The New Old Fitness Craze Is Hula-Hooping

Every Monday, I rush to Crunch gym in order to sign up for one of the coveted 24 spots in my favorite gym class ever, Urban Rebounding. It’s like a race to make sure I’m there on time to score a position in class. For an hour, I bounce up and down on a mini trampoline, mixing dance moves and choreography into an aerobic workout. It’s not as easy as it sounds, and, in fact, you’ll find this is a full cardio workout. Once you’ve experienced Urban Rebounding you’ll understand. But that’s not the only child-like pastime making exercise waves these days: Hula-hooping is quickly catching up. Marisa Tomei found the new routine while searching for a workout in order to get in shape for “The Wrestler,” and fell in love. After toning her middle, Marisa teamed up with Gaiam to produce a workout video based solely on hula-hooping, and the art of keeping that circular device up in the air. Cue the newest workout fad. Before you become a skeptic, try it — it’s not as easy as it was when we were 5 years old! Now, how long until I’m rushing to Crunch for this class? [New York Times]