Get Fit for Disney Plan

Ok, if you arrived at this page because you are a serious athlete wanting advice for the Disney races like the Princess Run or the Star Wars Marathon (which to me is watching episodes 4-6), you want to go here. We applaud you, but this is for the average couch person who wants to survive taking their kids to the parks.

You can enjoy the parks even if you have mobility issues, but that would be someone else’s blog.

Couch to Mount Everest

Evaluate your current level of fitness. If you have a step tracker, what are your average steps in a day? Do you work out? If you don’t, start out slowly, the last thing you want to do is injure yourself.

If you average 5,000 steps a day, add 500 steps, and increase your step goal gradually to get to 10,000. At Disney, our average step count was between 15,000-20,000 a day.

Encourage your kids to walk with you. This will help you train for stopping, starting, complaints, and sudden requests for potty breaks. If you bring along your undisciplined dog, that will help you train for unexpected tripping hazards and being stepped on.

Maybe you’re more of a treadmill person. If so, vary your speed. At intervals, increase your speed to “getting across the park before your fast-pass expires” or slow down to “everyone leaving after fireworks”. Studies have shown that interval training is more effective than staying at a steady pace.

The mall can be a good place to work out. Get a map of the mall and hold it in front of you. Pick a store and label it as your favorite ride, then pick another store at the opposite end of the mall as your second favorite. Get to store 1 and store 2 within a 15 minute period, reward yourself by visualizing having a great time for 3 minutes. Bonus points if you end up in a Disney store afterward.

Determine the weight of any children you have between 1-9 years of age. Work your way up to deadlifting them and sustaining the hold for 30-40 minutes. Your actual children may not want to volunteer for this until tall people stand in front of them during fireworks. Either put on their favorite tv show, or get a stand in. (Note, your dog will probably not volunteer for this either).

You can work out at the office too! Stand up at your desk to simulate standing in lines. Add squats to increase leg muscle strength.

Wear the shoes you plan to wear at the park- do NOT bring new shoes. Follow this plan, and you’ll be ready to have a great vacation. Good luck!