She’s one of the richest pop stars of all time, but Taylor Swift is also one of the hardest working. The recent “Person of the Year” recently revealed her pre-tour workout routine, and it’s a doozy. The Eras show lasts about three hours and Swift is on her feet dancing the whole time. That can’t be easy.
It’s not like she’s up there in tennis shoes, either. Swift wears heels the whole time, something that even professional athletes are noticing. For example, NFL star J.J. Watt posted on X about how impressed he was with her ability.
“There was no intermission. There was no halftime. There were no TV timeouts. The longest break she took was maybe three minutes for a costume change. And she was singing, dancing, entertaining the entire time — 70,000 people hanging on every single word and move she was making… And she crushed it. And she didn’t even look tired! I was tired and I was just sitting there.”
He also said that “when your fans pay for a ticket, they are getting their money’s worth and some. Touché.” Coming from one of the best defensive ends to ever play the game, that’s high praise. So what is her routine? How did she prepare herself for a grueling run of three shows a weekend all across the country? Let’s find out.
What is Taylor Swift’s pre-Eras workout routine?
The main thing to put into perspective here is that over 8 months, Swift performed in 66 shows, three hours a night, singing 40 songs while performing complicated choreography. Imagine the emotional, physical and mental fortitude necessary to not only pull it off, but give people the show of their lives.
Swift said she wanted to “superserve” her fans because “they had to work hard to get the tickets” and she wanted to give them a show “that was longer than they ever thought it would be, because that makes me feel good leaving the stadium.”
To get ready for the tour, she started to get in shape about six months before the first show.
“I knew this tour was harder than anything I’d ever done before by a long shot. I finally, for the very first time, physically prepared correctly.”
For previous tours, Swift said she behaved like a frat guy, but this time around she isn’t drinking any alcohol. She said she didn’t even want to know what it would be like to do the show with a hangover. “I don’t want to know that world,” she said.
To train, she ran on the treadmill daily while singing the entire setlist to the show. She went quickly for the fast songs, and either jogged or walked for the slow ones. After that, she’d lift weights and do strength training at her gym, while also taking three months of dance lessons.
She revealed that “learning choreography” was not her strong suit so she 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.”
In order to get the stadium feel down pat, she stayed in Glendale.
“We actually got to be in the stadium for almost a month running the show several times a week,” she said. “So that was extremely helpful.” She does three shows back-to-back in every city. In LA, she did six shows with a day break in between. After the show, she needed a “dead day” to recover.
“I do not leave my bed except to get food and take it back to my bed and eat it there,” she said. “It’s a dream scenario. I can barely speak because I’ve been singing for three shows straight. Every time I take a step my feet go crunch, crunch, crunch from dancing in heels. But it’s the most fulfilled I’ve ever felt.”
Obviously, she takes the whole thing very seriously. She knows she has to perform no matter what emotional or physical state she’s in, and she puts pressure on herself to give her fans the best show possible.
“I know I’m not drinking on tour. I know I’m working out in between shows. I know I’m keeping my strength and stamina up. I know I’m going on that stage whether I’m sick, injured, heartbroken, uncomfortable, or stressed,” she said. “That’s part of my identity as a human being now. If someone buys a ticket to my show, I’m going to play it unless we have some sort of force majeure.”