Wednesday Night Hoopy Hour begins this week in Wixom

Just a quick announcement to share that my new hoop class is starting on Wednesday, January 9. Class is from 6:10-7:10pm. No experience is necessary, but if you have Hoopnotica level 1 experience, come hone your skills or accept challenges I throw your way. Goal is to gain the skills needed to dance with the hoop. Along the way, we have fun and get fit! Check out Hoopnotica.com or my previous blog posts to learn how hooping has helped people to lose weight. It's true.

Registration is through City of Wixom parks and recreation. Contact them today to register. Don't wait! Recreation guide is available by clicking here.

A Growing Trend in Exercise -- Hooping

Every day people do it. The First Lady does it. Overweight people do it and shrink themselves, changing their lives for the better. Adults do it. People who couldn't do it as kids.... they do it.

What is it? It's hooping. As exercise. As fun. As play. As something to do while watching TV, sending email, thinking, or getting lost in the moment. And it's spreading. You're going to be surprised. Everyone can learn to hoop, when given a size that fits and instruction that works. Try it and be the first to tell your friends.

Proof of its rise and accessibility is everywhere. See a recent New York Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/fashion/hula-hooping-is-a-trend-thats-getting-around.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

It's fun, it's aerobic

Veteran hula-hoopers have long stood by its aerobic virtues. “A lot of people are interested in hooping for its health benefits, which might get them hooked, but it’s also such a fun way to do cardio,” said Bex Burton, a hula hoop instructor who founded Sense of Motion, a Brooklyn-based company that teaches hula-hooping, Pilates and yoga.

 It's not about being perfect

“One of my constant quotes in class is if you’re giggling, you’re doing it correctly,” Mr. Pildes said. “It’s not about how graceful you are, or what trick you can do. It’s about finding the joy in your workout.”

What do you have to lose? Don't wait. Classes are here. I teach in the Farmington area at Dancing Feats. New single-day workshops in December on Wednesday nights, 7:30pm. Details coming soon. In the meantime, you can create a class of your own at the above link. I can also come to your home, or workplace. Message me for specifics on your class.  

Easy lifestyle change -- join a hoop group

Good news for people who wanted an evening class time! I am offering a 7:30pm hoop group on Wednesday nights, beginning in September. Tuesday nights at 7pm are an option - contact me. Space will be limited, so register early.

It will be a series that runs 6 weeks at a time, and continues through the end of January, so if a make-up session is needed, I will allow that. Cost per series is $51. The first series will begin September 19 and run through mid October. Small class size will ensure you get all the help and motivation you need.

Come in to the studio, where you can learn and practice hooping without concerns over moving furniture, weather, obligations, etc. It's just your time to play!

I have been to Allegan and Algonac, two Michigan cities where there is a strong hooping community. Come build with me a community in the Farmington area! Many people have found that hooping not only changes their bodies, but their lives as well. Some have been trained to teach hooping, others have found confidence in themselves and everyone has made friends and expanded their social circles. There are meetups around the state and country where fellow hoopers gather to play in a park, dance in a parade, or camp and hoop for the weekend... families included. The fun and fitness reach beyond the studio. I teach hooping because it fits the message I promote, which is to make activity a part of your life. The lifestyle must change in order to encourage permanent health and weight change. With hooping, the transition to that is very enjoyable. You make time for it because it's so much fun... you want it to be part of your life.

Any questions before you register? Contact me here.

day and time

Wednesdays 7:30pm 9/19-10/24

Stay young with fitness

So many of the people I encounter wistfully recall their youthful days. They also say they could hoop with four hoops, put it around their neck, on the legs, etc. And then they say "Oh but I couldn't do that today."

They're putting an end to it without even giving themselves a chance.  We don't grow old because we grow up, we grow old because we stop playing.

Hoopdance classes are a fraction of the cost of a 1 oz jar of La Mer. The cream might help facial wrinkles, but hoopdance improves your body and makes you feel good inside. No cream can make you feel that way!

So I have a proposal for would-be hoopers. Take a look at this video of a Hoopnotica Master Trainer in London and see if you don't feel a little bouncier and willing to give it a try yourself. You can be the one to tell your friends how great it is!

For my hoopers who have learned the level 1 Hoopnotica moves, I give you this video from Hoopnotica, involving a new move building on the moves you already know. Play with it!

Personal Hoop Classes now available - It's all about you

I am pleased to draw upon my experience as a personal trainer and offer the hoop instruction in a personalized format. In so many aspects of our lives, we are asked to conform to a schedule or format that's already set for us and it's not always the best fit. Sometimes, it doesn't fit at all.

I want to say, it doesn't have to be that way.

For some people, trying something new may be embarrassing. Feeling silly among friends is one thing, but strangers? Not everyone makes fast friends. I walked out of a step class early in my workout days, because I couldn't follow the directional changes on and off the step. No one came to my aid and the instructor was oblivious in the large class. Among all of those strangers, I couldn't have felt more alone.

It doesn't have to be that way.

I'm offering small hoop groups that you create, with your own friends and family... or coworkers you're close to. Fun and silliness among familiar faces. I don't let students suffer in silence. If there is a struggle, I'm right there to help and offer a solution. No one is going to leave class without achieving some success among the skills. If you don't have a circle of friends or need more privacy, private and semi-private hoop lessons are available. In either case, we work together to choose a day of the week, the time, and even location. Travel charges may apply, but I will visit outside my general area, too. Choose the length of your series, and class format, and you've built yourself a custom class.

The benefit to being a group leader is discounted class tuition, or your very own private lesson where the whole hour is all about you. How often can we claim an hour for ourselves???

