To caveat, while Vincent shares that the 75 Medium may have some benefits, there are certain people he affirms the challenge wouldn’t be suitable for. Read on for more.

1. You could develop solid habits

‘It could help you develop weekly habits around exercise, hydration, and reading. For anyone who has read Atomic Habits, the idea of creating stable habits and stacking them on top of each other is an excellent approach for anyone looking to improve their overall health and productivity.’

2. It’s less strict than 75 Hard and can be adapted to suit your lifestyle

‘The challenge promotes more balance and flexibility than the 75 Hard challenge. It is less rigid and offers a framework that could be sustained permanently, since it allows for occasional days of relaxed nutrition, and the workout schedule isn’t as intense.’

3. It’s accessible to most fitness levels

‘A single workout is certainly more manageable than two – as the 75 Hard challenge specifies. Having more flexibility with nutrition also increases accessibility.’

4. It incorporates different forms of personal development and growth

‘The 75 Hard challenge specified reading only as a personal development method, but this has now shifted to include both listening and reading, which is helpful for those who struggle to maintain concentration during reading.’

75 Medium challenge risks

1. There is no solid nutritional guidance

‘As much as I like the 75 Medium’s flexible approach to nutrition, with the option to choose what sort of nutrition plan is right for them, it doesn’t offer any actual guidance. There’s so much misinformation in the nutrition space that people could very easily come into this with a poor nutritional strategy overall, which won’t optimise their recovery or maximise their energy for training.’

2. It doesn’t specify workout recovery

‘There is neglect of any kind of focused recovery. It simply specifies daily workouts, and it states cardio, weights, strength training, or outdoor sports for 45 minutes each day. Depending on what your exposure to exercise is coming into this challenge, that could be a huge jump up in exercise frequency, and training every day is not going to be beneficial for maximising the types of adaptations someone’s going to get from exercise.

‘You’re not going to get maximally strong from doing that because you’re going to be having issues with recovery. The same is true with cardio. Of course, you can mix these things up to help manage recovery, but there’s no guidance for that at all, so it’s down for individuals to interpret how to do it, and I can see people running into problems with overtraining, even though it’s a lower training frequency than 75 Hard.’

Increasing your workout frequency too quickly could cause burnout

3. There is a risk of burnout

‘75 days is a lot, no matter how flexible you are. Once again, if you’re walking into this challenge and you’ve already got a lot of these things in place, then it’s not a major issue. If you’re walking into this, and it’s a huge difference to what your day-to-day life is like now, it becomes one more stressor to try and fit in, and people run the risk of feeling really overwhelmed and potentially burned out with the amount of decisions they need to make.’

4. The progress photos have little use

‘There is no guarantee that someone’s going to see a weight loss or fat loss change because of the vagueness of the nutrition element, plus the fact that someone could have a huge adverse effect on their hunger and satiety regulation by increasing the exercise that much. There will be a large percentage of people who come into this and actually have either no change or potentially worse body composition, because there’s no actual real science or sound principles of nutrition and exercise built into it.’

Who should avoid the 75 Medium challenge?

1. People who are already feeling stressed

‘Anyone who is already overwhelmed from work, life, or exercise, may find that this will only become another stressor.’

2. Anyone with a history of disordered eating or a poor relationship with food

‘Due to the complete lack of guidance with nutrition, there’s a chance here that it will lead to some pretty obsessive behaviour across 75 days, especially with the added factor of before and after photos.’

3. Anyone with a recent or existing injury

‘If you’re recovering from some sort of injury, that exercise frequency is going to be far too hard and doesn’t allow for proper guided recovery for rehabilitation.’

Who is the 75 Medium challenge good for?

1. Anyone with an existing exercise routine and understanding of their body

‘If you’re in a pretty good place, you understand how much exercise your body can handle, how many days off you need, and you’re just looking for more structure, I think it could be a really great structure to lay in because it’s not as extreme as 75 Hard.’

2. Anyone with a busy career who is trying to find a sustainable wellness routine

‘For busy professionals who are trying to get into a better rhythm, I would suggest alternating the workouts with one day of exercise and one day of just going for a walk. I do like the other elements of productivity and self-care, and the little bit of flexibility you get around adherence.’

3. Anyone who has failed to stick to exercise and nutritional habits in the past

‘For anyone that has tried and failed to cement exercise and nutritional habits, the 75 Medium challenge focuses on the principle of daily rituals and routines, which is ultimately the foundation of any long-term lifestyle change. This should be seen as a way to bring in some core principles, some of which you want to stick to long-term. I wouldn’t think of this as just something you do for 75 Medium and then put down. It should always be with a long-term goal of finding which elements of these principles you think are great and you can stick to, which ones need modifying to suit your life, and potentially what additional habits you might try to bring in that serve you well.’

4. Anyone who thrives on a challenge

‘For anyone that likes a goal, really enjoys ticking things off, and having something to work towards, and feels a bit lost without having some sort of event to train for, this could be beneficial. As long as you walk into it with open eyes, there are some issues to the overall structure, but this could be a really positive experience for people coming into it.’

8 tips for completing the 75 Medium challenge

1. Identify your why. What’s your reason for doing the challenge? You’re more likely to stick to the challenge if you have an end goal in mind.
2. Adapt the challenge rules to suit you. Modify the workout durations, the type of workouts you do, the type of self-care you do, and the type of personal development you choose.
3. Take regular rest days. Schedule regular rest days in between workout days to encourage muscle recovery and avoid burnout
4. Don’t strive for ‘perfect’ nutrition. Allow yourself a snack or meal that doesn’t fit into your ideal plan every day and you’ll find it easier to stick to your plan the rest of the time.
5. Choose workouts you enjoy. There’s no point doing the plan if it makes you miserable.
6. Scrap the progress photos if they don’t make you feel good. As Vincent advises, changes in body composition may not be visible, nor may they be reflective of your progress. What’s more, if your goal isn’t physical, there’s no use in taking progress photos.
7. Exercise with friends. Try a new workout class or studio with a friend. Studies show this will encourage you to challenge yourself but also keep you accountable.
8. Don’t let it consume your life. The 75 Medium challenge should fit into your life, not the other way around.


Bridie is Fitness Director at Women’s Health UK. She spends her days sweating over new workouts, fitness launches and the best home gym kit so you have all that you need to get fit done. Her work has been published in Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan and more. She’s also a part-time yoga teacher with a habit of nodding off mid savasana (not when she’s teaching, promise).