Craig McBreen

In my past life, I was a marketing consultant glued to my desk, battling a growing waistline with endless treadmill sessions. I thought cardio was the answer, but the weight always crept back, and chronic back pain derailed me. At 36-ish, I tipped the scales at just under 240 pounds, drained and unhealthy. It wasn’t until my 50s that I cracked the code: Strength training, smart nutrition, and a focus on muscle changed everything. Now, at 62, I’m stronger, leaner, and pain-free, helping clients like you do the same through FiftyPlusFitness. I strongly believe that it's never too late to make big changes. I've struggled with weight throughout my life, and the trifecta of fitness (especially strength training), nutrition, and the power of habit changed my life! I want to help others do the same by using a balanced program that they can easily fit into their lives. I also want to promote a healthier society. Do the right thing. Always. Learn and improve daily. Care and make it show. It's never too late. Keep it simple. Stay focused. Get strong 💪

Most people lose 3-5% of their muscle mass every decade after 30. That number sounds manageable. Until it isn't. Meaning... – Getting up off the floor takes a moment. – Stairs leave you feeling gassed. – You feel weak and tired often. Here's the part that doesn't get talked about enough...: It's less about age. And more about muscle loss. Which accelerates FAST after 50. Lose enough muscle and your metabolism drops. Blood sugar gets harder to manage. Simple physical tasks get harder. BUT here's what I know at 62... ** This isn't inevitable ** I was a mess in my 40s. Overweight. Bad back. Running miles trying to fix it. Nothing worked. I started strength training at 55. It changed everything! Strength training is YOUR tool to fight back. – Rebuild muscle. – Protect joints. – Boost metabolism. You still have that choice. Make it.

I used to think back pain was just me getting older. Nope. I sat for hours as a marketing consultant. Staring at a screen. Turns out sitting does more damage than any birthday ever could. I tried everything. EVERYTHING! Heat. Stretching. Chiropractors. And more. Felt good for a minute... then right back to pain. Ugh. What actually fixed it? Learning how to move. Meaning hips. Glutes. Core. That rabbit hole led me straight into STRENGTH TRAINING. At 59, I got certified. And trust me, this ain't a hobby. Now I see it everywhere. Executives. Business owners. Smart, driven people quietly wrecked by "just getting older." Here's the truth: back pain often isn't your back. It's stiff hips. Weak glutes. An underdeveloped core. Fix those, and everything changes. Rule out the serious stuff first. But after that, back pain is rarely about age. It's a movement problem. And movement problems are trainable.

In my past life, I was a marketing consultant. Glued to a desk. Waistline growing. My fix? Endless treadmill sessions. I thought cardio was the answer. BUT the weight always crept back. And chronic back pain kept derailing me. Around 36, I weighed just under 240 pounds. Drained. Unhealthy. Stuck. It wasn’t until my 50s that I figured it out. – Strength training. – Smart nutrition. – A focus on muscle. That changed everything. Now I’m 62. Stronger, leaner, and pain-free. I’ve struggled with my weight most of my life. What finally worked wasn’t more willpower. It was strength, nutrition, and habits I could stick with. Meaning... It’s never too late to make big changes. That’s what I do now at FiftyPlus Fitness. I help people like you build a program that fits your real life. I’ve been where you are. That’s exactly why I do this.

You CAN build muscle in your 60s, 70s, and beyond. Not just hold on to it. BUILD it. A 2023 Frontiers in Physiology study tested untrained men in their 70s and 80s. After a single strength workout, their muscles responded as well as those of men who’d trained their whole lives. Meaning... Strength is NOT just for the young. It’s never too late to get stronger. And muscle does more for you than you think. Better mood. Lower injury risk. A metabolism that keeps working while you rest. Add... better mobility, more energy, and just feeling better. The best part? You can start simple. At home. Your body isn’t done. Far from it! It’s just waiting on you to start.

