When Julia McPherson decided she wanted to lose weight, she joined a gym, started eating healthier and revisited one of her favorite childhood activities: Hula-Hooping. Now she Hula-Hoops nearly every day, teaches a hooping class at MoveStudio in Dallas and makes her own hoops.

Ms. McPherson, 36, is one of several women in North Texas who have found that Hula-Hooping is a fun, low-impact alternative to crunches and traditional forms of cardio exercise. "I really think of it as a kinetic meditation," says Ms. McPherson, who lives in Fairview. "Once you get into a rhythm, it feels very natural and it releases stress."

An average 150-pound person can burn up to 350 calories when combining aerobic dance moves with Hula-Hooping, says April Swales, a personal trainer at Cooper Aerobics Center. To help her students get a better cardio workout, Ms. McPherson teaches them various dance moves that include twirling weighted hoops above their heads. At her classes she sells 2-pound adult hoops, as well as collapsible hoops and children's hoops, which she makes out of irrigation tubing.

GUY REYNOLDS/DMN

Julia McPherson likes to think of her hula-Hoop habit as “kinetic meditation"..."Once you get into a rhythm, it feels very natural and it releases stress.”

Jen Rose of Dallas enjoyed taking Ms. McPherson's class so much that she started her own weekly Hula-Hoop group. At one of Ms. Rose's recent get-togethers, Ms. McPherson encouraged hoopers to keep their shoulders still, shift their weight from one foot to another in a rocking motion, and not worry about the hoop falling.

"If the hoop isn't falling at some point, then you're not challenging yourself enough," says Ms. McPherson, who lost 65 pounds after her first year of hooping. "Gravity happens. You just have to have a good sense of humor about yourself." Interested in Hula-Hooping?

Hoop Group:

7 to 8 p.m. Mondays, Artist's Quarter in South Side on Lamar, 1409 S. Lamar St. Free. Contact Jen Rose at jen@leadshoes.net.

Beginning Adult Hoop Dance: