What is 75 Hard? The ‘mental toughness’ program is delivering drastic results — but is it safe?

The 75 Hard Rules

Frisella says the rules of 75 Hard are simple, but that doesn’t mean the plan is easy.

There are five daily tasks (plus one over-arching rule!) which much be executed consistently for the entire 75 days.

1. If you skip a day, you must start over. If you miss a task, you must start over at day one. “You can’t tweak the program to your liking … it’s supposed to be inconvenient and it’s supposed to be hard,” said Frisella. “In life, conditions are never going to be perfect; you’re always going to have to do things that you don’t want to do and the minute you start tweaking or compromising, that’s what opens the door to quitting.”
2. Pick a diet to follow, with no alcohol or cheat meals. You must choose a diet based on your goals and stick to it. But there’s a second caveat to the rule: No cheat meals and no alcohol. In a culture that depends on after-work drinks or wine once the kids are in bed, Frisella acknowledges the difficulty of this task. “Not a drop. Not a beer. Not a wine. Not a glass when you get home. Nothing for at least 75 days,” he said. “There’s a number of reasons for this: Empty calories, psychological addiction, physical addiction. Also, we’re talking about detoxing your body for 75 days … You don’t understand how foggy you are because of this (alcohol-drinking) lifestyle.”
3. Drink a gallon of water daily. “Make sure you start early and be consistent throughout the day so that you’re not chugging a gallon of water before you go to bed,” Frisella said, which, he admits, he had to do a few times himself.
4. Complete 2 daily workouts. One of the most time-consuming parts of 75 Hard is the workouts: Two 45-minute workouts of your choice must be completed per day and one of those workouts must be done outside, regardless of the weather. “This is the point of the program — conditions are never perfect,” said Frisella. “And one of the reasons that most people can’t get through life in an effective way is because the minute conditions are…