# 75 Soft Challenge Rules: The Full List, Both Versions, and How to Finish

> The 75 Soft challenge rules explained: the four daily rules, how they differ from 75 Hard, what counts as a workout or a social drink, and the one addition t...

Canonical: https://habithuddle.com/blog/75-soft-challenge-rules

75 Soft has four daily rules: exercise 45 minutes a day with one active recovery day each week, drink three litres of water, read 10 pages of any book, and eat well while keeping alcohol to social occasions. You do that for 75 days. If you miss a day, you pick it back up the next morning. There is no restart clause.

That last sentence is the whole point of the challenge and also its biggest weakness, which is why this guide covers more than the list. You will get the rules as most people run them, the two competing versions floating around, what actually counts as a workout or a social drink, and the one thing to add so you reach day 75 instead of quietly stopping around day 20.

## The 75 Soft challenge rules

The four rules of 75 Soft, as popularised on TikTok and repeated by [Cleveland Clinic](https://health.clevelandclinic.org/75-soft-challenge) and [WebMD](https://www.webmd.com/balance/75-soft-challenge), are these:

![Four everyday objects standing for the four daily rules of 75 Soft: a healthy plate, running shoes, a water bottle, and a paperback book](https://habithuddle.com/storage/seo/legacy/8cdc4205a867eb4c6db64da61e1b325990c6fe65.jpg)

1. **Exercise for 45 minutes every day**, with one day per week as active recovery. Walking, yoga, swimming, and stretching all count. Active recovery means you still move, just not hard.
2. **Drink three litres of water a day.** Around 100 ounces, or roughly three large bottles.
3. **Read 10 pages of any book a day.** Fiction, non-fiction, audiobooks if you want. The phone does not count.
4. **Eat well and only drink alcohol on social occasions.** No named diet, no cheat-meal police. Mindful choices, most of the time.

Many people add a fifth: a photo on day 1 and day 75. It is optional and it is the version of progress pictures that does not turn into a daily chore.

The challenge runs 75 days, which is about two and a half months. Start on a Monday and you finish on a Sunday, which is a small detail people appreciate around week nine.

The rule that is not on the list matters as much as the four that are: **a missed day does not send you back to day 1.** You are trusted to pick it up tomorrow.

## 75 Soft vs 75 Hard: what changed and why

75 Soft exists because 75 Hard breaks most people who try it, and not on the workouts. 75 Hard, created by Andy Frisella, requires two 45-minute workouts a day with one outdoors, a gallon of water, a diet with no cheat meals and no alcohol, 10 pages of non-fiction, and a progress photo, every day for 75 days. Miss one item and you restart.

| Rule | 75 Hard | 75 Soft |
|---|---|---|
| Workouts | Two per day, 45 min each, one outdoors | One per day, 45 min, one active recovery day weekly |
| Water | 1 gallon (3.8 L) | 3 litres |
| Reading | 10 pages, non-fiction self-development only | 10 pages of any book |
| Food | A strict diet of your choice, zero cheat meals | Eat well, no named diet |
| Alcohol | None for 75 days | Social occasions only |
| Progress photos | Daily | Day 1 and day 75, optional |
| Miss a day | Restart at day 1 | Resume tomorrow |

Sports medicine physician Russell Camhi told WebMD that 75 Hard "sets the bar too high" for a novice, and that the 90 minutes of daily exercise is "asking for injury and failure." Cleveland Clinic sports psychologist Matthew Sacco makes the same case from the motivation side: for beginners, having to start over after one slip makes it "very difficult to find the motivation to keep going."

The research agrees with both of them on the reset. In the most cited study of real-world habit formation, Lally and colleagues followed 96 people building a daily habit and found that [missing a single day did not measurably affect the habit-formation process](https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674). One miss is noise. 75 Hard treats it as the end of the world, and that design choice, not the workouts, is what produces the day-12 dropouts.

![Two paths up the same hill: a steep jagged one where a climber slides back down, and a gentle winding trail where a walker keeps climbing](https://habithuddle.com/storage/seo/legacy/b57879f9065215b886898b973ac0e4345ae1a847.jpg)

## There are two versions of 75 Soft, so pick one on purpose

75 Soft has no official rulebook, and two different rule sets share the name. Knowing which one you are running saves an argument on day 3.

**The viral version** is the one above: 45 minutes daily, three litres, 10 pages, eat well, social drinks only. It is the one Cleveland Clinic, WebMD, and most TikTok creators describe, and it is what people mean by default.

**The 75soft.com version**, run by the mother-daughter duo behind that site, is lighter and longer: mindful eating 90% of the time, four 30-minute workouts a week, half your body weight in ounces of water, five minutes of meditation, 10 minutes of reading or listening to personal development, and photos on day 1 and day 75.

Neither is wrong. The viral version is closer to 75 Hard in shape and gives you a daily rhythm. The 75soft.com version is closer to a sustainable lifestyle and is kinder to anyone with a shift schedule or small kids. Write down which one you are doing before day 1, and if you are doing it with friends, make sure you all picked the same one.

## What counts: the questions everyone asks by day 4

A 45-minute walk counts as a 75 Soft workout. The flexibility is the feature, not a loophole. WebMD's summary is explicit that walking and yoga count, unlike 75 Hard, where a stroll does not satisfy the rule.

**Does a rest day break 75 Soft?** No. One active recovery day a week is built in. Cleveland Clinic suggests stretching, swimming, walking, or yoga on that day so you keep moving without intensity.

**Is there a cheat day?** Not formally. 75 Soft has no cheat days because it has no strict diet to cheat on. Birthday cake at a party is a social occasion. Birthday cake alone on a Tuesday is a choice you notice, write down, and do not repeat tomorrow.

