How to make Hula Hoop Heavier?

Hula hoop activities involving aerobics, dance, and exercise are not new, but definitely not a bore!

These rings make any workout session more fun and challenging, involving repetitive movements for core building, cardio, and burning calories faster.

Initially, you may feel sore from using the hula hoop for two days, but that is given; you can take it as an indicator of your hard work is paying off.

But if you have a history of back pain, or the pain persists, consult your health care provider first.

To up the aerobics, the hula hoop game goes through some modification; let’s talk about them and their benefits in this article.

What is a Weighted or Heavy Hula Hoop?

Weighted or heavy hula hoops are the new trend in making aerobics fun and inventive.

They are nothing merely but your traditional hula hoop, which is made more decadent with some techniques that can be done at home with some care and strategy.

Why has weighted hula hoop suddenly become a thing?

Well, many studies have shown spikes when working out with a hula hoop. It is not just fun, but the torso’s continuous swift movement in one direction helps build up heat in the torso, hip, thighs, core muscles.

Moreover, hand, eye, and body coordination make it very impactful and fruitful for whole-body health.

Burns Fats Fast:

Continuous movement has better effects on burning the body fat compared to salsa, dance aerobics, or belly dancing.

According to studies by Mayo Clinic, a session of thirty minutes a day burns around 165 calories in women and 200 in men.

Moreover, within four to six weeks, you will notice a reduction in inches of the stubborn fat that was too hard to lose. With what? A hoop of fun and some music isn’t losing weight, becoming fun and easy.

Cardiovascular Benefits:

The torso’s continuous movement, which equivalents an aerobic workout, increases the blood flow to all parts of the body. This blood flow’s impact may reduce cholesterol, heart risk, diabetes, and even reduce stress.

Family Activity:

Since it is a fun activity and easy to do, even a three-year-old can hoop for minutes on the go; it becomes a fun activity for the family to challenge each other. It definitely becomes an exciting routine for the family to do daily.

Economical and Portable:

It is cheaper than many sports equipment and available at almost every toy shop and sports equipment store.

Moreover, it has no weight, and it is effortless to take it along for work out in the park, gym, family picnics, and whatnot; the possibilities are limitless.

Step 1: Materials Selection for Tubing

Polyethylene Tubing:

This indeed is human-made plastic and is widely used in the packaging, production of containers and bottles. It is incredibly sturdy, lightweight, and doesn’t cause friction; hence makes the right choice of the hula hoop.

High-Density Polyethylene Tubing:

Again, this is a better version of polyethylene plastic since it is more rigid than polyethylene but lighter in weight. The material is less cloudy than PE, and if you want to use LED in the tubes, this indeed will be a better choice.

Polypropylene:

This is a material of gods because it is so fluid in the movement that it is not recommended for beginners. Due to its lightness in weight, it swirls like a breeze and becomes difficult for beginners to handle mostly.

Step 2: Decide on kind of Hoop

Are you planning to make a hoop with simple tubing after selecting which kind of tubing you prefer, either polypropylene or High-density Polyethylene tubing? Then it is very effortless and requires lesser material.

Or are you looking to make a heavier hoop that can be made with water-filled inside the hoop? Either way, there are some tools needed for each.

A dry hoop is easy to learn balancing, momentum, and fluid in movements compared to a water-filled hoop if you are a beginner.

Step 3: Let’s collect the tools needed

Before starting, first, collect these things, and keep these things handy and near you in a clean workspace.

Things you may need for a water-filled hoop:

You will need a hula hoop, saw/blunt knife, water, a pot of boiling water, duct tape, connector, two screw clamps, clamping tool, scissors, and some padding material.

Things you may need for tube hoop:

You will require a miter saw, marker, measuring tape, rivet, drill machine, riveters, electric, or gaffer tape.

Step 4: Let’s make your Weighted/Heavy Hula Hoop

Water Weighted Hula Hoop

Water is a beautiful substitute for weights and gives you the feeling of normalcy in pulling weights without intimidation. However, water weight is beneficial in weight training; similar techniques have been used to make hula hoops heavier.

These are some steps to carry forward carefully, and ideally, it is best done when you have some who can help.

• Take a hula hoop, it’s best not to take your best one because it will go through several changes, and we wouldn’t want that for you.
• Put water to boil in the pot. Don’t fill it up; a height of two inches after the boil will do the job.
• Cut your hula hoop carefully at a marked point; make sure you use a miter saw or sharp knife to cut it level. Remember to be careful with your hand.
• If you are a beginner in core weight training, it’s advisable to take water less than a liter; ideally five hundred milliliters is the best quantity to start with. Pour all the water in the hula hoop holes and hold both ends firmly.
• Now insert the clamps on both ends and pull them away from the edges giving you ample length at both ends.
• It’s time to use that water that you set aside to boil in the pot earlier; take one end and dip it in the boiling hot water for a few seconds.
• Take the dipped end out of the pot and gently insert the connector in the hoop.
• Now immerse the other end of the hoop in the pot to soften.
• After a few seconds, take it out and insert it in the connector; now that you have the hoop in old formation, hold it tight, and tighten the clamp bringing them close to the ends.
• For excellent support, the clamps should be an inch or two close to the cut. Ensure they are clasped tightly with the crimping tool. 
• Check the clamps if they are firmly placed by moving the hoop a little.

Now time for some padding!

Padding gives more weight to your hoop; also, it is slightly uneven when you have cut your hoop and inserted connectors. Consequently, that uneven end may hurt you in continuous hula hooping.

So it’s best to cover the hoop with padding or tape. For padding, you may require padding material and some tape. Let’s begin!

• Take your padding material, and wrap it around the hula hoop, ensuring it wraps around it properly.
• Some padded material comes already cut to wrap; else, you can cut the role in the middle to work around.
• Take padding material and wrap it around the hula hoop.
• If the excess is more than two inches, cut it else, leave it for the sake of assurance.
• Now, wrap it around the hoop all the way, reaching the point where you started covering it.
• This is time to cut off the excess and use the duct tape to connect all four padding material ends.
• After tapping the ends, tape the padding material that you cut in the middle to secure the padding around the hula hoop to give it a firm feel for your use.
• You can always tape it with accent tape to give it a beautiful personalized look.

Tubing Hula Hoop:

After selecting the type of hoop, you want to make, take a length that reaches slightly below your navel. The ideal size for a beginner is thirty-eight inches, thirty-six inches if you feel like an intermediate, and thirty-two for an expert.

Now multiply your length until navel with pi’s value; this will be the tubing diameter you will require for the ideal hula hoop with the right circumference.

For example, if the length you selected is 38 inches multiply it by the value of pi (38*3.14=119.32 inches)

Let’s convert this for better understanding in feet; 119.32 inches would be around 9.94 to be accurate. So you will be taking roughly about 10 feet of tubing as your working tube to make a hula hoop.

After cutting the desired length, put them together with insert material, drill the holes on both sides near the seam line.

Ideally, drilling holes will secure it in place; now, with the help of a riveter, place rivets in those holes making the insert securely in place.

Now it’s a fixed hoop, ready to be used; you may decorate it with any tape or padding as you desire.

Happy hooping!