Any famous musician will surely tell you that concert tours are no cakewalk. Keeping in mind the mental and physical demands required for an artist to pull off a successful show night after night, we’re not surprised that some singers — like Britney Spears, for example — have sworn off touring for good. “Life on the road is hard !!! … I don’t think I ever want to do it again !!!” Spears wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post (via Billboard). It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted, and Taylor Swift’s intense workout routine to keep up with her Eras concert tour only underscores the physical challenges of life on the road.
Billed as a “journey through the musical eras of [her] career,” per Instagram, the tour is Swift’s most ambitious and biggest to date, with over 150 shows held across five continents. Each show reportedly runs for approximately 180 minutes as Swift performs 44(!) tracks from 10 different records. As one would imagine, the preparation for the jaunt was rigorous.
“Every day I would run on the treadmill, singing the entire set list out loud. Fast for fast songs, and a jog or a fast walk for slow songs,” Swift proudly informed TIME. The world-conquering pop star added, “Then I had three months of dance training because I wanted to get it in my bones. I wanted to be so over-rehearsed that I could be silly with the fans, and not lose my train of thought.” But the work didn’t stop there for the Grammy winner.
Swift’s personal trainer detailed her grueling workout routine
To ensure that Taylor Swift would be able keep up with her insane Eras Tour schedule, Kirk Myers, her longtime personal trainer and founder of the gym Dogpound, came up with an elaborate workout plan for the “Lover” singer. As he detailed in an interview with Vogue, “We approached her training for the Eras Tour with the mindset like a professional athlete. There was an ‘off-season’ when she wasn’t touring and ‘in-season’ when she was.” During her off-season, Swift committed to being at the gym six days a week for up to two hours of intense training per session; while out on tour, she goes twice a week as part of her “maintenance.”
The singer-songwriter’s routine consists of strength and conditioning exercises that primarily target her core, which helps with her breathing and in turn, signing. Myers noted that Swift’s workout plan is pretty brutal and is not for everyone. “It’s really hard,” he confirmed. “Some people would probably throw up or have to lay down on the floor if they trained like her.” Getting the “Bad Blood” hitmaker into tip-top shape is crucial to keep her energized and strong throughout her grueling, lengthy concert tour. The celebrity trainer is consistently blown away by her discipline and dedication, even after almost a decade of working together.
As he pointed out, “If you’ve seen the show, you know how intense it is physically. Imagine doing that three, four days in a row and then you finally have a few off days and you’re still showing up to gym. That’s Taylor.”
Fans tried — and failed — to do Swift’s treadmill workout
Some of Taylor Swift’s biggest fans took it upon themselves to try out part of her killer workout program in preparation for attending the Eras Tour, and let’s just say that Kirk Myers was right when he warned that it’s not for the faint of heart. Even those who consider themselves in excellent shape struggled through the workout, which involved singing while running and jogging on a treadmill for three hours straight. For instance, 42-year-old Iowa mom and runner Jenna Brown admitted on TikTok: “It’s one thing to just run. But to sing? […] This is HARD!”
Meanwhile, after belting out just a couple of songs on the treadmill, Arden Alexa reasoned that Swift must be superhuman. Noting that she’s also a trained singer, Alexa acknowledged that the challenge was one of the most intense exercise routines that she’d ever tried. The singer then quipped, “So even if you don’t like Taylor Swift, you gotta respect her for that.”
In her 2023 TIME interview, the “Cardigan” hitmaker revealed that she made a conscious effort to prep herself ahead of the Eras tour as she knew it was going to be “harder than anything I’d ever done before by a long shot.” Whereas in the past, she was more laidback, this time Swift knew she had to, well, shake things up. Whether that’s sticking to a workout plan or giving up alcohol, there’s nothing that the pop star wouldn’t do to provide one hell of a show for her fans.