**What is a "social occasion" for alcohol?** The honest test: would you be drinking if nobody else were there? A wedding, a leaving do, dinner with friends all qualify. A glass of wine while watching television does not.

**Do audiobooks count for the reading rule?** Under 75 Soft, yes. The viral rules say "any book." If you want to stay strict, set a 20-minute listening target, since 10 pages is roughly that.

**How much weight will I lose?** Nobody can tell you, and anyone quoting a number is guessing. 75 Soft is a consistency challenge, not a diet. Daily movement plus mindful eating usually moves the scale over 75 days, but the point of day 75 is that you are still moving, not that you hit a figure.

**Can a beginner do 75 Hard instead?** The physicians quoted above say no, and the injury argument is hard to dismiss. Start with 75 Soft, finish it, then decide whether you want the harder version.

## The missing rule: how people actually finish 75 Soft

The reason people quit 75 Soft is the opposite of why they quit 75 Hard. 75 Hard loses you with one brutal miss. 75 Soft loses you with ten small downgrades. Without a restart clause, nothing stops "45 minutes" becoming "a walk to the shop" by week three, and then becoming nothing by week five, with no single day you can point to as the day you quit.

Three fixes, in order of how much they help.

**Give each rule a floor.** A floor is the smallest version of the rule that still counts on your worst day, decided in advance. Ten minutes of movement. One litre of water. Two pages. You step on the floor on a bad day and keep the chain alive. On good days you burst through the ceiling, the full 45 minutes and then some. The floor turns a vague "do your best" into a line you either crossed or did not, which is exactly the enforcement 75 Soft is missing.

**Check in daily with people who know you.** Sacco told WebMD that the social side of 75 Soft "provides a level of accountability and support." That works best when it is specific: a handful of friends, each doing their own version, each checking in once a day. The daily checkin is a tiny ritual, but it is the moment the challenge becomes real again every single morning. Being cheered for showing up is the most reliable reason people keep going past the novelty period.

![A small group of friends each holding up a phone with a glowing check mark, clapping hands and hearts floating between them](https://habithuddle.com/storage/seo/legacy/d4b09420662ba072e08dc6cd5a977e611774b65e.jpg)

**Decide your miss rule before day 1.** The viral rules say "pick it back up tomorrow." Write that down, in those words, and add one sentence: "Two misses in a row means I text the group." Misses are allowed. Disappearing is what ends challenges.

## If 75 Soft still feels like too much

75 days is long for a first finish, and there is no prize for choosing the famous format over the one you will complete. A few gentler formats, all of which drop the reset:

- **75 Medium**: 75 Hard's shape at roughly 60% intensity, one workout and two or three habits you define.
- **30 day habit challenge**: one habit, one action, 30 days. The format most likely to hand a first-time finisher a win. The setup that sticks is in our [30 day habit challenge guide](https://habithuddle.com/blog/30-day-habit-challenge).
- **57 Chill**: the inversion of 75 Hard's number and attitude. 57 days, a floor of about six minutes a day, a ceiling if you want one, and a group that checks in together. Built for people who have quit challenges alone and want company this time.
- **Modified 75 Hard**: the original five rules with one written amendment, decided before day 1.

Our full breakdown of each, with who it fits and where it falls short, is in the [75 Hard alternatives guide](https://habithuddle.com/blog/75-hard-alternative).

## Run 75 Soft with friends in a huddle

If you are going to do 75 Soft, do it where someone will cheer your day 40 checkin. [Habit Huddle](https://habithuddle.com/app) is built for exactly this shape: you create a huddle, invite a few friends, and each of you tracks your own 75 Soft habit with a Floor for bad days and a Ceiling for good ones. Every checkin is visible to the huddle and earns applause, each person keeps a personal streak in days, and the huddle grows a Checkin Chain, one link per member per day, that everyone watches get longer.

It runs on web, iOS, Android, and inside Discord, so a friend group that already lives in a server can check in without leaving it. The free plan covers one active habit, which is all 75 Soft needs. Trade-off: it will not log your sets, your miles, or your macros. It tracks whether you showed up, which is the only number 75 Soft actually cares about.

Already have people to do it with? The setup advice in [how to build an exercise habit that sticks](https://habithuddle.com/blog/how-to-build-an-exercise-habit) covers the first two weeks, where most of the dropouts happen.

## 75 Soft challenge FAQ

**What are the rules of the 75 Soft challenge?**
Exercise 45 minutes a day with one active recovery day a week, drink three litres of water, read 10 pages of any book, and eat well while limiting alcohol to social occasions, for 75 days. Miss a day and you continue the next day rather than restarting.

**Does walking count as a workout on 75 Soft?**
Yes. Walking, yoga, swimming, and cycling all satisfy the 45-minute rule. 75 Soft is about moving daily, not about intensity, and a walk is explicitly fine where it would not be on 75 Hard.

**Can you drink alcohol on 75 Soft?**
Only on social occasions. The common-sense test is whether you would be drinking if nobody else were there. A wedding or dinner with friends qualifies, a solo glass at home does not.

**Do you have to start over if you miss a day of 75 Soft?**
No. The absence of a restart clause is the main difference from 75 Hard. Pick the rules back up the next day. Setting a small floor for each rule makes it far less likely you miss the day entirely.

**How is 75 Soft different from 75 Hard?**
75 Soft has one workout a day instead of two, three litres of water instead of a gallon, any book instead of non-fiction only, mindful eating instead of a strict diet, social drinks instead of none, and no reset for a missed day.