The Feminine Girl's Guide To The 75 Hard Challenge

Indeed, Andy Frisella, the 75 Hard's creator, fits the description perfectly with his hulking muscles and no-excuses attitude.

There's nothing feminine about him or his brand. He created the testosterone-driven 75 Hard in order to strengthen mental toughness and discipline. The rules sound intense. For 75 days, these tasks have to be completed daily:

• Two 45-minute workouts; one has to be outside

• Read 10 pages of a physical, nonfiction book

• Drink 1 gallon of water

• Take a progress picture

• Follow a diet; no cheat meals

• No alcohol

And if you break even one of these rules, it's back to day one. Harsh, right?

But What if I Don't Want to Turn into a Bodybuilder?

When I first heard of the challenge, I didn't even think it was possible. Who has the time or energy? And I'm far from a buff, red-meat-eating man. I wasn't exactly the target demographic. I was a 22-year-old college senior with no clear plan for what came next. But I do know a few things about myself. I love structure. I love routine. And I'm always driven to grow. So if this program could help me personally and physically develop and better prepare me for a future that terrified me, I was interested.

I had previously trained rigorously under an 85-year-old Russian Orthodox ballet teacher, so the pursuit of discipline was ingrained in me. I can still hear her tap her cane on my foot. I had a feeling that if she saw my college self, that cane would have worked overtime. Femininity was also greatly emphasized in ballet. So I knew that it was possible to train at a higher level and retain the oxymoronic delicate-yet-strong image I'd loved. Another reason I clung to femininity is that I went to a southern college. For a girl, that meant mandatory self-tan nights, having pearl earrings glued to my ears at all times, and gaslighting my hairdresser that I didn't use Sun-In in between appointments.

My Strategy

I was determined to find a way to do the 75 Hard that didn't strip away my femininity, but worked with it. The first step of my feminine take on the 75 Hard was to make a plan that suited my needs. Each workout didn't have to involve a dumbbell. No one was going to force me to eat steak every night. I had more control over how I wanted to do the 75 Hard than I initially thought.

Here's the structure I ended up using:

I started training for a half-marathon. Now my 45-minute outdoor workout would be a run five days of the week, and a walk the other two. The other daily indoor workout would be light weights and Pilates most days, with stretching and yoga incorporated for when my body needed a gentler workout. The sauna was also implemented. I didn't follow a particularly harsh diet. But I did cut out refined sugar and wheat, only eating a grain at breakfast. The other meals tended to be more vegetable heavy. Protein was, of course, in every dish.

Over the course of the 75-day challenge, I read many books, from the networking classic "How to Talk to Anyone," to a book explicitly about femininity in today's era, "Let Me Be a Woman," to an exploration on growing up in the cult of Balanchine, "Don't Think, Dear: On Loving and Leaving Ballet." Maybe I could figure out how to get my ballet teacher's voice out of my head at last.

Instead of drinking at parties, I made mocktails and would sometimes have a little coffee before going out so that I could dance the night away. Caffeine became my drug of choice. And for 75 days, I followed every single rule.

The Unexpected Hardest Part

It would be a lie to say it was easy. Reading, sure. I do that every day. Eating healthy? I love to cook. There's always a new recipe I've found on Pinterest or TikTok I need to try. And coffee sweetened with only maple syrup and cinnamon is delicious. But what about when a coffee shop is doing a limited-edition carrot cake latte for spring? By the time I'd be done with the challenge, it would be gone! Or what about a friend's 21st birthday party where the theme was practically alcohol? Or when I'm on vacation? Surely, I could relax and maybe just do one 30-minute walk? No. That was what I learned how to say: no. I had to mentally tell myself that all those sweet treats would still be there. That I wasn't really missing out. That sacrificing a little time, a little sugar, and small, quick, dopamine hits, was worth it in the long run.

The hardest part surprised me: not drinking. The ironic thing is that I'm not a huge drinker. I tend to have maybe two drinks a weekend. I thought giving up alcohol would be the easiest part. It wasn't. It was my second-semester senior year, and everyone wanted to have a good time. And a lot of people took my abstinence personally. One of my close friends even told me, "I wish you'd drink. You're more fun." That stung. I stayed out late, trying to prove I didn't need alcohol to keep up. But eventually, I had to choose: if I had a 10-mile run the next morning, their approval wasn't worth it. I called it "Cinderella Syndrome." Because when the clock struck midnight, I was clocking out of the social scene and clocking into my bed.

Exponential Growth

When I began, I pictured 75 days later laying at the pool in a toned-up body ready for summer. But so much more than that happened. My confidence skyrocketed. I proved to myself that I could follow through, every single day. I even layered in new habits (thanks, "Atomic Habits"), like stretching while brushing my teeth and daily LinkedIn outreach over morning coffee.

For the first time in my life, the future didn't feel overwhelming. I trusted myself to handle it. There was growth and development in every area of my life. The future didn't seem so dire; I knew I could handle whatever life threw at me. That sense of achievement from finishing my very first half-marathon and the 75 Hard would always stay with me. I didn't just get stronger; I became more resilient, more disciplined, more in control. I learned that I can do hard things. Even after I finished the 75 Hard, I kept up the habits simply because they were my routine now. It didn't feel forced. It was just a part of my day to do two workouts, eat healthfully, and read. Water, however, is still a challenge (Pro tip: chug lukewarm water first thing in the morning).

And I never did get the bulky muscles I feared. Instead, I learned to value my body for what it could do, not just how it looked. I didn't feel jacked on testosterone. In fact, quite the opposite. I felt even more feminine. My menstrual cycle, typically long and unpredictable, finally balanced out. My hormones became an efficient machine. I didn't feel tired all the time, and my immune system was stronger than ever. It turns out, all that cardio I'd been doing had increased my estrogen. It was like my body could finally accept and use the nutritious foods I was giving it. Training that hard that consistently forces you to understand how to fuel yourself, how powerful it is simply to move, and how to rest and recover.

I've now completed 75 Hard twice, each time during a moment when I needed structure most. What I learned is this: discipline doesn't have to look harsh or masculine to be effective. There's a version of it that can be intentional, balanced, even feminine, and still completely transformative.

That's the version I'll keep.