I Cracked the Taylor Swift Workout Routine—Here’s the Lazy-Girl Version

Swift worked out six days a week, for up to 2 hours a day, in preparation for her latest tour. Of course we’re not just talking lifting a couple free weights and running a slow mile on the treadmill—no, the arguably biggest star in the world has guidance—a Los Angeles and New York-based fitness guru named Kirk Myers. He’s the proprietor of the Dogpound, a gym that offers personal training and classes. When I took a class from two of his trainers last year, I was left a shaking puddle—after what, from people viewing on the sidelines, looked like a simple circuit of floor exercises. However the coaching about careful body placement and the fast flow through the circuit reps—as well as the two shouty and upbeat Dogpound trainers—made the session fly by, and I didn’t realize how much my muscles had been taxed and my metabolism boosted until the pounding music stopped and I tried to stand up unassisted.

I offer this as an insight into what Kirk told Vogue is Taylor’s “incredibly work ethic,” one that has her exercising like a pro athlete, with differing degrees of training depending on whether she’s “off-season” (not on tour) or “on season” (hoofing it while singing for 3-plus hours, multiple nights in a row). The workout focuses on strength, conditioning and core work, all of which help her sing, dance and radiate Taylor Swift Magic to hordes of fans. One of the things that sets Swift’s regimen apart from other touring musicians is that even when she was on the road, she’d still train a couple times a week for maintenance, in order to keep up her mobility and stability. Her trainer even asked an L.A.-based chiropractic physician for help with recovery techniques.

• Time: 20 minutes
• Think: anything that elevates your heart rate

Durng the portion of your workout devoted to cardio, you can get creative. Beyond just running outside or on a treadmill, “if you prefer to walk, row, hike, bike, swim, golf, box, ski, dance, play tennis or partake in any other activity that elevates your heart rate and increases your oxygen consumption, commit to 20 minutes a day and get after it,” Yohay advises.

• Time: until muscles fatigue (around 12 minutes)
• Think: weight training, planks, push-ups, and lots of body weight ideas below

For strength work, you want to work out with weights or using body weight isometrics (such as planks and pushups) until muscle fatigue. Yohay recommends a four-part arm workout for women developed with Andrea Rogers of Xtend Barre. I'll give you the Sparks Notes version of that workout below, but you can see the whole thing demonstrated here.

Move through these four moves on a yoga mat: Tricep dips, quadruped plank to down dog, quadruped plank hold with pulse and full plank with alternating shoulder taps.

10 reps, 2 sets:

• Tricep dips
• Quadruped plank hold with pulse
• Full plank with alternating shoulder taps

Flow through one set of 10 slowly. Once complete, flow through one set of 10 at a faster pace:

• Quadruped plank to down dog

Yohay recommends you start easy: “Use whatever weight dumbbells you’re comfortable with, but if you’re new to this exercise start with 2 to 5 pounds,” she says.

10 reps, 2 sets each:

• Dumbbell hammer curl + shoulder press combo
• Dumbbell chest press
• Bent-over rows
• Bent-over row + tricep kickback
• Stability ball preacher curls
• Stability ball chest press locomotive
• Stability ball ceated shoulder press
• Stability ball push up

Time: until muscles fatigue (around 12 minutes)

Think: weight training, planks, push-ups, and lots of body weight ideas below

For the sort of 360-degree stability that Swift needs to put on an Eras Tour show, she needs a super strong core to not only support her lungs and diaphragm for singing, she’s got to have that support to keep her body aligned so that she doesn’t fall off those high-heeled thigh boots or multi-story stage risers.

Yohay asked Danny Saltos, a NASM-certified personal trainer and health coach, for help in outlining the best core workouts everyone can do at home with no special equipment. Her list of best core workouts includes 15 classic moves which aren’t hard to understand (for example planks, toe touches, heel taps) but are taxing to perform in multiples. Yohay recommends choosing five core exercises of one to two minutes each, then repeating the set once or twice. Her personal picks (demonstrated here) include:

Hold/perform for 60 seconds, repeat circuit once:

• Plank
• Side plank with rotation
• Deadbug
• Bicycle crunch
• Leg lifts

Time: around 5 minutes

Think: squats, lunges, active stretching

That not enough for you? For variety, add in lower body exercises or try something new, like a fitness ai gym . Whatever you do, remember the key idea is consistency. Swift’s dedication to her fitness regimen is one of the unique aspects of this woman’s incredible star power—surely you can devote an hour a few times a week to keeping yourself healthy.