- 75 soft
- 75 soft challenge rules
- 75 day challenge
- habit streaks
- consistency
75 Soft challenge rules: the 4 rules, the rest day and missed days
What is the 75 Soft challenge? Four daily rules for 75 days, with a weekly rest day. What counts for each, how alcohol works, and what a missed day means.
The 75 Soft challenge rules are four daily tasks for 75 days: one 45-minute workout, with one day a week that can be active recovery; eat well, with alcohol only on social occasions; drink 3 litres of water; and read 10 pages of any book. There is no progress photo. And unlike 75 Hard, most versions do not send you back to day 1 when you miss a day.
What is the 75 Soft challenge?
It is a gentler community version of 75 Hard, the challenge created by Andy Frisella. You will also see it called the soft 75 challenge or the 75 day soft challenge. Nobody owns it and there is no single rulebook, so the details change from one version to the next. The four rules on this page are the ones most versions share, and the ones the 75 Soft tracker uses.
That lack of an owner is worth taking seriously. It means a lot of the rules are yours to settle. Write your answers down before day 1. Left until the moment you need one, the answer gets decided by a tired person at 9pm, which is the worst possible time to rule on whether a pint counts as social.
The 75 Soft challenge rules, one by one
| Rule | The common version | What you still have to decide |
|---|---|---|
| Workout | 45 minutes a day. One day a week can be active recovery. | Which day is the recovery day |
| Eat well | Eat well. Alcohol only on social occasions. | What eating well means for you, and what a social occasion is |
| Water | 3 litres, about 101 oz | Whether tea and sparkling water count |
| Reading | 10 pages of any book | Whether audiobooks count |
One 45-minute workout
Forty-five minutes of exercise a day, any kind. A run, a gym session, a swim, a class, a long brisk walk. There is no outdoor rule and no second session. This is the rule that sets the shape of the day, because 45 minutes plus changing and a shower is close to an hour and a quarter.
Does a walk count? In most versions, yes, if it is a proper 45-minute walk at a pace that feels like effort. A gentle stroll is better kept for the recovery day.
Eat well
This is the vaguest of the four, on purpose. 75 Soft does not ask for a named diet and does not ban treats. But "eat well" with no detail gives you nothing to tick. Turn it into two or four plain rules you can check at night, such as vegetables with lunch and dinner, no takeaway on weekdays, and dessert at weekends only. Then the tick means something.
Alcohol only on social occasions
Most versions allow a drink on social occasions and none otherwise. The trouble is the word social. A friend's birthday is clearly social. A glass of wine with dinner at home is clearly not. A drink after work with one colleague is the case that will come up in week three, so decide it now.
For a health reference point that does not depend on any challenge, the NHS advises not regularly drinking more than 14 units of alcohol a week. 75 Soft does not set a number. If you want one, that is a sensible ceiling to write next to the rule.
3 litres of water
Three litres is about 101 oz, or six 500 ml bottles. For scale, a 2004 report from the U.S. National Academies found that well-hydrated women took in about 2.7 litres of total water a day and men about 3.7 litres, counting every drink and the water in food. So 3 litres from drinks alone is above the average total for women and a little below the figure for men. It is a lot less than the gallon 75 Hard asks for, and most people can reach it by keeping one bottle with them and refilling it.
10 pages of any book
Any book counts, fiction included. That is a real difference from 75 Hard, which asks for non-fiction or self-improvement. Audiobooks are the open question. Some versions count them and some do not, and with no owner there is no one to rule on it. If you count them, count them by time, since an audiobook has no pages; a chapter is a reasonable stand-in.
How the rest day works
One day in each week of the challenge can be active recovery instead of a full 45-minute workout. Active recovery means light movement that helps you recover: a walk, yoga, stretching, an easy bike ride. It does not mean a day on the sofa. The other three rules still apply on the rest day.
Pick the day before you start. If you leave it floating, every tired Tuesday starts to look like the rest day, and by Thursday you have used it and still feel tired. A fixed day removes that whole argument.
For scale, six 45-minute workouts a week is 270 minutes of exercise. The CDC's guidance for adults is at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week plus muscle-strengthening on 2 days, so 75 Soft is already well past the baseline. It is soft only next to 75 Hard.
What happens if you miss a day of 75 Soft?
There is no one rule, because there is no one owner. Most versions are forgiving: you carry on, the missed day stays on the record, and the challenge still ends 75 days after it began. Some people choose the 75 Hard rule instead and restart at day 1 after any miss.
The 75 Soft tracker starts in the forgiving mode. A missed day shows as missed on the grid and your streak resets. If you want the strict version, choose a strict restart when you start, and then a miss ends the run.
Which should you choose? Forgiving, for a first attempt. The cost is that a miss feels cheap, and three cheap misses in a week can quietly turn the challenge into a loose suggestion. The fix is to treat the day after a miss as the one that matters. One miss is a day. Two in a row is the start of stopping.
75 Soft vs 75 Hard in one table
| 75 Soft | 75 Hard | |
|---|---|---|
| Workouts | One 45-minute session | Two 45-minute sessions, one outdoors |
| Rest | One active recovery day a week | None |
| Food | Eat well | A diet you choose, no cheat meals |
| Alcohol | Social occasions only | None |
| Water | 3 litres | One US gallon, about 3.8 litres |
| Reading | 10 pages of any book | 10 pages of non-fiction, no audiobooks |
| Photo | None | One a day |
| Missed day | Usually carry on | Start again at day 1 |
If you do not train most days now, start with 75 Soft. A finished 75 Soft teaches you more about your own weeks than a 75 Hard restarted four times. Move up once 45 minutes a day feels routine. The full 75 Hard rules set out what counts under each of its five tasks, if you want to see the step up before you take it.
One limit to be clear about: because the rules are loose, two people can both say they finished 75 Soft and have done quite different things. That makes it a poor challenge for comparing yourself with anyone else. It is a decent one for finding out what your own week can hold.
- What are the 75 Soft challenge rules?
- Four daily rules for 75 days: one 45-minute workout with one active recovery day a week, eat well with alcohol only on social occasions, drink 3 litres of water, and read 10 pages of any book. There is no progress photo, and versions differ because nobody owns the challenge.
- Can you drink alcohol on 75 Soft?
- Most versions allow alcohol only on social occasions. Decide before day 1 what a social occasion is for you, because by week three a drink after work starts to look like one. 75 Soft sets no number of drinks.
- Is there a rest day in 75 Soft?
- Yes. One day in each week can be active recovery instead of a full 45-minute workout, such as a walk, yoga or stretching. The water, reading and eating rules still apply that day. Picking a fixed weekday works better than choosing on the day.
- Do you restart 75 Soft if you miss a day?
- Usually not. Most versions let you carry on, with the missed day left on the record, and the challenge still ends 75 days after it began. Some people choose to restart at day 1 the way 75 Hard does. Pick one rule before you start.
- Does fiction count for 75 Soft reading?
- Yes. 75 Soft asks for 10 pages of any book, fiction included. 75 Hard is the version that asks for non-fiction or self-improvement. Whether audiobooks count depends on the version you follow.
- Is 75 Soft good for beginners?
- It is the better starting point of the three 75-day challenges. It still asks for 45 minutes of exercise six days a week, which is a lot if you train rarely now, so check with a doctor first if you have a health condition or are new to exercise.
Read next
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