Taylor Swift had to train a lot more than just her vocal cords to get in shape for her blockbuster Eras Tour.
The singer-songwriter, 33, explained just how much effort she devoted to supporting her health in the months leading up to the tour in an interview with Time, which named her Person of the Year. Getting ready required a special workout routine six months before the tour went on the road, Swift told Time.
“I knew this tour was harder than anything I’d ever done before by a long shot,” Swift told Time. “I finally, for the very first time, physically prepared correctly.”
Shows on the Eras Tour clock in at more than three hours, with more than 40 songs and 16 costume changes, Time reports. Swift said she started training six months before the tour opened in March.
“Every day I would run on the treadmill, singing the entire set list out loud,” Swift told Time. “Fast for fast songs, and a jog or a fast walk for slow songs.”
As if this wasn’t already enough of a workout routine, Swift said that her gym, Dogpound, created a cross-training program for her to incorporate weights, strength, and conditioning.
Swift also said she turned to choreographer Mandy Moore, who helped prep Emma Stone for those gorgeous dance sequences in La La Land, to get her in shape for the rigorous dance routines required on her tour. These extra dance practices started three months before the tour.
“I wanted to get it in my bones,” Swift said. “I wanted to be so over-rehearsed that I could be silly with the fans, and not lose my train of thought.”
About a month before the tour opened in Glendale, Arizona, Swift went there to start doing full run throughs in the stadium several times a week.
Taylor Swift Also Gave Up Alcohol for Her Eras Tour
And unlike previous tours when Swift said she acted “like a frat guy,” she said she stopped drinking to aid her rigorous preparations for Eras.
“I was really disciplined about drinking,” Swift said. “I stopped drinking for a couple months before the show except for on Grammy night, which was hilarious. I gave myself a fun night for that one.” Then she went right back to embracing sobriety for the rest of the tour. “Doing that show with a hangover, I don’t want to know that world.”
At most stops on the tour, Swift performed three back-to-back shows. Swift credited her endurance in part to “dead days” for resting between each of these stops. “I do not leave my bed except to get food and take it back to my bed and eat it there,” Swift 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.”
