If you're not familiar, 75 Hard is a mental toughness program created by Frisella, that he says can also come with physical changes. The program invites people to complete an outline of requirements daily for 75 days straight. When participants fail or skip a day, they have to return to day one.
More than changing the physical appearance, the goal of Andy's program is to develop an internal drive within people. Exercise twice each day for 45 minutes - it doesn't matter what the exercise is but one of these sessions must to be outdoors.Drink 4 litres of water per day.Pick a diet or eating plan and stick to that plan. Stick to real life material to work on your mindset.Take one progress photo each day - even though this is more of a mental challenge, the byproduct will be a physical change at the end of the 75 days. In this episode, I share my journey of not only completing Phase 1 of 75 Hard (#75Hard) but also the additional phases that lead up to one full year, 365 days, of the challenge.
75 Hard is a mental toughness challenge set by business owner, podcaster, and coach Andy Frisella on his podcast in 2019. It comprises of several daily tasks, that if done every day for 75 days , will change your life and mental toughness. In today's episode, I share the two biggest keys to successfully completing 75 Hard and all its additional phases.
75 Hard program helps people develop the necessary mental toughness needed to create a healthier lifestyle, and achieve what they want in life. Many times, people struggle with fitness, diet, and exercise because of a lack of resolve. The program by Andy Frisella hopes to change that for many people everywhere, by sharpening their sense of discipline and mental determination to achieve their fitness goals and any other goal, for that matter. Therefore, while people who complete the program can experience massive physical transformations, 75 Hard is actually a mental toughness program, aimed to improve all areas of life. Caroline Apovian, MD, codirector of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women's Hospital and a Harvard Medical School faculty member agrees. She says the most outrageous of the 75 hard challenge rules is drinking a gallon of water a day.
"I am not sure most people need to drink that much water," she says. Before starting, I outlined some goals that I had and wanted to work towards. A big challenge I have is clean eating…I love food, specifically food that is not good for you. I am not big into fast food, but I do love decadent foods…ice cream, cookies, cake, brownies, chocolate; and I do enjoy having a drink with my friends. The working out was never really going to be a super hard part of this challenge because I have been consistently working out for the last 5 or 6 years, but my diet has served to my detriment. I was very eager on fixing this and hoped that my health, physical appearance, and overall how I felt would be improved simply by adjusting my diet and cutting out all snacks and alcohol.
I also wanted my dietary changes to be sustainable so that it would be easy to maintain after this challenge. A big problem I've witnessed with myself and others, is committing to a "diet" that is hard to keep up in the long run which results in the person not being able to stick to it. I'm not interested in a "2 week washboard abs diet plan"…I want something that would keep me healthy for the next 20 years and that I can do without much thinking.
The #75HARD Challenge is the newest diet and exercise trend all over the Internet. The challenge lasts 75 days of following clearly set rules about your diet, workouts, and personal development. There are no cheat days allowed, and if participants do break even 1 rule, they start back at day one. "I've spent more than 20 years figuring out how to master mental toughness and I'm putting everything I've learned into a program I call 75HARD," he writes in the episode notes. I've learned much about myself since taking a leap of faith over 2 years ago.
A few days ago while listening the the MFCEO Project, I came across an episode titled 75hard — a 75 day tactical guide to winning the war with yourself. I encourage everyone to listen to this podcast because I believe we're all fighting some kind of war within ourself. I'm not a big fan of 20 day workout programs because they never produce any sustainable results!
It's a mental toughness challenge where you follow 6 basic habits for 75 days straight, without missing a single day. If you skip a day, you restart from Day 1. Through his 75 Hard program, Andy hopes to help people develop mental resilience to stay the course and reach their goals.
"There's nothing worse than rolling through life in the passenger's seat," declares the entrepreneur and coach. "I realized that the root cause of all of my problems was not addressed by any existing program. Many people have become more health-conscious as the health and fitness industry continues to skyrocket into never-before-seen heights. As more people find ways to remain healthy and achieve their ideal bodies, there has been a demand for fitness regimens that provide people with results. One regimen catching worldwide attention is the "75 Hard Program" created by entrepreneur and mental toughness expert, Andy Frisella, which has made rounds on social media platforms as of late.
