Twirling into shape

Keeping hoops spinning is a change of pace and a real workout

By Andrea Barkan, Correspondent
Ventura County Star
April 14, 2006

Maybe it’s nostalgia. Maybe it’s the satisfying swish of a sparkly, day-glow hoop spinning around gyrating hips. Or maybe it’s that the exercise itself - toning obliques, glutes and hip flexors - doesn’t feel like a workout because it’s too much fun.

Whatever the allure, hooping is emerging as a national fitness trend, and one of its pioneers is passionately hooping it up in Ventura and Ojai.

During Diana Lopez’s Cardio Hoop Dance Class at The Oaks at Ojai, about a dozen middle-age women donned Lopez’s large, weighted hoops.

“The hoops are going to fall,” Lopez promised the guests.

And they did. Thump. Spin. Thump.

Some women picked it up quickly; others spent more time picking it up off the floor.

But they all smiled and laughed. And sweated.

“What a great workout!” said Tressa Brophy of Boise, Idaho. “You’re trying to concentrate so hard, you don’t realize you’re just cooking.”

The Oaks’ Wednesday morning hoop class is one of Lopez’s two regular classes; her other one starts at 6:30 p.m. Thursdays in Ventura’s Barranca Vista Center.

When Lopez demonstrates how to move while hooping - grapevine, pivot, swivel - the hoop remains totally in synch with her body. She’s simultaneously one with it and independent of it, Saturn centered in her ring’s orbit.

“You want to follow and lead the hoop at the exact same moment,” Lopez told her students. “It’ll come over time.”

The time came for Lopez four years ago, when surgery put a moratorium on her typical exercise routines, from weight lifting to yoga. She had to find something. She went to a hoop workshop.

“I immediately fell in love,” Lopez said.

She practiced daily and, within a couple of months hauled hoops into her sixth-grade classroom at Oak Grove School in Ojai.

“I immediately started to see results with my kids,” Lopez said. “They were becoming more confident in their bodies, more relaxed.” Not to mention more receptive to learning.

“They were amazing,” Lopez said. “They inspired me. They’re the ones who inspired me to take it to the next level.”

She knew that adults would benefit from the exercise, too. She created a program and began guest teaching at The Oaks.

Two years ago, after finding an investor to back her company, BodyHoops, she quit teaching to move full time into hoop fitness.

“I was so passionate about it,” she said. “I believed in it so much, people started to believe in (it), too.”

Her DVD, “Hoop Dance Fusion,” came out in September.

In January, Lopez spent eight days teaching guests and training fitness instructors at the top-tier Chiva Som Spa in southern Thailand.

She’s found spa clients - women from about 30 to 50 - most receptive.

Credit: Dana R. Bowler Ventura 3/09/06

Diana Lopez, of Ojai (center) teaches how to Hula Hoop during lessons Thursday night at the Barranca Vista Recreation Center in Ventura. Hula Hooping has become popular again and people are using it as a way to stay in shape. Lopez teaches Cardio Hoop Dance also at the Ojai Valley Spas.

Credit: Dana R. Bowler Ventura 3/09/06

Jennifer Nims of Ventura, learns how to hula hoop Thursday night at the Barranca Vista Recreation Center in Ventura. Hula Hooping has been creeping back into the American culture for the last decade. Instructor Diana Lopez has incorporated dance moves to make it more aerobic.

Credit: Dana R. Bowler Ventura 3/09/06

Diana Lopez, of Ojai, teaches a Hula Hooping class Thursday nights at the Barranca Vista Recreation Center. “Hula Hooping is an fantastic way to get a workout,” Lopez said. Lopez also teaches Cardio Hoop Dance at the Ojai Valley Spa. Classes are offered in a three week series at the Barrance Vista Recreation Center in Ventura.