The intensity never ends for Dylan Scott, even hours after his sold-out shows come to a close. That’s why the country music superstar continues to place a higher priority on his conditioning and training in order to belt out the high notes—or in his case, a low baritone—when the sweltering summer heat take its toll onstage in front of packed amphitheaters all across the continent.
Showtime is just part of Scott’s regular routine. When the “My Girl” singer returns home to Nashville, he has waiting for him a to-do list created by his girl—wife Blair—sometimes as lengthy as the 60- to 90-minute setlist he’s been performing each night on his current “Win the Night” tour along with Cole Swindell. Then there’s a trio of junior Scotts waiting for their dad’s arrival so they can resume wreaking childlike havoc in the backyard.
In other words, life on the road is no match for family life.
“When I get home, it’s not like I’m gonna rest,” Scott admits. “I have three kids jumping on trampolines, riding bikes, and then there’s [my wife’s] “honey-do” list. I never really stop or slow down.”
The 33-year-old has become accustomed to the mix of family and touring. With success—Scott was nominated for the 2023 ACM New Artist of the Year award—he now has a team taking on the touring logistics—unlike the early days which saw Scott and bandmates would drive themselves cross country from gig to gig in a small van.
One element of road life he continues handling, however, is finding a gym at each tour stop. Besides the nightly a workout he gets from belting out 10 to 15 hits including his latest hit “This Town’s Been Too Good to Us,” Scott relies on hitting the weights regularly—along a bit of cardio work—get the body pumped so he can remain stage sharp at all times.
“I’ll hit Google Maps and see what’s around me,” he says. “We usually try to find a small, local gym, one that’s got the music blasting, and everyone’s having a good time. Those gyms are a lot of fun.”
When he’s not onstage, or in the gym, or wrapping up a round of household chores, Scott finds himself engaging with his legions of social media followers. Sometimes he’ll treat them to a glimpse of his latest work—Scott recently teased a new drop set for June 21. In return, many of his fans offer to host the avid outdoorsman to a day of hunting on the days he and the band roll into town. And oftentimes, Scott takes them up on their offer.
“There’s been times a random fan will hit me up and say, ‘Hey, let’s go hunt,’” he says. “I’ll do my research on them before I do it, but I’ll go—I love the outdoors.”
Because his schedule is filled from all angles, maximizing his brand of Country Muscle—Dylan Scott not only has to rely on hitting the gym consistently, whether on the road or his fully equipped home gym, but now has begun adding a greater emphasis on rest and recovery following a minor health scare several years back during the early touring days. That part’s still a work in progress, he admits.
“I try to get seven, eight hours of sleep a night,” he says. “It doesn’t always happen, obviously, but I like my sleep.”
Gym Sessions for Dylan Scott
Music has always been a part of Dylan Scott’s structure. His father, Scotty Robinson, was a guitarist who performed with legendary ‘70s country stars such Freddy Fender. “Some of the best advice I got as a kid was from my da—he told me the music business is not an overnight success.”
Other than a few pickup games of basketball, sports didn’t play a major role in Scott’s high school development. However, Scott admits to being a meathead—sort of—as a teenager, especially when it came to moving heavy weight. “As a kid, you’re like, let’s go bench and put a bunch of weight on the bar,” he recalls. “I don’t do that stuff any more.”
Scott boasts of his 350-pound bench back in the day. At about the same, around 2007, he was listening to one of his music idols, Tim McGraw, topping the charts with the hit “Last Dollar.”
Now nearly two decades later, Scott is enjoying the success of his second studio album, 2022’s Livin My Best Life. And while he’s matured musically as a solo artist, when it comes to training, he still looks up to his now 57-year-old idol.
“Tim McGraw is a beast—I don’t know if I could hang with him,” Scott admits. “I don’t do those high-intensity workouts like he does— I’ll probably get to that point in my life—but he’s in his 50s and is probably still the hardest hitter out there.”
