What is the 75 Soft Challenge?

WHAT IS THE 75 SOFT CHALLENGE?

To understand what the "75 Soft Challenge" is, and in order to have some context, you first have to understand what the 75 Hard Challenge is. We recently wrote a blog post about Andry Frisella's 75 Hard Challenge which you can read about here. The 75 Hard Challenge is a Hardcore Challenge created by 1st Phorm CEO and Motivational Speaker Andy Frisella. The 75 Hard Challenge is a 75 Day Long Challenge where participants have to follow 5 Rules without fail. These rules are Following a Diet, Working out twice per day for 45 minutes with one of those workouts being outdoors. They must drink a gallon of water per day, read 10 pages of a non-fiction or self improvement book per day, and take a progress picture each day. If you fail to follow any of the rules during your 75 Days, you go back to day one and start over. The 75 Hard Challenge is simple, but it's not easy.

In trying to piggyback off the popularity of the 75 Hard Challenge many bloggers and Tik Tokers have been trying to "soften" up this challenge making it more palletable for soft people, lazy people, or those who lack motivation. Now there's two schools of thought when it comes to "softening up", the 75 Hard Challenge.

Some might say when you set a goal which is too difficult you wind up giving up, so many give the advice to set achievable goals. If you talk to someone like David Goggins however he would tell you that society has gotten too soft, people seek too much comfort, and that it's good to set goals that border on un-achievable because you challenge yourself, and even if you fall short of the goal you likely did more than you ever would have thought you could.

As we mentioned earlier in this post many bloggers and Tik Tokers are trying to turn the 75 Hard Challenge into a watered down 75 Soft Challenge with many saying the 75 Hard Challenge is too hard or too taxing on your body. If you're someone who wouldn't even consider doing the 75 Hard Challenge, then by all means the 75 Soft Challenge is probably better than nothing, however realize that you're not doing Andy Frisella's challenge as his challenge cannot be modified. On the other hand if you're someone who's looking to push yourself, if you're looking for a transformation both mentally, physically, and emotionally, and if you're looking to truly develop some Grit, then the 75 Hard Challenge is what you're looking for.

75 SOFT CHALLENGE CHECKLIST

So if you are interested in copping out and deciding to set off on an "Easier Challenge", here's the rules for the 75 Soft Challenge Checklist. The 75 Soft Challenge brings over similar challenges and goals, but makes things easier. Here's what it looks like...

1. Make healthy food choices 90% of the time.

2. Workout 4 times per week for 30 minutes.

3. Drink half your body weight in ounces of water per day.

4. Meditate for 5 minutes per day.

5. Read or listen to 10 minutes of personal development or inspiration per day.

6. Take a progress picture on day 1 and day 57.

THE 75 HARD CHALLENGE VS. THE 75 SOFT CHALLENGE

So how does the 75 Soft Challenge stack up against the 75 Hard Challenge? In this section we'll break down how the 75 Soft Challenge was modified to make it easier, and in the following section I'll share my critiques of the 75 Soft Challenge such as how Goal #1 is hard to measure. It's easy to measure whether or not you stick to a specific diet, if you're eating under 2,000 calories per day you either do it or you don't. With the 75 Soft Challenge modified goal of "Make healthy food choices 90% of the time" what does that mean? How do you measure it? What qualifies as healthy?

At our retail stores we often have customers come in saying "I've been eating really healthy lately, I've been eating a lot of sandwiches". Sandwiches while a better option than a Big Mac is hardly healthy so this goal could be a very bad one, especially if you're not someone familiar with macros and nutrition.

That said in terms of how the 75 Soft Challenge stacks up against the 75 Hard Challenge let's look at goal number one. The 75 Hard Challenge requires you stick to a diet, any diet, where as the 75 Soft Challenge just dictates you make healthy food choices 90% of the time. Somewhat similar goals but the 75 Soft Challenge would seemingly allow you to have a couple cheat meals.

In terms of Goal #2, the 75 Hard Challenge is a tough one, you have to do two 45 minute workouts everyday, with one of those workouts being outdoors. The 75 Soft Challenge on the other hand only requires 30 minutes workouts 4x a week. Now if you're someone who's not already working out this isn't a bad goal, but if you're someone who already works out chances are you're already doing more than this. Personally I workout for an hour per day 7 days a week so the 75 Hard Challenge would be an upgrade for me, where as the 75 Soft Challenge would be a downgrade for me. It also ignores the outdoor workout which is part of what builds grit, and it cuts out the need for a second workout which is really a challenge in terms of finding the time and sacraficing to fit that second workout in.

In terms of Goal #3, the 75 Hard Challenge requires you to drink a gallon of water per day regardless of your weight, where as the 75 Soft Challenge requires you drink half your body weight in ounces. For someone like myself who weighs 180 pounds, that would requier me to drink 90 ounces of water as opposed to a gallon which is 128 ounces of water.

