Months 10-12: 90-Day Hard and Portfolio Publishing

The final three months of the Apogee Young Men’s program are grouped together as one final challenge: reach a new fitness level and present your brand to the world.

The 75-Day Hard challenge has gained a lot of popularity on social media and the online realms of fitness. This challenge has you stick to a specific meal plan and do two workouts a day, one indoor and one outdoor, for 45 minutes each. What the Apogee program has done is expand it to last three months instead of a little over two months.

I’m starting this challenge at 6 feet tall and upwards of 220 pounds. I’ve been weightlifting for around two months at this point, intending to build strength and mass while becoming leaner. I’d estimate my body fat percentage to be around 20%, something I’d like to drop by around 7-8% by the time this challenge ends.

My two workouts are cardio at a nature preserve in the morning and weightlifting after school in the afternoon during the week. Saturdays, I work at an orchard doing manual labor, so I count that as my outdoor workout and do cardio at the gym for the indoor workout. On Sunday, I do light-medium difficulty cardio twice.

My weightlifting plan is a push-pull-legs-push-pull split during the week. On a “push” day (Mondays and Thursdays) I work out the chest, shoulder, and triceps muscles. On a “pull” day (Tuesdays and Fridays) I work out my biceps, lats, and back muscles. I do legs on Wednesday and abs throughout the week.

I’m enjoying the challenge so far and can already see how I’ve benefited. My cardio has been lackluster the past few years, so this allows to get better. I’ve already noticed that I’m slightly slimmer than before, which gives me a lot of encouragement and excitement for the next two months. I’m going to slightly cut my calories as I continue to help the process continue.

As for the Portfolio Publishing, this website is the result of that challenge. I chose a website as my digital portfolio format because of the customization possibilities and the effort required to set it up. I want to stand out, and buying a domain, paying for the hosting service, and putting everything together on my own shows the amount of effort I’m willing to put into the work I do.

Owning a website has no downsides; whatever I do in life can be supported right here at my convenience. It serves me right now by representing who I am and my character to possible employers and can serve me in the future if I ever start a business of my own. It’s teaching me website design, a very important skill in today’s online world. It’s a tool with endless possibilities, and I already own it at 18 years old.

This website may change over the years, and I may not even use it to further my career or achieve my dreams. What’s important, however, is what I’m learning through the process and the representation of my character now open for all eyes to see.

The future is wide open, and I’m excited to see where it takes me. Thank you for visiting this website and reading a little bit about me.

If you’re interested in doing these challenges yourself or want to present the opportunity to someone else, please check out Apogee Strong’s Young Men program and their other programs at apogeestrong.com.