Earlier this year, I fell of a Lyra hoop and broke my right big toe. The doctor told me it would take about 6 to 8 weeks to heal. However, the toe wasn’t healing properly. So I had to have surgery. So that was another three months of healing. So, all that time, I was off Lyra AND off pole. 🙁 I was new to Lyra (only a few lessons), but I’ve been poling for awhile. ~~ I won’t return to Lyra: 1. Because I have PTSD from falling; 2. I don’t want to go through this again, and 3. My husband would kill me if I returned. 🤷🏾‍♀️ I HAVE returned to pole. That’s because I’m not new to it, and when I’ve fallen, I knew how to keep the fall from being serious. ~~ I agree 100 percent with Veena that you should practice with a mat. I’m amazed at the number of studios that don’t use mats. 🙄 With Lyra, you always have a mat underneath, but because you’re so high up, if you fall, you can hurt yourself badly like I did. ~~ So circus stuff, like Lyra, is no longer for me. But it would take a lot for me to give up pole.