When planning for vacations that have some degree of physical effort, something that I’ve had to come to terms with is that occasionally, travelling can be painful. For myself, that’s due to a chronic pain issue stemming from athletic injuries. On most vacations, that pain can be mitigated with rest days and taking it easy.

However, that’s not the case when you’re headed to Walt Disney World or Universal Studios. The walking is a feature of the trip, not a bug.

On my most recent trip in 2026, I decided I wanted to prepare for that. This might sound familiar, as starting a walking regimen is pretty basic advice. However, for myself, it was more than just the walking that I had to deal with. I decided that I wanted to try and mitigate my pain issues for the first time and avoid losing out on the last days of my trip because my joints and muscles had given out on me. That meant a training regimen for 8 weeks that wasn’t just walking, but focused on all the things to make myself feel better.

Read on to find out how the trip went and whether my 8-week training worked as I had hoped!

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For my training, I introduced four variables:

• Walking to prepare my feet for the long days of walking in the parks. I would also use the same shoes that I intended to bring to break them in
  
• Ab & plank exercises to improve my core stability for those times that I wound be standing in line, to alleviate the work my leg muscles had to do
  
• Lifting weights, to develop the strength for standing. In retrospect, I wish I had done a little more back exercises to prepare for the backpack
  
• Drinking water to keep my body hydrated and so I could recognize my body’s need for hydration

When it came to each week, I decided to build slowly and not do it all at once. I also gave myself a rest week right before the trip, to give my body the best chance to be prepared for the intensity. This was only an eight week regiment, so I could have drawn it out, but I only had a limited amount of time before I left.

Let’s get into what each week looked like. Each week, my goal was to drink 4L of water every day (a goal I accomplished):

Week 2:

• Walk 3 miles x 2
• Walk 4 miles x 2
• Lift weights x 1
• 1 ab routine (stabilize core)
• 3 x 40 second planks

Week 3

• 3 mile x 1
• 4 mile x 1
• 5 mile x 1
• Weights x 2
• Planks (45 sec) x 3
• Ab routine x 1

Week 4

• 3 mile x 1
• 4 mile x 1
• 5 mile x 2
• Ab routine x 1
• Weights x 1
• Planks (50 sec) x 1

Week 5 (Vacation interim)

During week 5, I was on a quick weekend vacation and so I only focused on walking during this week. Otherwise, I would have simply repeated the Week 4 routine.

• 4 mile x 1
• 5 mile x 1
• 3 mile x 1

Week 6

• 6 mile x 1
• 1 minute planks x 3

Week 7

• Weights x 2
• Planks (60 seconds) x 3
• 5 mile x 1

Week 8 (Final Week)

• Planks (60 seconds) x 3
• 4 mile x 1

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So how did it go? On my trip, I walked a grand total of 74 miles over ten days (averaging about 7 miles a day). My biggest days were 9 miles and the “shortest” day was 6 miles.

Despite only ever pushing up to 6 miles in my training, I never felt that sore despite pushing up to 9 miles on a regular basis. I kept well hydrated, did stretching, and made sure I changed socks and shoes. I did develop a small blister thanks to water rides (Popeye’s Bluto Barges got me real good), but it wasn’t too bad. More importantly, the core work did the trick. I was able to stand still in lines without as many issues as I had feared, especially with a bad knee.

As for the bad knee, while I did have twinges, it was genuinely not that bad considering in the past it would bar me from walking. During the trip, I also went to the pool to do some low-impact exercise and I did get a calf massage with some heating gels to assist. Still, I didn’t have to do quite as much recovery stretching as normal and I never had a night where pain stopped me from sleeping (a critical issue on past trips).

The next time I go, I’ll absolutely be prepping again. Hopefully, if you’re on your way to Walt Disney World or Universal, you can also use this as a handy map to prepare!

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