Decreases “bad” cholesterol
A high level of LDL cholesterol, or “bad” cholesterol, elevates the risk of developing heart problems. Aerobic exercises like weighted hula hooping have the potential to balance your cholesterol level, which ultimately minimizes the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Again, in the 2019 study, researchers discovered that the hula hooping group experienced a drastic decline in their LDL cholesterol levels by the end of the 6-week weighted hula hooping program vs. the 6-week walking program.
7. Increases core muscle mass
For weighted hula hooping, you must activate your core muscles to keep the hula ring around your hips. Since your core muscles are required to work for this activity, it can help toughen the muscles around your midsection area.
In the same study mentioned above, the examiners also found a considerable increase in the muscle mass in the hula hooping group’s trunk.
8. Improves balance
Balance training is a key factor that tends to be overlooked. Balancing the weighted hula-hoop around your waist and continuously circling your torso to and fro helps engage your core and develop greater strength in the core muscles.
Moreover, the hula-hoop is best known for improving your balance. Still, it is crucial to maintain stability and prevent unexpected falls or injuries while doing the hula hooping.
9. Uplifts your motivation to exercise again.
A pilot study was conducted in 2016 to observe the intentions of women, between the ages of 18-45, for future exercise after walking or hula hooping for half an hour. By the end of the research, it was discovered that women in the hula-hooping group claimed to have a stronger intention to exercise in the future.
10. Tones your “love handles” and abs.
Besides offering you a fun and exciting new variation of cardio, weighted hula hooping is known for toning your postural and core muscles (i.e., the muscles that help you maintain an upright posture). These include your pelvic muscles, abs, and obliques.
Things to Know Before Buying an Infinity Weighted Hula-Hoop
Before you buy an Infinity weighted hula-hoop, there are some things you must know.
Workout space
While an Infinity weighted hula hoop can be fun and exciting, it certainly doesn’t mean that it cannot be dangerous. A weighted hula-hoop tends to come with a weighted ball that will swing around as you twirl around the hula-hoop.
When the ball moves around the hoop, it can catch up with speed and start swinging too fast. If the ball hits a child or a pet nearby, the consequences can be quite destructive.
Hence, the workout space is one of the most important factors to take into consideration before getting an Infinity weighted hula-hoop to ensure you do not hit any objects or people in the vicinity.
Size of the Hoop
Most weighted hula-hoop models come with adjustable links. The links possibly being two inches wide and there will be at least 20 links within the hoop. If you have to increase the size, you must ensure the hoop has an adequate number of links to adjust the size till you can work your way down.
If you have a tiny waist, you should preferably begin with a low number of links in the hoop and adjust it accordingly.
Things to Look For In A Quality Infinity Weighted Hula Hoop
If you are finally considering buying an Infinity weighted hula-hoop, you must look for the following things to ensure you get the right hula hoop for yourself.
Gravity ball
The gravity ball is the weighted ball that hangs from the hula-hoop and swings around when you are hula-hooping. A few models come with a fixed weight. In contrast, others use a weighted ball that can be adjusted in weight to vary the activity’s difficulty levels.
Some models even allow you to alter the distance between and ball and yourself by accommodating the cord’s length to which the ball is attached. Changing this length can also add a more diverse dynamic to your workouts and add to the difficulty level of each exercise.
Silent use
The hoop’s rattling and the ball’s rotation must practically be silent when it is being used. Several brands use quiet-use notifications to label their hoops. However, a good hoop brand will always have an easy sliding rotation system for the gravity ball. This way, the ball will circle around your body seamlessly without getting stuck.
Massage parts
Infinity weighted hula hoops use massage points on each link to provide comfort as you revolve it around your body.
Wrapping Up: What Not To Expect From a Weighted Hula-Hoop
Even though hula-hooping is deemed one of the most effective and fun aerobic exercises, you should not expect to get a snatched look and a more defined waist, as others claim.
It is also quite unlikely to help you gain significant strength because a weighted hula hoop surely doesn’t replace the need for conventional strength training machinery.
While it is surely fun equipment to add to your routine, make things challenging, and observe a slight change, you shouldn’t consider it a fitness game-changer.