Do we all really have the same amount of hours in our day as Taylor Swift? It’s hard for me to imagine – she’s writing entire surprise albums while on the highest-grossing tour in history for a different Grammy-winning album; I’m having trouble balancing finishing my laundry, finding time to eat lunch, and getting in my 10,000 steps.

“Her work ethic is just incredible,” Kirk Myers tells me over Zoom. He would know: the owner of New York and LA’s Dogpound Gym has been training the star for almost a decade now. “I’m ready to be known as ‘Taylor Swift’s trainer’. I don’t think there’s a cooler title out there.”

Myers has seen Swift through many of her Eras (he came on board during the 1989 album) – but he’s also had quite a few of his own. A self-described “husky” child, he got into fitness and training through a love of sports, though a few run-ins with a heart condition quickly derailed his calling. After moving to New York City to be near family, he was able to return to training at a gym in Soho and quickly acquired two new clients: his future business partner and CEO Jenny Liu, and his first celebrity signing, Hugh Jackman. “I had a friend that really made an amazing transformation in 30 days and I asked, ‘What the hell happened to you? Who is training you?’ All he said was, ‘Kirk’,” Liu recalls. “I was like, ‘Well, sign me up for Kirk because I have a wedding to get ready for.’”

From there, Myers clientele grew, and his gym Dogpound was born. Word of mouth was Myers’s greatest calling card – I can practically feel his energy through the WiFi. “It’s mostly one-on-one training, where I really look at your goals and what you are specifically trying to hit.” The goals might be a wedding, hitting a fitness personal record, or an upcoming role in a film

“I want you to come by and try the Taylor routine soon,” he says towards the end of our interview. “Though it’s really hard, some people would probably throw up or have to lay down on the floor if they trained like her,” he ends with a laugh. I mention that I basically haven’t exercised since before the pandemic. “Oh, then you’ll definitely throw up.”

Taylor Swift’s workout routine

“It’s tailored,” says Myers with an emphasis on the pun. “We approached her training for the Eras tour with the mindset of a professional athlete. There was an ‘off-season’ when she wasn’t touring and ‘in-season’ when she was.” Off-season training with Swift and Myers is intense, to say the least: “When she’s not touring, we’re in the gym up to six days a week for sometimes two hours a day.” The focuses are strength, conditioning, and targeting her core.

An individual’s health and fitness are of utmost importance in today’s world. This puts us in a place where we also need to think about how our daily routines affect the environment. As ethical people, including sustainable habits in our workout regime, improves both our personal and the environment’s health. Here are some useful and environmentally friendly suggestions to add to your exercise routine without sacrificing your health objectives.

Choose eco-friendly fitness gear

Investing in sustainable fitness gear is the first step towards reducing your carbon footprint.Go for products made from eco-friendly materials such as bamboo, organic cotton, or recycled plastics. Look for brands that prioritise sustainability in their manufacturing processes and offer durable, high-quality products. By choosing eco-friendly gear, you not only support environmentally responsible businesses but also reduce the amount of waste generated by the fitness industry.

Start doing outdoor workouts

Take your fitness routine outdoors and enjoy the beauty of nature while breaking a sweat. Whether it’s jogging in the park, cycling through scenic trails, or practising yoga in the garden, outdoor workouts offer a refreshing change of scenery while minimising the need for electricity-consuming gym equipment. Not only does outdoor exercise reduce your carbon footprint, but it also provides numerous health benefits, including improved mood, vitamin D absorption, and enhanced mental well-being.

Reduce single-use plastics

Single-use plastics are a significant contributor to environmental pollution, so it’s crucial to minimise their usage in your fitness routine. Instead of buying bottled water, invest in a reusable water bottle and carry it with you during workouts. Go for snacks and energy bars packaged in sustainable materials such as paper or compostable wrappers. Consider using eco-friendly alternatives to disposable wipes and towels, such as reusable sweatbands or bamboo towels. By reducing single-use plastics, you not only help protect the environment but also save money in the long run.

