After using your aerial silk for some time, it is a good practice to wash them. This washing not only elongates its lifetime but is also a means to maintain good hygiene. Aerial silks attract dirt from both your body and hands and this is a source of bacteria that is harmful to you. Again, imagine the sweat that embeds on the aerial silk as you use it to practice! You won’t stand the odors that will emanate from the fabrics.
Aerial silks are somewhat delicate fabrics and need a few precautions before washing. First, knots should be removed. Then, all hard objects should be removed from the washing machine’s interior. The silks should also be washed without other items in order to prevent tangling.
This article will take you through the essential things you need to know regarding the caring of your fabrics, in particular, how to wash aerial silks.
How do you clean aerial silk?
Sometimes, you may be a little bit lazy and you want to take a shortcut to freshen your aerial silk. While this may be an instant solution, it won’t be a long-lasting one. Plus it is not that hard to wash your silks.
Treating your aerial silks right means they will treat you right in return. Amazing, right?
Here are the simple steps you can follow to give your silk that clean look and feel:
1. Have a check on your silks before starting the washing: before starting the washing, I will recommend that you check your aerial silk to make sure that you take note of some stains that require special attention.
In my experience, once in a while, you can meet some stubborn stains that would damage your aerial silks if not removed before washing. Again, some sharp metallic chips that would have found their way to the inner parts of the silk could tear it if not noted beforehand.
2. Unwound all the knots: Washing your aerial silk while the silks are wounded means that some stains within the knots won’t be removed easily. Again, washing with the knots not untangled may be hard and you wouldn’t want to find this simple task overwhelming- remember it is a simple task.
3. Wash one by one: Try washing one silk after the other. This will prevent unnecessary tangling of the fabrics as this may make this simple task hard. That is not desirable at all.
4. Get rid of all hardware and metals: Before washing, try to remove all the hardware connected to your aerial silks. The metals and hardware connected to the fabric may damage your machine if they get inside it.
They may also damage the fabric itself! Remember aerial silks are costly. Why would you want to see your money wash down the drip while you could have taken care of your product?
5. Mild detergent: When washing your aerial silk, I will strongly recommend a soft or mild detergent.
The reason? Because while most aerial fabrics are made from durable materials, they are equally delicate if you don’t treat them with mild detergents.
6. Use cold water: Try as much as possible to avoid a top-loading machine. I have been doing this in the past and I regretted it every time. The rigorous tumbles from this machine are damaging to the fabric. Instead, I would suggest that you use the front-loading machine with cold water speed on the low spin.
Why wash your aerial silks?
• Dirt and bacteria
Aerial silks are “magnetic” to dirt. The bacteria from both your hands and body gets on the fabric when in use and it is good to remove them.
• Dust because of creases
Dust usually settles on the creases when they are not in use. Dust can be very punitive for those with allergies.
• Sweat
Sweating is all the time unavoidable while using the aerial silks. The wings absorb this sweat and we all know how disgusting sweat can be on such materials. It is very unpleasant to use such a swing.
• Bad smell
After use severally, you will need to wash your aerial silk to get rid of the bad smell that it will create.
• When they have not been in use for a while
After taking a little break for one reason or the other, your aerial silk may collect dust which needs to be removed before use again.
How do you wash and dry aerial silks?
The frequency with which you wash your aerial silk will depend on the intensity of use. If you are using it frequently such as over three times in one week, you can wash it regularly.
Otherwise, you can just wash it once a month. But how do you wash it?
• Use a liquid detergent and cold water.
• To get rid of odor, use baking soda.
• Don’t use a fabric softener.
• Stick to the gentle wash cycle.
• Don’t wash many fabrics at a go.
After washing, it is not all done. You also need how best to dry your aerial silk. How best can you do that?
Do not use a drier to dry your aerial silk because a drier may have too strong heat that is not suitable for good for delicate silks. Again, don’t do direct sunlight. Direct sunlight may have strong UV rays which may damage the fabric making them not last longer. It may also become risky to exercise using such aerial silks.
So what do we recommend? Dry your aerial silks indoors.
Why? Because it is the best way to dry your aerial silks because it will prevent unnecessary heating to spoil the materials.
Properly washing and drying your aerial silk is the paramount step to ensuring that its quality remains for a longer period. While we all know that many of the aerial silks are durable, constantly not taking good care of them will negatively impact their quality.
Can aerial silks get wet?
Aerial silks can get wet from time to time. It is something that can be a little hard to control but you can do it. I take my outdoor rigs out every time after using them so that they do not get rained on. Because such harsh weather can decrease the strength and in the process the integrity of the aerial silks.
What if you must use them in wet environments such as on a beach?
In this case, I would recommend aerial silk for such environments. But still, you have to pay close attention to the silk to note any holes or degradation. Remember your safety is the utmost consideration every time you are doing your aerial arts.
Can you lose weight doing aerial silks?
From experience, I can tell you for sure that aerial silks are becoming one of the trends to watch out for concerning health and fitness. On this note, many people ask, can you lose weight doing aerial silks?
Yes, you can. While many aerial arts may appear graceful and effortless, the kind of energy that you release while doing them is a good means of dispatching some unwanted calories. The experts in this field will attest to this fact. The exercise can also help put your muscles in shape. This means that your metabolic rate increases making sure that your body can break more calories even when you are at rest.
So are you looking to shedding some disturbing calories? Aerial silks can be the best partner you should lookout.
Aerial silks are very enjoyable in addition to being low-intensity exercises. Therefore, if you are a person that finds other high-intensity workouts to be a turnoff, you might like to consider aerial silks. From experience, I can openly rank aerial silks over the other high-intensity workouts when it comes to losing some calories.
Conclusion
Finally, aerial silks get dirty after use. It is a good practice to care for them to make them last longer while at the same time maintain the needed hygiene. Washing and drying your aerial silks should also be well-thought. For instance, I can recommend washing your aerial silk with cold water using a mild detergent. You do this because you wouldn’t want to practice using aerial silk with a very unpleasant odor.
When drying it, avoid strong heating because this will affect its strength. You already know the danger of this. You can get yourself into injuries in case of the fabric tears while in use at a high height. Aerial silks cannot get wet because this negatively impacts their strength. In case you can’t avoid this, I recommend that you find dedicated aerial silk that you can use in wet environments. But even with the dedicated aerial silk, you still have to maintain a closer look for any damages to make sure that it doesn’t get you off-guard during training.
You can lose some calories with aerial silks. In fact, it is a trend to watch out for regarding healthy living weight loss in the contemporary world. I believe that you have gained some additional knowledge on how you can take care of your aerial silk. Be sure to take good care of your tools as they also take good care of you of keeping you in shape.
