Taylor Swift Shares Workout Regimen for Sustaining 3-Hour Eras Tour Setlist
(Editorial use only and no commercial use at any time. No use on publication covers is permitted after August 9, 2023.) Taylor Swift performs at the Taylor Swift "The Eras Tour" held at Allegiant Stadium on March 24, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Penske Media via Getty Images)
Fans have been in awe of Taylor Swift's stamina ever since the superstar kicked off her record-breaking Eras Tour, which features a 3-hour, non-stop 40-plus-song setlist with several quick changes, in March 2023.
After being named TIME's Person of the Year, "The Man" singer opened up in a new interview with Sam Lansky, where she divulged some of her process for physically preparing for such a demanding role—one she plays several nights in a row every week during the height of touring.
“I knew this tour was harder than anything I’d ever done before by a long shot,” she said, joking that on previous tours she'd treated them “like a frat guy.” But as the massive endeavor loomed over her, she got down to business, beginning to train about six months in advance.
“Every day I would run on the treadmill, singing the entire set list out loud,” she said. For the fast songs, she went all out, while she maintained a fast walk or jog for slower songs. Dogpound, a members-only gym, created a specialized program for the occasion, which included strength training, conditioning, and weight lifting.
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She also stopped drinking, making an exception for the Grammy's—much to viewers' delight. “Doing that show with a hangover,” she hedged. “I don’t want to know that world.”
Finally came dance training, which lasted about three months. "...I wanted to get it in my bones,” she said. “I wanted to be so over-rehearsed that I could be silly with the fans, and not lose my train of thought.” But, as Swift herself proclaimed, choreo is not one of her strong suits. She hired La La Land choreographer Mandy Moore at the recommendation of Emma Stone to pull it all together.
After a weekend straight of shows, she takes a recovery day, where she doesn't “leave [her] bed except to get food and take it back to...bed and eat it there,” a so-called "dream scenario."
It's what she deserves, seeing as she "can barely speak because [she's] been singing for three shows straight." She added, "Every time I take a step my feet go crunch, crunch, crunch from dancing in heels.”
Once the break is over, she jumps back into it, keeping up her strength between shows. She's famous for rarely canceling or rescheduling her shows, pushing through illness, injuries, and terrible weather wherever possible. “That’s part of my identity as a human being now," she explained. "If someone buys a ticket to my show, I’m going to play it unless we have some sort of force majeure.”
She didn't go on until nearly 10 p.m. local time during one of her Nashville shows, as a thunderstorm forced everyone in the stadium to take cover, but, of course, made the decision to postpone one of her shows in Rio De Janeiro after the extreme heat was suspected to have led to the death of one fan.
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