What kind of hardware do you use for exercise? Do you spend hours on the treadmill or elliptical machine? Maybe you race around town on a carbon fiber bicycle? Are you into lifting iron weights?

This week’s prize for exotic fitness equipment goes to Amanda and the 12-foot lyra rig set up in her driveway. Also known as an aerial hoop, aerial ring or cerceau,the lyra is a tool for both fitness and artistic expression.It is one apparatus in the aerial arts category of circus skills, which also includes silks, rope, and trapeze.

The lyra may look like a hula hoop, but it’s a steel ring, suspended in midair. Aerial artists may perform acrobatics on static, spinning, or swinging hoops, which can be hollow or solid.

I met Amanda and Stephanie through a coworker who shares their interest in circus skills, but not their desire to be photographed. Amanda is a computer programmer by day. Stephanie is a nurse. They represent the growing number of people interested in  circus arts, who regularly hone their skills {and tone their muscles) at Madison Circus Space. In addition to aerial arts, the facility is home to classes in juggling, German wheel, stilt walking, acrobatic yoga, hoop dancing and other activities.

The number of people interested in this sort of thing is growing so fast that they have outgrown their 4,800-square-foot facility.

So, if you are looking for a creative outlet or a novel fitness routine, I have good news. The circus has come to town.