By doing so, you've taken a step for yourself toward fun, fitness and health. How's that for charting your own destiny?

Visit my hoop class page here.

Lighting the way

LED hooping lights up your workout in a way machines can't.

The news on hooping continues to be very positive in terms of weight loss results and exercise compliance. It's pretty simple. If it's fun and you enjoy it, you'll do it. The more you do it, the more active you are, the more weight you can lose. In its place, you gain a new perspective on yourself.

If you want to try it, or if you're thinking about starting an exercise program, today is always the best choice. By putting it off, something likely gets in the way. There's a simple message in the iconic sportswear slogan: Just do it. They're so right.

Be part of your hooping community. Participate in classes at your studios and community centers and join "jams" in local parks. Hooping is very much a growing, grass roots-type movement. Nurture it, help it to grow and it will pay you back in mind, body and spirit. Light the way for others to join you!

A fellow instructor and I will be lighting the stage on May 19 (2pm Mercy High School, Farmington Hills) with our hoopdance number in Positive Attitude Dance Academy's spring recital. Come out and see our illuminated hoops in motion... fueled by our abdominals, quads, lats, deltoids, etc.

I will be teaching a sampler class on Friday May 11 from 7:30-9pm. There will be a 30 minute session on waist hooping basics which will give participants time to practice the movement before we incorporate it into a "Fit" segment for 30 minutes. HoopnoticaFit uses traditional cardio class cuing and bodyweight movements in tandem with the hoop to create a fun workout that's customizable for many fitness levels. The final 30 minutes will be spent introducing students to the first moves of hoopdance, known as HoopnoticaFlow. The elements are skills to practice and master, and then put together in one movement to the next, creating a flow and dance... and ultimately reshaping your body while the minutes and hours tick away, unnoticed. This is why so many people get hooked on hooping and become obsessed "hoopers". It's a good obsession.

I am teaching the class for CC Plus dance, fun and fitness based in Mt. Clemens. The class will be at their new studio, CC Plus @ The Center. For more information go to http://www.ccplusdance.com/index.html.

Meanwhile, follow this blog for updates and additions to Moxie's hooping class schedule and if you want to get started right away, private lessons are available.

Does your workout ever make you laugh?

Hoopnotica's newest workout, created in response to demands of its fans, is called HoopnoticaFit. I am offering it in locations around Farmington, Farmington Hills, Novi and surrounding communities. It is everything a workout should be: fun, effective, customizable. The workout uses the body for resistance - you choose your degree of lunges and squats. You can choose to waist hoop while doing the lower body exercises, or follow along and use the hoop as a ballet barre in front of you. Each class begins with waist hooping instruction and with our adult hoops and teaching points, everyone can learn to hoop. We also use the hoop as a resistance tool for upper body work! Just with gravity, resistance pressing in on the hoop and the size and weight of the hoop, we work our arms to a burn and beyond. This is your cardio workout, your resistance workout, your hour to play and laugh... all rolled into one.

Ready to play? Want to join me? Contact me here.

The decision that changed her life

Jen Moore -- Hoopnotica Master Trainer, Rochester, NY

One of my fellow Hoopnotica-certified instructors (now Master Trainer) is a great example of how hooping can help you to lose weight and reshape your body and in effect, reshape your life. She lost over 40 pounds in her first 3 months of learning to hoop with the Hoopnotica DVDs. During her weight loss she committed herself to the teacher training program so she could share hooping with others. Overall, she lost 140 pounds. Her husband lost over 100 pounds. Hooping! So true. They both teach, their young daughter hoops, and they have a successful business. They are setting a beautiful example for their children, especially when childhood obesity is such a concern. I am hoping the Moore family will begin to represent normal FIT America, rather than being an exception. I share the link to her story with you because it fits with the Moxie Personal Training message that anything is possible when you set your mind and body to do it! To believe in the power of that choice to change your life today. She shares a great story with us but the pictures alone say a lot. This is what hooping can do for you. Or anything that you do with great frequency. Hooping is effective because it's not your traditional grunt workout, so it's more enjoyable for more people, for longer periods of time, more frequently. That frequency is going to get you results. On top of frequency, you have the intensity which can be controlled with your hooping speed and types of moves, and duration.... round and round the hoop goes, nobody knows where the time goes....

While I don't have the weight loss story in common with Jen, I had my own epiphany with the hoop. My core business is personal training -- hard work like treadmills and weight lifting -- but I liked how group exercise instructors can motivate whole rooms of people to move. In a culture of quick food and conveniences, there are a lot of people who need encouragement to move. I was pondering how I could reach larger groups of people, when I fell into the hoop in April of 2010 after trying the Hoopnotica travel hoop at my local Lucy store. That May, after just 3 classes with my instructor Shavonne, I attended a teacher training among people who looked like veterans in the hoop, doing things my instructor could do. I was asked to practice teach a move in front of the group and despite my newness, I got up and did it. I passed the exam and throughout the summer and fall I practiced and improved my hooping skills, continuing to go to weekly hooping class, which was so fun! In December 2010, I received my teacher certificate for Level 1 and began teaching in 2011! I couldn't hoop as a kid. I'm not a comfortable dancer outside of the hoop. But with it, I am transformed. I can hoop, you can hoop. Just as Jen Moore built up her community of hoopers in her area of New York and is changing lives and having fun, it is my goal to have a similar effect here in Metro Detroit. Hooping is accessible, it is fun, it is affordable, it is here, and I am so excited to share it with my community.

Read about Jen here:
The decision that changed her life part 1

The decision that changed her life part 2