Prepare for summer gently with the ’75 soft challenge’, a gentler and less restrictive version of the ’75 hard challenge’. This challenge, to be followed for 75 days, allows you to integrate the physical activity of your choice while enjoying your usual pleasures. An ideal challenge for beginners looking to adopt a healthier lifestyle, without quickly becoming discouraged.
After the 75 Hotter Challenge or 75 hard challenge, here is the 75 Soft Challenge (soft challenge of 75 days). This softer variation was imagined by fitness coach Stephen Gallagher and shared on TikTok. His video quickly went viral, racking up 2.5 million views.
More accessible, and more realistic than its predecessor, the 75 soft challenge focuses more on well-being and mental health than on weight loss, even if it aims to sculpt your body and tone up. The challenge is based around four rules: train every day for 45 minutes (recovering one day per week), eat healthy and drink alcohol only on special occasions, read ten pages of a book per day in order to to keep your brain active and strive to drink at least three liters of water per day. And this for 75 days in a row.
@stephengfitness 75 soft let’s be having you #75soft #fitness #workout #75hard #fyp ♬ Deceptacon – Le Tigre
Unlike its other variant, the 75 soft challenge only requires one physical activity per day instead of two. Physical exercises can be varied from running to walking. It is therefore useless to be a top athlete. Another notable difference: the consumption of alcohol is authorized for special occasions. Photos of physical transformation, which can have harmful effects on mental and physical health, have disappeared from the challenge. In addition, you are allowed to have a gourmet meal (which Americans call a “cheat meal”) once a week.
As for reading, a few parameters have changed, as Dr. Casey Kelley explains in the columns of Women’s Health. “Although both challenges require daily reading, the 75 Hard challenge mandates ten pages of a non-fiction, self-help book, while the 75 Soft challenge is less prescriptive on book type, allowing you to read according to your interests“, she says. However, as in the other version, if you skip a day, you have to start from scratch.
On the TikTok social network, the hashtag #75softchallenge already generates thousands of videos from Internet users won over by the concept. And everyone has their own version. In one of her videos, viewed more than a million times, TikToker Melissa Tovar (xomelissatovar) admits to having concocted her own soft challenge. For example, she suggests not drinking coffee before breakfast, but consuming it an hour later, so as not to “increase cortisol levels.” The challenge also applies to sleep, since the Internet user stops all activity on their phone after 10 p.m.
Internet user hann_macdonald decided to add to his challenge a morning and evening beauty routine as well as an “everything shower” (shower incorporating body and hair care) once a week.
You will have understood, it is a challenge which can be remodeled according to your personal objectives. The key is to create healthier habits to integrate into your daily life, even outside of periods of challenge. This challenge can serve as a discipline to achieve – and maintain in the long term – fitness goals. “By emphasizing moderation and mindful eating and exercising rather than restriction and deprivation, you integrate healthier habits into your daily routine in a balanced and sustainable way,” says Dr. Kelley. “Remember that you are aiming for progress, not perfection“, she concludes.
