If you’ve ever taken a class with me, seen me perform, or if you’ve been following me on Instagram for awhile, you might have noticed something a little strange; almost without fail, I practice aerial in socks! Now, at first glance, you might think me a bit crazy for covering my feet in something slippery and climbing my fabric. But today I want to give you 5 reasons why YOU should try training with #socksonsilks.
#1 – Get Stronger!
Wearing socks is a great way to squeeze some extra conditioning out of your climbs on fabric. Because the friction between your feet is reduced, the muscles in your arms, chest, back, core, glutes, and inner thighs will have to engage more to lift you up against gravity. This results in a more full-body workout as you climb. Now, I know it will be harder at first (I’ve logged in hundreds of hours climbing in socks, I know!!) but you don’t have to keep them on for long. Start with just one #socksonsilks climb at the beginning and end of your class, or personal training session. Once you can reach the top, add a second climb to start and finish, and then continue your progress by wearing socks during your sequencing, and conditioning. I promise you will see dramatic increases in your strength after even just a few weeks (and then you will be hooked!). And as an added bonus, when you take your socks off and continue to train in bare-feet, you will feel superhuman!
#2 – Stop the Sticking!
After training with socks for a while, you will find that it doesn’t make everything harder. On the contrary, it actually helps to make some techniques and skills easier! The clearest example of this is for footlocks: the reduced friction allows your feet to glide more effortlessly up and down against the tissue as you wrap your feet, making your figure-8 and dancers more polished, and easier to make level. Additionally, there are some tricks that require that your feet are able to slide on your tissue, including one of my favorites, wrist-lock splits! This all becomes exponentially more critical as the humidity in your studio rises, and the silks get sticky. Having the capacity to train in socks as needed is an amazing tool in your belt for overcoming the effects of weather on your fabric, and is a near necessity if you live somewhere tropical or wet!
#3 – Stop the Stinking!
One more practical reason to wear socks while you train is to keep your silks cleaner. Bare feet are by far the fastest culprit of stinky fabric. So, if you can consistently cover them, you can significantly increase the trainable time between washes. While this is more difficult in a studio setting where dozens of people use the same sets of silk to train, cultivating a culture of sock-wearing (as well as other hygiene habits) can help reduce the grime and odor buildup between laundry days. But if you’re using your own personal silks, you can keep them fresh for even months at a time by training in socks!
#4 – Finish your Lovely Lines!
When wearing regular leggings, bare feet don’t often create the nicest picture. Especially if you the type to pull yours over the heel, your naked toes break the shape of your legs right before the finish-line, and this contrast can draw attention away from your flexibility to even the smallest of sickles of flexes. Wearing socks helps to enhance your toe-point, and puts the focus back to the full line, rather than the ends. Further, having the capacity to perform in socks gives you the option of wearing full ballet-style tights, should you desire that aesthetic. Not relying on your feet to climb can broaden your options further to heels, ballet slippers, or other footwear should your act/character call for them.
#5 – Be Part of my Story!
Any one of these reasons is a great one for starting, or continuing your journey of training with socks. But on a more personal level, you can take some satisfaction in knowing you are training like Brandon Scott does! Further, if you wear socks during your next private with me, it will tip me off to know that you have the strength and commitment for more advanced techniques. But I’m going to take it one step further with this cherry on top: if you video yourself, post it on Instagram, and use the hashtag #socksonsilks, you may find yourself featured in my IG story!!
Thank you so much for reading my first blog post and visiting my website! Please check back again for more updates, message me if you have requests on other topics you’d like to see me write about, and I’ll see you in the air!