For Goal #4 of the 75 Hard Challenge you're required to read 10 pages of a non-fiction or self help book each day which actually is probably one of the easier parts of this challenge. The 75 Soft Challenge changes ths to meditate for 5 minutes per day.

Lastly for Goal #5, they kind of double up on the self improvement and mental aspect of the 75 Hard Challenege. The 75 Soft Challenge's Goal #5 gets rid of the progress pic each day and adds reading or listening to 10 minutes of self help, personal development, or inspirational content per day.

One other thing I'd like to mention, the 75 Soft Challenge eliminiates the daily progress photo per day which to me is an important part of the 75 Hard Challenge. This aspect allows you to set a goal and see your progress as you see it through and you miss out on that with the 75 Soft Challenge.

MY CRITICISM OF THE 75 SOFT CHALLENGE

So if you're someone who doesn't currently workout, doesn't read, and doesn't focus at all on self improvement or personal development I think the 75 Soft Challenge could be a good start for you. If you're someone who arleady workouts out, takes care of your body and mind, and tries to improve yourself, then the 75 Soft Challenge is selling yourself short in my humble opinion.

The 75 Hard Challenge is all about developing Grit, challenging yourself with something you probably have a 50/50 shot of accomplishing, and really pushing yourself and I don't see the 75 Soft Challenge as doing that, it's fairly easy to accomplish.

Now let's take a look at the goals and where I see weaknesses with how this challenge is laid out...

1. Make healthy food choices 90% of the time.

A goal should be measurable and teh 75 Soft Challenge Goal#1 is vague. What constitutes a "healthy food choice" To many people a tuna fish sandwich is a healthy choice, maybe if its made with olive oil instead of mayo and a low carb wrap, but otherwise it's not that healthy. Also most people's idea of 90% of the time is probably in reality going to be less than 90% of the time. I like the 75 Hard Challenge in that it's very measurable, either you follow the diet or you don't.

2. Workout 4x per week for 30 minutes.

The whole point of the 75 Hard Challenge is to challenge yourself. I currently workout 7 days a week for an hour per day which I think is pretty good, however adding a second 45 minute workout would be a big challenge for me not only in finding the time to fit that into my day and my schedule, but currently in Chicago it's wintertime and there's going to be cold wet days when I don't want to be outside and that's where I'm going to develop that Grit that this challenge is all about developing. Also, at some point during this 75 Day Hard Challenge I'm going to have some work or personal obligations that are goin to make it tough to fit those workouts in. It's going to depend on how dedicated I am as to whether I wake up early or stay up late to cram in that second workout of the day and that's again where that grit is going to be developed and the 75 Soft Challenge completely misses this.

3. Drink half your body weight in ounces of water per day

Now this section of the challenge is pretty good. For most people this will get them drinking more water everyday than they currently do and that's a good thing. It does fall short of the 128 ounces of water the 75 Hard Challenge calls for, however it's a pretty good goal.

4. Meditate for 5 minutes per day

So this goal in my opinion is pretty lazy. Most beginners looking to start mediating start with 10 minutes per day. 5 Minutes isn't even long enough to settle in and calm your mind which makes this challenge lazy and somewhat pointless. I think if this were upped to 10 minutes per day it wouldn't be a bad challenge or goal.

5. Read or listen to 10 minutes of personal development or inspiration per day.

So this is very similar to Andy Frisella's 75 Hard Challenge however instead of reading you have the option of listening. I think it's very easy to zone out during an audio book and reading is something not enough people do and something that is more engaging than listening to an audiobook so I prefer the goal of reading 10 minutes perd ay with the 75 Hard Challenge as opposed to the listening option the 75 Soft Challenge gives you.

6. Take a Progress Picture Day 1 and Day 57

So with the 75 Soft Challenge, as opposed to taking a progress picture everyday you only have to take a progress picture two days of the challenge, day 1 and day 57. I'm unsure how they chose day 57 since the 75 Soft Challenge does go a full 75 Days. I think taking a progress picture everyday is a great way of keeping yourself motivated and measuring your progress and is also something that only takes 5 seconds to do, so I'm not sure why this was altered for the 75 Soft Challenge. To me it doesn't make the challenge much easier and takes away some of the benefit of goal setting and tracking progress.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So here's my take on the 75 Soft Challenge. Personally I don't feel like the 75 Hard Challenge is dangerous or unsafe, I feel like the need for a "Softer" challenge is wanting to take the easy way out for the vast majority of people who already workout and who already focus on personal development. That said if you're someone who's currently not working out, not eating healthy, and not setting goals and trying to improve yourself then the 75 Soft Challenge may be a good start for you.

On the other hand if you're already someone who works out 4x a week and someone who already eats relatively healthy then I think you should really challenge yourself and give the 75 Hard Chalenge a go.

John has years worth of experience working in the nutrition and supplement industry and has been working out and weight training since his teens. His other areas of expertise are SEO and Digital Marketing and when he's not in front of a screen John enjoys exploring the outdoors hiking and paddleboarding.

May 20th 2023

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