I am new to hooping and I just LOVE it (like I knew I would) but I do have one painful problem! I know from hooping.org that getting sore is to be expected. How sore is normal soreness should you wait until you are not sore to hoop again and is my just below shoulder heght 160 psi hoop too heavy (maybe that is why I am soooo sore) or am I just over hooping (if there is such a thng..haha). I just really want to hoop, ALOT however, I do not want to cause damage to myself making have to wait a long time to hoop again. Any info would be great......Thanks, Carla
Hi Carla,
the initial soreness/ bruising is pretty normal. Especially when learning something new, your body needs to get accustom to the sensation and weight of the hoop rolling over and over again on the part of the body. I remember getting especially sore when learning to hoop around the knees.
Arnica is good stuff to put on the sore muscles and bruises...
I just kept hooping, despite the soreness and soon I got past that and the body became used to that sensation. Its sort of like learning a new instrument like playing guitar for instance, initially your fingers are sore sore sore but then you work past that....
as the saying goes "no pain, no gain" its sorta true....
you may want to try using a slightly lighter/smaller hoop too.
when you begin you tend to hoop around the same spot on your body over and over and then a bruise develops.
as you get more comfortable you can work the hoop up and down, even if only to a small degree, so the hoop will make contact with your butt, your hip, your midriff, your torso, etc....
then you're "spreading the wealth" so to speak...and no more bruises.
Lighter/smaller will help.. I know that my shoulder-high and multi-ducted hoop is one of the least comfy I have.. but if you have no other hoops to work with in the meantime, try taking a break from actual HOOPING, and work on some of the hand-hooping, or passing from hand-to-hand around the body, tricks instead.
I had to take a week off from knee hooping, and when I went back to it I used my lightest hoops to get started again... same thing with vertical hand-hooping, had REALLY sore spots on the back of my hand between my thumb and fingers from the constant pressure.. BUT, you will get used to it, I promise!
X.
I alternate between a heavier hoop (for slower movements and learning new moves) then to a lighter hoop (for faster movements and less bruising).
Another suggestion is to alternate body areas. If my upper body is bruised, I practice on the lower body, and vice versa. Or alternate body-hooping with hand-hooping...move the hoop like poi.
You might also want to hoop in both directions around your body. Everyone picks a primary direction, but I was told to spend some time going the other direction to avoid asymmetrical muscular development. I don't know if there's truth to it, but it sounded good to me.
~Ken~
Hi everybody,
Thanks for all the info...it is greatly appreciated. I think I may also have to get a lighter hoop to practice with so that I can alternate the hoops and change it up a bit....I really like the heavier for the slow movements but having another one to mix it upcan't hurt.I tried to hoop a bit today but it was too painful...I am going to get arnica and just keep on trying to hoop as much as I can handle the pain. I think that the soreness will subside in a day or two. Thanks again.....Carla
The concern about asymmetrical development is pretty common among high-level athletes and dancers - in some cases, it is about doing things only right handed (think shot-putters, bball players shooting/blocking with one hand higher), in other cases it is about doing things all towards the front of the body (swimmers who do front crawl/butterfly but not backstroke) or back (er.. can't think of an example off the top of my head...)
If they are in a sport where it doesn't make sense to train the opposite side up to the same level, they will at least do a number of specific exercises designed to address the imbalance, and keep the other muscles/ligaments able to counteract the power of the most-used ones.
I work on bi-lateral skills for just about everything I do.. haven't done so much for writing lefthanded, but playing pool, passing in waterpolo, spinning sticks, and now hooping.. are all somewhere between passable-to-identical for both sides. My back and hips don't hurt nearly as much, at least in a lop-sided way, since i started hooping the opposite direction.. had pulled something in my left hip, and my massage therapist ordered me to lay-off the counter-spin hooping and build up the clockwise-spin hooping until I got them balanced again!
A healthy body = being able to hoop for more years!
<grin>
X.
