Absolutely, Ginger ... learning to hand hoop can be brutal.

By all means, you should take your dose of Arnica Montana -- it works wonders.

The good thing about bruising is that it's the most convincing motivation for relaxing your hand movements. If it hurts, after all, you stop fighting it. It helps to remember that the hoop needs very little help from you to keep going 'round ... you're just giving it something to turn on!

Extend your arm in front of you to vertical hand hoop and imagine that you're shaking softly someone's hand. It's a good exercise to get the feel of how little force you actually need to exert.

We're on class 3 in the hoop dance series if you'd like to join in: superhooper.org/events.html

Happy Hooping!