75 Strong was inspired by following the frequently shared 75 day hard challenge rules for 75 days and annotating what worked as well as what could be done better. The end product was this – a 75 day program for holistic, lifelong strength built by ingraining positive habits. 75 day hard challenge can change your way of thinking. You have to follow five rules for 75 days straight.
If you slip on any one of them, even once, you have to start over from day one. My hardest challenge with this program was the water, I didn't really drink water at all before it. I used to read around 100 pages a day, workout & around day 40 in the 75hard I added cold showers to my program list. I've also messaged Andy & commented about the benefits of the cold showers that I'm tending to think that I had to do with him adding cold showers to the phase 1. Sklar points out that programs like this are "targeted towards beginners," and 90 minutes of exercise can be a lot for those who don't really work out much or at all. "Even though it's presented as a mental toughness program, the accompanying pictures are mostly testimonial style 'transformation' photos," Sklar says.
"As a result, this presents as a fitness program. While there are benefits to mental strength training, there are safer and highly effective ways to create lifestyle change that is sustainable." Felt like this was a walking advertisement for shopping at Mr. Frisella's supplement store. The "meat and potatoes" of this book is probably summed up in approximately 10 pages. 1) drink a gallon of water daily, 2) read from a non-fiction book for at least 10 minutes daily, 3) make a dietary change and stick with it, 4) perform two 45-minute workouts daily. By day 45, I had lost a total of 20 lbs.
For the first time in my life, i could look in the mirror and see abs! But the physical changes are just the tip of the iceberg. During the 75 Hard challenge, I underwent a massive mind-shift change and started taking very real and very intentional action in both my business life and my personal life.
You get to choose which diet you want to follow; the only challenge is sticking to it. Without a single cheat meal for 75 days. The point here is to get your mind past the sensation of getting bored from eating the same food, or succumbing to impulsive eating decisions. He seems to be exactly the type of person I try to avoid in my day to day life. I listened to the one podcast he says is "necessary" but could not listen to any others.
I find him to be a ridiculous human being who is hypocritical in many respects. As a therapist, no one with the high self-esteem he claims to have has to remind you about it over and over again. Anyway… my whole mindset about the program is to take what I need from it and leave the rest of the BS. The rest of made up rules people interpret from his book and podcasts in order to "please" him is something I leave. The 75Hard Challenge has been hard to escape lately as it trends across social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
Founder Andy Frisella — who promises it isn't just another internet challenge — claims that the 75Hard Challenge is a "transformative mental toughness program." While I was in pursuit of the "mental toughness" Andy promises this challenge will deliver, I accomplished quite the physical feat to get there. Running the numbers, I spent over 60 hours outside either walking, jogging or running. I estimate this to be over 350 kilometers over the course of the last seventy-five days. That's not even taking into consideration the daily 2KM warmup I always complete on the treadmill when working out in the gym - this brings my count to a whopping 500 klicks, not bad! My running stamina improved tremendously in parallel to the strength I was building lifting weights.
Frisella isn't a dietician or licensed clinical therapist, and he recommends consulting a "trainer or a consultant" about the food program you choose. But, he says, you can't have a single cheat meal, and you can't have any alcohol. I have also been working on 75HARD, and you'll never guess where i keep messing up.
It's that damn gallon of water every day. I go long periods of my days without access to a restroom. I am working on a game plan right now to combat this, and I am overcoming any obstacles that stand in my way of accomplishing 75HARD. Just as Andy said, "it will teach you that sometimes the things that look easy, are actually some of the hardest things to do!".
