My first lyra lesson!

Yesterday my friend (and pole buddy!) and I got the chance to take a private lyra lesson at our pole studio.  It was AWESOME.  We learned a couple different ways of inverting and getting into the hoop from the floor, and we learned several poses from there.  I’m not going to lie – with over a year of pole under my belt (and after having taken advanced classes for the past ~6 months), I did not think it would be very challenging.  I was wrong. 

It HURT.  There are so many poses that require you to hang from the hoop using a knee pit grip, and it is PAINFUL if you’ve never done it before.  Unlike knee pit grips on the pole, hanging off the hoop by one leg puts a lot more pressure in a much smaller area.  Your hands really take a beating too – when I took my hands away from the hoop and looked at them, I could literally see a white line running across my palms below the fingers where my skin had been folded over.  And let’s not even get into what it feels like to sit with the pole running down the length of your spine – it’s pretty much the ultimate wedgie.

With all of that discomfort, would I do it again?  Heck yes!

Compared to pole and silks (which I’ve also only tried once), I think lyra feels much freer.  Like silks, you have more freedom of movement – you don’t have to worry about pushing and pulling against a stationary pole.  But unlike silks, you’re not relying on wraps and knots in the fabric to support you.  It’s a lot scarier to start out than I remember pole and silks being, because you’re trying to maintain your balance while the hoop is not only spinning around but wobbling back and forth.  And like pole, the stiffness of the hoop is hard on your body, so it’s not the most comfortable thing in the world.  But as with everything else, you just get used to it.

I would love to take pole, silks, and lyra in the spring when classes start up again, but even if I could afford it (Christmas present, anyone???) I am not sure how the scheduling will work out.  My next pole class is going to be an hour and a half long, and I don’t think I could do that and a lyra or silks class in the same day if that’s the only option.  But who knows.  This will probably be my last semester in the area before I graduate, and I want to take advantage of as much as I can before I leave.  Maybe I’ll just go crazy for a semester and do everything!  What’s the worst that could happen?