TRAVERSE CITY -- "Release your inner child and give it permission to come out and play."
It's OK.
After all, it's for a very good cause -- your health.
Karen Bell has built a fitness routine and a business based on her motto. She's created Hoopercise, a workout using hula hoops she, her husband, Rod, and partner Renee Stevens create and sell.
In about a year and a half, Bell has sold some 1,300 hoops, has licensees and she and her team of instructors have been teaching Hoopercise at Northwestern Michigan College, Beledi Global Dance Center and Bible Baptist Church in Traverse City. Bell's "Hoopin' for the Health of It" provides consultations and demonstrations to hoopers and wannabe hoopers, offers entertainment for special events and trains instructors.
This past Saturday, Bell held the grand opening for her studio, What's Hoopinin', in the Hillside Plaza shopping center at 1331 S. Airport Rd. in Traverse City.
Hoopercise is "a low- to no-impact" workout designed for anyone regardless of age or fitness level, Bell said. Participants, who have ranged from kids to senior citizens, can work out at their own pace or at no pace, she said. They're only required to have fun.
"We tell them to do what they can," said instructor Susan Depky of Traverse City. "There's no right way or wrong way."
At the grand opening, Stevens showed Traverse City resident Kim Tumey and her daughter, Ashleigh Tumey, 16, how to keep the hoops on their hips before showing them some moves, such as angling their waists and keeping the hoops up while walking in a small circle. Smiles and giggles abound.
Both mother and daughter say they're looking for a new way to exercise.
"It was fun," said Kim Tumey of Hoopercise. "I didn't think I was able to do it."
But as Bell and Depky say, give them three minutes, and they'll get you hooping.
For Bell, 47, Hoopercise's benefits go beyond weight loss. She says her back is stronger. She used to visit her chiropractor three times a week; she now visits once every three months.
Bell says her muscles are firmer, and, thanks to Hoopercise, she had six-pack abs for the first time at age 46.
"(Hoopercise is) literally chiseling out my body," she said.
For Depky, Hoopercise helped her achieve her goal of becoming a fitness instructor. Until undergoing bariatric surgery more than two years ago, Depky was overweight. She'd attend fitness classes but never felt confident enough to lead them.
That changed after attending a couple of demonstrations last winter and this past summer.
"I just fell in love with it," Depky said.
Depky says taking classes had "quick, amazing results."
"The routine works all areas," she said. "It adds a cardio aspect."
Its effects go beyond physical. Bell is hopeful Hoopercise helps girls and women feel more confident.
"People don't feel self-conscious in class," Depky added.
Then there's that part about letting your inner child out to play. There are always a lot of laughs during class, the Hoopercise ladies say. Hoopers aren't just working out; they're playing with a version of a favorite childhood toy.
"That's what we did when we were kids," Depky said. "We went outside to play. You didn't call it working out."
Bell says she doesn't like to exercise and was looking to slim down to fit into a dress for her daughter's wedding when she began Hoopin' for the Health of It in spring 2007. She exercised with weighted workout hoops she purchased locally and online, but found them painful to use.
Then Bell and her husband created a padded hoop called Hoopini. The pounds came off, and she was able to fit into the dress. She told her friends about her hoops when they noticed her weight loss.
"My friends started wanting to use them and wanted me to make hoops for them," Bell said.
Bell and Stevens, with the help of a couple hoop workout videos, created an hourlong Hoopercise program. They held their first class in June 2007.
Hoops are available in sizes from extra small to extra-extra tall, based on a hooper's height, girth, ability and preference, Bell said. Hoopers are encouraged to use the tallest hoops they can manage to maximize their experience, she added. While Bell and Stevens primarily design the hoops and Rod Bell take care of the framing, customers can design their hoops. Depending on size and color choices, Hoopini costs range from $28 to $45.
Demo hoops are available at classes, but Bell recommends hoopers purchase a hoop for use at home.
Hoopercise has even yielded its own jargon.
There's the "hooper blooper," when the hooper drops her hoop; "boinky points," the four points on the waist the hoop must hit in order for it to stay up; "ambihoopious," using the hoop in both directions; and "hoopforia," the feeling hoopers get during a workout.
Despite a shaky economy, Bell says she wasn't afraid to open a studio in a matter of weeks after learning of the vacant storefront. People are always seeking ways to improve their health, she said.
"We really feel this has been a God-driven thing," she said. "We're riding this wave as long as we can."
Bell would like to create a Hoopercise workout video with money generated from Hoopini sales, as well as hold birthday parties at What's Hoopinin'.
But her long-term goal is to make Hoopercise a sanctioned event at the Special Olympics, which she describes as "my real love."
Bell will be discussing the health benefits of Hoopercise at a couple events this month. She'll be discussing innovative fitness today at a Michigan Association of Senior Centers conference at Crystal Mountain and holding demonstrations at an NMC employee health and wellness fair later this month. And, she'll be in Grand Rapids Nov. 11 to work with special-needs children.
Classes at What's Hoopinin' are forming now. For more information about the studio, Hoopin' for the Health of It or Hoopini, visit www.hoopinforthehealthofit.com or e-mail info@hoopinforthehealthofit.com or call Bell at (231) 943-8059.
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