Practice Eco-friendly transportation

Choosing eco-friendly transportation options to and from your workout destinations can further reduce your carbon footprint. Whenever possible, go for walking, cycling, or using public transportation instead of driving alone in a car. Carpooling with friends or joining fitness groups that promote shared transportation can also make your journeys more sustainable. Consider Adding active transportation into your daily routine by walking or cycling to work, school, or other errands. By prioritising eco-friendly transportation, you contribute to cleaner air and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, all while staying fit and active.

Martinus Evans didn’t mean to start or even be part of a movement like slow running — he simply needed to move. In 2011, a doctor told him he had to start exercising or he would die. Evans said he was going to run a marathon. The doctor’s reply: That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard in all my years in medicine.

Evans did not care. He started running — regularly, poorly, slowly. “I wasn’t trying to ‘slow run,’” he says now. “I was just running, and I was slow, so I decided to celebrate that and get the health benefits rather than feel like it was some moral failure. I was more passionate about being active than getting faster or skinnier.”

The impulse to do more, to constantly push for better times and lower BMIs, permeates the running world, where coaches, training apps, magazines and online groups all emphasize performance and weight loss. “There’s an elitism to running, where people are always posting their times with the sense that if I have a better time than you, I’m somehow superior,” he adds.

Many clubs and races have a cutoff of roughly 10 minutes per mile. “If you are slower than that, they have no place for you. There was no one I could run with,” Evans says. “When I got in races, the water stations and finish line were usually closed before I got done. I thought, ‘I can’t be the only one.’”

He wasn’t. While running the New York City Marathon in 2018, Evans heard someone yell, “You’re slow as f**k, go home.” Rather than quit, he embraced the insult, emblazoning it on his running shirt and starting the Slow AF Run Club. The group began as a collection of about 40 friends who stayed in touch so they could run together, but all the shamed runners who’d felt the way Evans did started to find the group’s webpage.

Then the pandemic hit. Many races were canceled, and Evans started organizing virtual races through the club. That’s when things got wild. “Seems like everyone suddenly got into running, especially people who hadn’t been runners, and we were getting a lot of people reaching out,” he says. “They had questions about what to do and how to get started, and I answered every one of them.”

With uncharacteristic speed, slow running became sought for its ease, inclusivity, sense of community and focus on activity over achievement. The Slow AF Run Club built an app, and Evans even wrote a book. Club membership is up to 40,000, with a free tier that provides access to the community and a paid level that includes coaching and training programs. “It’s a safe space where runners can gather and know there’s not gonna be any pressure about going faster or any talk about weight loss or diets,” Evans says.

By the time Covid restrictions lifted, slow running was officially a trend, with clubs and participants popping up all over the country. “We’re currently in the process of forming a nonprofit that will allow people to start local in-person chapters,” Evans says.

As for his own path, he’s never returned to the doctor who first scoffed at him, but he’s completed eight marathons and has no intention of slowing down — or speeding up — anytime soon. “How fast you are shouldn’t matter,” Evans says. “What matters is that you’re out there doing the thing.”

“A lot of people find it difficult at first,” says running coach Greg McMillan, who has trained everyone from beginners to Olympians, “but once you get past that it actually becomes enjoyable. You get that runner’s high.”

Interested in finding out more? Here are just a few benefits of the slow running trend:

“Part of the appeal is that slow running has [a] lower barrier to entry, so you don’t want to put a lot of obstacles in the way,” says Noam Tamir, a certified trainer and the CEO of TS Fitness in New York. “Literally, just put one foot in front of the other.” That said, there are a few things to consider:

Our experts recommended a comfortable, well-cushioned shoe for slow runners, especially beginners. After consulting with them, a range of online ratings and a selection of manufacturers, here are a few options to consider, although, like any item of equipment, personal needs and preferences will vary.