At his home gym, Dylan Scott has loaded his dumbbell rack from 5 pounds to 100. He’s also added a set of medicine balls, a Smith Machine, kettlebells, and a sauna, and is now looking to add a stair climb to his cardio room. For the time being, Scott does a lot of jump rope for conditioning as well as going for some light runs around the Nashville neighborhood.
The days of 1RMs are done, as Scott normally sticks with a bodybuilding-style, single bodypart training split, chest on Monday, back on Tuesday, and so on, when his schedule allows him the luxury of consistency. For Scott, it’s now about getting stage shredded for the fans filling the arenas—and for his wife waiting at home.
“I’ll go heavy, but I’ll try to keep high reps, 12 to 15, sometimes even higher,” he says. “I’m not here to really get a big physique. The older I get, I just want to be in shape and I want to look good. Plus I gotta keep a little six pack for my wife.”
Rest and Recovery are Country Essentials
As Dylan Scott’s workload continues to increase—his current North American tour kicked off in London, ON, this past May and continues until mid November, rest and recovery have become even more a priority, even though it may seem to the “Boys Back Home” singer that a good night’s sleep is a fleeting luxury. “It’s a little easier, but not completely,” he admits. “People think the road life is pretty easy—you just hop on your bus and chill out. But there’s a lot going on, especially mentally in your head.”
In the early years of touring as a young artist, Scott admits the crazy round-the-clock routine of squeezing into a van and with your bandmates and driving cross country from show to show and finding a hotel at late hours were a bit rough on the body.
“Back then we may not have gotten the van loaded till midnight or one, and then hit the road for two or three hours before we got to the next city,” he says.
Eventually, the erratic sleep schedule—sometimes he’d get seven hours, sometimes none—were starting to chip away at his health—more specifically his hairline.
“I started getting alopecia, these little small spots in my head where the hair would just fall out,” he recalls. “After seeing the doctor he asks me how much sleep do I get? I told him what was going on, and he was like, man, you have to get at least eight hours of sleep. But he gave me my shots and my head’s been healed since.”
Now for Scott, the goals aims for at least six to eight hours sleep a night, although he says, even to this day it remains a work in progress. “I’m not gonna lie, it’s not always consistent,” he admits.
If adequate sleep isn’t an option—and sometimes that’s the case—Dylan Scott will turn to recovery methods in order to help calm his highly energized body in the form of saunas and cold plunges. While turning up the heat have brought him good luck so far in his career—he received notice of his first ACM nomination in 2023 while sitting in his underwear getting heated up, it’s also helped him reenergize following a long performance or lengthy workout. However, the cold plunge is something he’s slowly acclimating to.
“I’m not that up to speed and up to date on my research with cold plunges,” he admits. I got it way too cold the first time. I didn’t adapt to it. But I will say I felt amazing after I did it the second time. I’ve done it three or four times now—not as cold as the first time and it’s really cool. I feel like a different person when I get out.”
Mixin’ It with the Fans, Literally
Engaging with nearly two million TikTok followers and an additional 700,000-plus on Instagram has its rewards for Dylan Scott. Not only does he get positive feedback from fans after sharing his latest music—he currently averages more than seven million listeners each month on Spotify, but it also creates an avalanche of fan-fueled offers and invites. “The coolest I got recently was from Julian Smith,” he says. “I haven’t worked out with him yet, but it was cool to talk about working out.”
In addition to getting offers to hit the gym, Scott gets countless offers to hit the woods for a day of hunting. “I’m a big hunter,” he says. “I love deer hunting and duck hunting. When it’s in season and depending on where I’m at in the country, either I got buddies or family out that way.”
So far, it’s turned out OK for Scott.
“We do our research so there’s no crazies or anything but it’s kind of cool thing to do,” he says.
Although it sounds a little risky—a hunting trip with a random stranger, the southern superstars says he can relate to his childhood dreams of meeting up with his idols if they accepted his offer.
“Man, I could just think if I was a kid and I hit Tim McGraw up and he would have went hunting with me, I’d been the coolest thing in the world,” he says. So, you know, I just try to show people I’m still just a regular person.”