Simple toy or impossible torture tool? Try-it Girl, Sarah Zak, gets the new spin on hula hooping.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Flash back with me to the days of pigtails and velcro tennis shoes. I'm pretty sure that's the last time I picked up a hula hoop, and it didn't go well.  So I ask you, if I couldn't handle those elementary school hoop-offs, what made me think I'd be any better at the highly evolved hula hoop dance art.

Here in the Bay Area, there's a group known as the Hoola Monsters ,helping even the most grace-challenged folks like me find the fluidity and (dare I say) beauty in hula hooping.

I walked into the Hoola Monsters class on a Saturday afternoon and straight into my first big tip. Instructor and hula hoop enthusiast Abby Albaum was ready to help me pick out a hoop.

You might think a small hoop would be easier to control and thus stay up better. Not so. The smaller the hoop, the faster it moves, often right to the floor. What you should really look for is a hoop that reaches from the ground to just about your waist .

Secret number two - don't try to swing your hips in a circle. If the hoop is moving in a circle and your hips are moving in a circle, it's going to take them a long time to catch up to each other.

Instead, dip your hips back and forth evenly, like a pendulum. Practice swaying side to side or back to front, then decide which feels more natural.

Knowing this secret will save you a lot of frustration, but it is still going to take a lot of work to keep that spinning hoop from hitting the floor.  Albaum says her first hula hooping session was pretty much two solid hours of crash, crash, crash, crash, crash.

Now after lots of practice, she can see why so many people use hula hooping not just as a type of dance or workout but as a form of meditation.

I'm not quite at that meditation stage. The first few minutes of class were filled with some embarrassing falls, bumps and whoopses. But it wasn't long before I got some serious hoop hang time.

Some of my success was in the hoop itself. Instead of those cheap, plastic hoops, Albaum, hand crafts hers out of industrial tubing. This gives them just the right amount of extra weight to help keep them under control.

Now to get a little action out of more than just my hips. The real hula hoopers call this "off-body". Basically, it's all the extra tricks that help you build either a full workout or an impressive dance routine. The extent of my off-body work was spinning the hoop on my arms. Some more hard core spinners can twirl the hoop on one bent elbow, then pass to the other, behind their backs.

In an hour's time I was hooked. I left the class anxious to show off my new skills, even if they weren't exactly polished. I stopped on the way home to buy a new hula hoop. As soon as the car hit the driveway, I was practicing again.

The next day, I learned the side effect of my new addiction - super sore abs and a tiny but equally sore bruise where I had repeatedly tried to spin the hoop across my open palm. All in all though, it was worth the little bit of pain. I also understood how something so fun could classify as a workout.

If I can pick up a few hoop skills, trust me, anyone can. There are several class locations in the Bay Area. There are even sunset sessions on the beach. You'll find the full schedule, more about the hoola monsters and how to buy a handmade hoop by following this link .