The P Zone – Igniting Hoop Passion and Balance

When I began the HOOPLOVERS Hoop Fitness classes, about 2 years ago, I have to say I was a little reluctant. I held tight to the belief that Hoop Dance was simply that; dance. I grappled with how I was supposed to put the free flow and joyous celebratory openness that hooping had given me into a group fitness appropriate package. Nonetheless I was motivated, there was a demand for my classes and after all it was still hooping. I wrote programs, developed sequences and studied up on muscle groups and fitness safety. I was soon teaching 5 hoop fitness classes a week, on top of the hoop dance for beginners and hoop love classes and workshops.

Rocking the Tokyo podiums with my hoops

It took some getting used to, there were definite moments during many classes when I truly felt like I was outside my body as a spectator, watching myself I had to laugh; the structure, the intensity, the aerobic vibe was a path I never thought I would take. As time went on I began to enjoy the classes more and more. I looked at them as a personal workout, I altered my programs to offer an even balance of high intensity fitness and hoop dance combinations and my student numbers increased.

Intuitively I began to focus on learning more about the human body and it’s reaction to various fitness programs. I was intrigued. Still for so long I kept my hoop fitness and hoop dance in quite separate compartments. Little did I know that all this new found awareness and knowledge would start to filter into my free style hoop jam time and flow development. In addition, I could never have imagined that it would be my fitness research and study that would aid blinding breakthroughs in my dance form and hoop balance.

Through all of this understanding and information that was being presented to me I now had a greater appreciation of the physical benefits of hoop dance. I began to understand the mechanics of moves and tricks and the effects they had on the body and it’s systems. I had seen the transformation in my own body, mind and spirit and now I was truly becoming aware of it in my students. The results were my motivation.

I am a fan of the pop singer Pink. I adore her courageous spirit, performances and voice. There is also another thing I am pretty impressed by…her obliques.

Of course a low body fat percentage, intense cardio workouts and a naturally athletic body will aid in these abdominal results, but I started to delve into how hooping activates these muscle zones.

In a recent conversation with a friend about Pink’s lower abdominal definition, they were referred to as P Lines a reference to a male appendage and their masculine appearance. I was motivated to research further the development of “P Lines”.

I then noticed similar abdominal definition on hoop dancer extraordinaire Brecken Rivara.

I began to study her moments via videos and noticed a new source of strength and balance, a power house of energy that was required. Playing with Brecken’s side to side motions and full circle isolations I noticed that my once solar-plexus-intensive core contractions and responses were over shadowed by the contractions I had to make in my obliques and pelvic zone. These moves required a stabilization to take place somewhere in a source of balance ignited in the sacral or pelvic area.

Going back to the previous conversation about the P Lines and now focused on creating stability in the pelvic area, while allowing freedom and flexibility in the torso, upper body and arms, I started to think about the energy source as the P Zone or Pelvic Zone. In terms of the Chakra system, the sacral or 2nd chakra was being ignited and in turn offering balance. Often referred to as the chakra of passion and pleasure, again the P connection existed.

Realizing that the pelvic region holds the largest percentage of the body’s load; I began to feel and understand that the correlation of mobility and stability in this zone was not only important to grasp but essential to master.

This was cause for celebration, a plateau in my personal practice was lifted when I began to think of my core as having a much great expanse and the root of balance and power being much deeper than I had been working with.

These personal findings have naturally come through in my Hoop Fitness classes. My classes now extend focus to pelvic area work, keeping it flexible, powered up and strong as we work through our moves. Taking waistline design much deeper than ever before.