And, that comment was directed specifically toward the people who think that drinking a gallon of water every day is easy. Oddly, though this requires 45 minutes of physical activity twice a day, I seem to have more free time! I think there are multiple reasons for this, but mostly I'm afraid of having to start the 75 days over so I'm sure to do all my activity and reading early! The momentum of the workouts kick-start the rest of my day and bust procrastination. I'm not tempted to start over, so I'm not tempted to eat off plan, so I don't spend any time thinking about it. Doug Sklar, a certified personal trainer and founder of PhilanthroFIT in New York City, is also wary of the program.
"Exercising incorrectly—poor form, inappropriate intensity, not accounting for rest days—over an extended period of time can be harmful." Plenty of people have created their own testimonials about the program on social media, sharing that they got in shape, improved their physical and mental health thanks to 75 Hard. There is no explanation as to the reason behind these rules. How does drinking a gallon of water and taking a cold shower increase mental toughness, really? Because it's a habit that Andy thinks you need?
This cost on the mental health of social media users may have put money in Frisella's pocket. In a 2017 interview with Forbes, Frisella explained how his social media strategy helped his supplement company earn $100 million in sales. As someone who has completed 75hard and read a lot personal development books, this is one of the worst-written books I have EVER read. The grammar and spelling errors are astronomical.
For someone running a multi-million dollar company you'd think Andy would hire a decent editor. I highly recommend completing the 75hard program, but I certainly don't recommend wasting time reading this book. On the flip side, it wasn't just the cold that made the conditions less than perfect. I can remember being in Orlando, Florida for Memorial Day weekend at a friends place where everyone was getting together to celebrate.
There was an amazing food spread, drinks were flowing, and we were going to spend the day on a boat. Wake up early to get both of my workouts in before we left. Why this was of note is because people started coming over to the house to start having fun while I am on their porch doing a 45 minute workout. It was literally the last thing I wanted to be doing at that time.
Once again, conditions are never perfect but the dues still have to be paid. When I thought of doing the entire challenge for 75 Days I wanted to quit before it started. I had the same issue with setting specific goals. It can be overwhelming so the most important lesson I've learned is to show up every day. One moment at a time and when it feels impossible I break it down to one step at a time. ♥️ 🙌🏼Thankful for my support system who have shown nothing but love and care.
The progress photos have been a really great tracker of this journey because I feel like if I was just relying on looking in the mirror it would be a lot harder to see changes. I know there is still a way to go before I get to my goals, but I think that this challenge equips anyone with the tools to literally change who you are in just 75 days once you can stick to the rules. There have been so many different weight loss trends and challenges that have taken over TikTok, like keto diets or Chloe Ting shred challenges. What's different and intriguing about this challenge is that it calls for much more than just a change in your diet and exercise routine.
And she notes that this program isn't based on scientific evidence. The fitness challenge 75 Hard is taking over social media, but is it safe to do? Experts share their thoughts on the 75 Hard challenge rules and whether they would recommend trying the program.
What most people don't see when they look at the 75 Hard challenge is the intense mental and emotional shifts that come with getting control over your health and fitness. And that's why 75 hard was so important to me. The mental breakthroughs, the strength developed, and the added clarity to every aspect of life is hard to understand unless you've been there.
"If you are looking for a new fitness program, this is not it. This challenge can transform your life…starting from the inside", says Andy Frisella, creator of 75 HARD and founder of 1st Phorm. According to Andy, while this challenge may produce amazing physical results, it's more of a mental toughness challenge. Every email thus far has a call to action to purchase or sign up for something that makes the founder money and none have been directly related to the challenge itself.
He also asks that you take a progress picture every day and post it to social media, tagging the 75Hard Challenge so that he and others can see it, i.e., extend the marketing reach. Except, Frisella claims this isn't a diet. He acknowledges that you will likely lose weight and there are physical transformations, but defines it as a program for your mental toughness. That sounds great except this challenge trends online because of the before-and-after weight-loss photos (they're also featured on his website), which are a clever and effective marketing tool. Created by American entrepreneur and podcast host, Andy Frisella, #75Hard is a "transformative mental toughness program." Below is snapshot from Andy's website, where many find themselves embarking on this journey. If we're all being honest, who wouldn't want to 100x the attributes listed below?
