75 hard – is it good for you?

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the 75 hard trend, but is it actually good for you? And is it worth it?

I have tried to do 75 hard before, and ended up changing the rules half way through because I was miserable.

However, lets put my own feelings aside, and weigh out the benefits and drawbacks of 75 hard.

What actually is 75 hard?

75 hard is a challenge, lasting 75 days, where you follow a set of rules. If you fail to complete all of the rules, you have to start from day 1. If you complete every rule, every day, then you complete the challenge.

The rules of 75 hard

• Follow a diet. This can be any diet of your choice, as long as it strives towards achieving a better body. You aren’t allowed alcohol, or any cheat meals.
• Two 45minute workouts. One must be outside.
• Take a progress picture everyday.
• Drink 1 gallon of water per day.
• Read 10 pages of a non fiction book.

Let’s dive deeper into these benefits and drawbacks to really question whether 75 hard is for you.

Builds discipline

There is no doubt that 75 hard doesn’t build discipline.

You have to be strict with yourself and really push yourself to follow something.

This can be beneficial because it builds up mental strength, which can filter into different things in your life.

Higher water intake

Because of 75 hard’s rule of drinking a gallon of water a day, it means you will be drinking more water. (And peeing a lot more lol).

There are so many benefits to drinking more water, including:

• Better digestion
• More energy
• Decreased joint pain
• Improved brain performance
• Gets rid of waste with urination

So this one is definitely a plus when it comes to 75 hard!

You read more

Maybe I am a little biased, but I love reading.

Reading is so good for your brain, and if you are reading a non fiction book, you can also learn something as well.

It is an achievable goal of reading 10 pages per day (it doesn’t have to be all in one go). And it gets you off your phone.

You can choose any non fiction book you like, so if you pick something you’ve always wanted to learn about, or are really interested in, then you can expand your knowledge.

You are more active

There are obviously benefits of being more active everyday, especially if you sit at a desk for work, it is good to move your body (to an extent).

Benefits of being more active:

• Strengthens your bones and muscles
• Gives you the ability to do everyday activities easier
• Improves your mental and physical health
• Reduces the risk of diseases
• Improves your quality of sleep
• Lowers your blood pressure and improves heart health

You have a goal to strive towards

Sometimes having a goal is all people need for their motivation to increase.

No matter what the goal is in your life, it is always good to be striving towards something to better yourself and become a levelled up version of you.

Maybe you have lost motivation to do anything, and having a challenge, like 75 hard, would get you out of your slump, and motivate you to strive towards something.

Constantly body checking

Because one of the rules of 75 hard is to take a progress picture of your body everyday, that means you will be constantly checking for progress.

And whilst it is good to check your progress and feel proud of yourself, those noticeable changes might not happen everyday.

Constantly checking your body, hoping you will see something different is not good for you.

I’m sure a lot of people have grew up, like myself, constantly taking progress pictures and wishing our bodies looked different. Having to take a progress picture everyday could mean that the body checking is constant throughout the day, as well as just the progress picture.

It could create unhealthy habits, of hoping to see something different when we look in the mirror. And it could cause you to feel negative about yourself. Which we definitely DON’T want!

It is restrictive

The rules of 75 hard, mean it is nearly impossible to enjoy yourself. There, I said it.

If you have to sacrifice going for a family meal because you need to get your second workout in, or you won’t be able to eat anything, then what kind of life is that?

I know it’s only for 75 days, so it’s not permanent, but to me, no challenge is worth sacrificing time with my family.

I think following a diet and getting two workouts a day everyday doesn’t leave you much time to do anything else. And whilst you may be getting a better body for 2 months, how are you going to keep that up after you finish the challenge?

What if someone’s birthday is in the middle of your challenge and they want to have a birthday dinner? Are you going to say no? Are you going to go and not eat anything?

It seems very unhealthy and bordering on a very bad relationship with food and exercise.

It feeds into diet culture

The fact that you have to follow a diet and not stray from it for 75 days, sounds like torture to me.

It is also restrictive to not allow yourself any food or drink that strays from your diet, and could lead to you binging at the end of the challenge. (If you make it that far).

The toxic mindset of labelling foods as bad and good really does more harm than good.

I agree that some foods will make you feel satisfied and give you energy, whereas some will make you feel sluggish and make you crash. But you know what probably will make you crash? Restricting the ‘bad’ food for 2 month and trying to fight off your cravings for it.

It is draining

This leads me onto the 75 hard challenge being draining.

Two 45minute workouts everyday WITH NO REST?!

You will quickly find yourself getting burnt out, especially if you are a woman.

What about during your period week when you want to stay in bed, watch Netflix and eat chocolate??

Especially as women, we need to listen to our bodies, and let ourselves rest when we need it.

So maybe you do complete the challenge and fight through the burnout. But at the end, you aren’t going to have any energy to do anything.

As well as this, if you are doing this on top of work and day to day things, you are going to be exhausted!!

Not to mention, how are you going to find the time to do any of this?!

The risk of injury

Working out every single day with no rest could lead to injury.

Think about it, if you are working out everyday, your muscles are going to be very sore, with not much time to recover.

This means when you are working out and your muscles are really sore, you could end up sacrificing your form, and injure yourself.

If you wanted to prevent injury, you would have to come up with a strategic workout plan, that allows you to workout every day, whilst giving your muscles optimum recovery.

There is a lot of pressure

There is a lot of pressure on you to make sure you complete the rules everyday, otherwise you know you will be starting from 0.

This could lead you to feel negatively about the challenge, as well as negatively about yourself, if you fail to complete any of these rules.

Exercise and living healthy should be fun! So if you’re chugging 1 litre of water at the end of the day, or frantically getting your workout gear on to complete your second workout of the day. Is that enjoyable?

It is definitely not a sustainable way to live that’s for sure.

My experience

I started out very motivated and excited to get going, because I had seen all of the body transformation and wanted that for myself.

Taking the progress picture was a hard step for me, and did leave me feeling and thinking negatively about myself.

Side note: Our bodies do change. Some days you will be bloated, other days you won’t be. So taking a progress picture everyday and comparing it to the day before could be pointless, and leave you feeling worse about yourself.

Half way through, I changed the rules (lol). It got to the point where I was looking at my body, and the progress pictures so much. I was wondering why the scales weren’t going down as much as I wanted them too. I was also wondering why my transformations weren’t as drastic to the other people I’ve seen.

I just felt very restricted and negative about the whole thing.

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it. I do think it could be a good challenge, but for the everyday person, who still wants to have a life, I definitely wouldn’t do it.

I think the healthiest version of you is the happiest version of you, and I definitely wasn’t happy at all!!

Thank you for reading <3

I hope this post gave you a better insight into the 75 hard challenge, if you were deliberating doing it.

I have tried previously and ended up failing and changing the rules half way through because I couldn’t do it anymore!!

Let me know if any of you have tried it, and whether you completed it or not!