I Worked Out Like Tate McRae For A Full Week

Tate McRae closed out Lollapalooza one night after headlining Osheaga in Montreal. Pulling off a back-to-back festival weekend like that takes serious stamina, and McRae has it: She’s one of pop’s most convincing gym girls. She recently fronted adidas’ new Originals Sport training campaign, she does Pilates with Jake Shane and Glen Powell, and between shows on her Miss Possessive tour she’s kept up an elite athlete’s routine: strength training, treadmill work, Pilates, recovery, and, obviously, dance.

If that's what it takes to build a body you'd dip in liquid gold, I wanted to see if I could hack it like a Canadian pop star. So for one week, I pieced McRae’s routine together from her interviews and socials. Full disclosure: I’m a lifelong runner, 29 marathon finishes and two Ironmans deep, with sports bras older than McRae. A week of Barry’s, reformers, and ballet was going to drag me way out of my lane. Here’s how I fared.

Monday: Barry’s Bootcamp

First stop: Barry’s, a workout I’d always filed under “things the cast of Summer House do to cure a hangover.” McRae has called it “the worst workout of all time,” and somehow I’d never been, so I headed to a studio for my first class.

Everything glows bright red. I spent the first few minutes wondering whether this was the same red light therapy the skin-care girlies swear by. The class ran in four 10-minute segments, two on the treadmill, two on the floor. We worked speed and hills on the treadmills and hit abs and arms on the benches. The move that got me paired dumbbell curls with your legs hovering off the ground. Spicy!

Shout-out to our instructor, Holly, who cued two groups at once without missing a beat and worked dog jokes into class in a Jersey accent. My favorite genre of fitness instruction. Despite McRae’s review, I loved Barry’s. It fired me up for the rest of the week.

Tuesday: Strength Training

Strength training is a regular part of McRae’s routine, especially heading into a tour. She favors the invite-only Alo Gym, so to fake a circuit like hers, I popped into my go-to HIIT studio (hi, Alpha Fit Club) to borrow their equipment.

I banged out a session of band work (not for the faint of heart), dumbbells (bench pressin’ FTW), and some body-weight squats and lunges. Thanks to Coach Nicole for the band-placement help, because best of luck snapping a resistance band into place without nearly taking yourself out. Nothing flashy, because we pop stars save it for the stage, but it was plenty challenging. You can get a lot done with minimal equipment, the kind of gear that would fit on a tour bus.

Wednesday: Pilates

Pilates has become another fixture in McRae’s routine, and she’s pulled friends into it, including Jake Shane and Glen Powell, who has publicly credited Tate and Jake for his action-star body.

Sadly, Glen did not return any of my calls, so I recruited Katie, one of my oldest friends, and we headed to a local reformer class. We were greeted by an instructor in a tank that read “Peace. Pinot. Pilates.” No notes. My first rookie move: climbing onto the reformer facing the wrong direction.

Once I turned around, every movement was slow, controlled, and shockingly hard. We used balls and rings to fire up the small muscle groups with pulsing moves. Katie and I kept catching each other’s eye from neighboring reformers, silently mouthing, “This is hard.” Meanwhile, an eight-weeks-postpartum mom was crushing it. Go off, sis. I’d happily do Pilates again, though if I’m paying for reformer classes every week, my pinot is coming from a box.

Thursday: Functional Conditioning

I went back to Alpha Fit to mimic another McRae fave: functional conditioning. The idea is to train the movements your body makes in real life, like pushing, pulling, carrying, hinging, so the strength carries over outside the gym. This circuit had sled pushes and pulls on the turf and cardio on the SkiErg, plus kettlebell squats and lunges that left my legs barking. Coach Grant brought his signature gentle ribbing, which I find weirdly motivating, and he doesn’t let you cut corners, which I appreciate. Sessions like this feel like the heart of Tate’s approach: strategic combos of strength and stamina to build a body that can perform for hours.

Friday: Beginner Ballet

If there was one workout I couldn’t fake my way through, it was this one. Long before the sold-out tours and SNL, McRae trained at the School of Alberta Ballet and competed on So You Think You Can Dance, and her tour demands hours of dance a day.

I, meanwhile, need a little liquid courage before approaching a dance floor, and even then my signature move is some version of an Irish jig. (She’s single, fellas!) So True Adult Beginner Ballet it was. When the rest of the class arrived, lithe, middle-aged women in leotards and leg warmers, I briefly considered making a run for it.

Instead, I gave the instructor my shoe size so I could borrow slippers. She looked toward the front desk and called out, “Find the biggest ones we’ve got.” Burn. The teacher’s tough love continued through the 90-minute class, which mostly took place at the barre, with about 15 minutes moving across the floor. To shame the regulars, she tsk-tsked, “Sheila doesn’t know what any of this means, and even she’s doing it right.” I’ll take it. A few minutes later, she encouraged us to try a combination again. “And this time,” she said, “maybe don’t land like elephants.” Honestly, I loved this woman.

The bunheads were so supportive. Every time I got something right, a few classmates gave me a little clap. I walked into the parking lot feeling longer, taller, and pretty tickled with myself for surviving something terrifying. A star is (definitely not) born.

Saturday: Treadmill

By Saturday, I was ready for a reunion with my most reliable life partner: my treadmill. Climbing onto my basement NordicTrack felt like slipping into my favorite 23-year-old sports bra. (She’s single, fellas!) Per Women’s Health, McRae does her cardio at home on one too, so I re-created Monday’s running segments: speed intervals with hill work and short recoveries in between. The playlist, naturally, was all Tate.

Twenty-nine marathons in, my body knows this kind of workout cold, but the run felt different. My calves and Achilles were still yelling at me from ballet, and yet coming back to my own routine somehow felt like fresh legs. I felt the week of work. I also felt great.

Sunday: Recovery

Paula Abdul once told a young McRae on So You Think You Can Dance, “You are a gift from God.” And on the seventh day, God rested, so I did too. McRae has said she works recovery into her training with sauna and ice baths. I kept it low-key: a session in the sauna at my local YMCA.

Final Thoughts

I’ve spent years living by mileage, pace, and VO2 max, and this week cracked my routine wide open. Barry’s revved my engine, Pilates woke up muscles I’d been ignoring, ballet demanded balance I did not have, and the gym days built a base for one seriously physical job. Singing while dancing for two hours a night takes endurance, strength, and the stamina to do it all again tomorrow. Mad respect to Tate McRae and every performer who asks that of her body onstage. Athletes, all of you.