My real job isn't writing workouts. It's firing myself. HUH?... Ninety days of me telling you what to do is worth very little if it all falls apart in month four. Most people over 50 have probably started and stopped a fitness routine more times than they remember. I sure did! The problem wasn't effort. The problem was that every decision ran on... WILLPOWER. And willpower runs out. A bad week at work. A trip. A hotel gym with only featherweight dumbbells. So from day one, I build toward the day you don't need me. (the "firing" part). Fewer decisions. Repeatable defaults. A structure so plain you stop thinking about it. The goal: A year from now, you're still training. And nobody's reminding you.

You don’t have an information problem. You have a decision problem. A hundred workouts one search away. One podcast says fast. The next one says don’t. Five experts. Five different supplement stacks. None of them know you’re 57 with shoulder pain and a stressful job. In my 40s, I had plenty of info... I still yo-yo dieted. Still ran too much. Still ended up with a bad back. Knowing was NOT the problem. Nobody was giving me direction. Lesson: More information won’t fix your fitness. Someone who knows where you’ve been and where you want to go will. To help you make the right decisions and get there. Take the Strength Score (link in comments). Know where you stand before you guess.

Your scale is lying to you. It can't tell fat from muscle. When you lift and eat enough protein, something strange might happen... Your weight barely moves for a month. The scale says nothing is working. BUT your waist measurement says otherwise. That's what losing fat and building muscle at the same time looks like. And it's when most people quit. NOT GOOD! Lesson... Don't obsess over weight. Do watch your weekly average weight. Measure your waist once a week. Take a photo every two or three weeks. Log every training session. Focus on the pattern. Results over time! Feeling better. Waist shrinking. Lifts going up... This means you're winning.

Sometimes I tell a client to eat MORE. They look at me like I've lost it. But when the scale drops too fast, we temporarily pause the deficit so their body stops burning through hard-earned lean tissue. The scale dropping too fast is a problem. Drop weight too fast and you don't just lose fat. You lose MUSCLE. And after 50, muscle is... – Your metabolism. – Your strength. – Your ability to get off the floor at 80. The first two weeks of weight loss are mostly water. That's normal. BUT if a client keeps dropping faster than 1% of body weight a week after that, I raise their calories. The target is slow. Roughly 300 calories below what you burn. About half a pound a week. Sounds boring. It is. Because... Boring works. The 1,400-calorie crash diet? Been there. It strips muscle, wrecks your training, and doesn't last. Then what? The diet breaks. The weight returns as fat. You haven't just regained... You've traded metabolic muscle for dead weight. Lift three times a week. Eat protein at every meal. Don't give your body a reason to raid your muscle for fuel.

At 36, I weighed 240 lbs. So I did what everyone does. Ate less. Ran more. I lost 30 pounds. Then gained some back. Lost it again. Gained again. Every time the scale dropped, I thought I was winning. BUT I wasn't getting leaner. I was getting smaller. I eventually got, well, kinda skinny... A lighter version of me... in a soft body. Here's what was happening... When you cut calories hard, your body needs energy from somewhere. It takes some from fat. And some from muscle. Meaning... I was burning away the exact thing that would have fixed me. I wasn't lazy. I had the wrong goal. Stop trying to lose weight. Start trying to lose fat. NOT muscle. At 62, I'm stronger and leaner than I was at 32. I didn't find a trick. I stopped doing the things that cost me muscle. And started building it.

Over 50 and training? Some days the weight moves like nothing. I LOVE those days. Some days everything aches. Those days kind of SUCK. BUT... you keep showing up. Your body won't always say "YES." But that's not a reason to quit. It's a reason to adjust. Lighter load. Fewer sets. Longer warm-up. Meaning... you still train... You just TRAIN SMARTER. That's how you keep building... at any age. One imperfect session at a time. Forget chasing your younger self. Start preparing your older one. Build that armor!

What ACHES you should be worried about... Serious pain isn't from lifting. It's from doing nothing. Slowing down. Stagnating. Inactivity. Stasis. Without challenge, your body starts a slow, silent breakdown. Some call it atrophy. I call it the wasting away. And I also call it "The Enemy." And for most people over 50, it's already happening. It saps your strength, makes everyday tasks harder, and quietly steals your independence. Here's the thing about workout soreness... It's fleeting. It means your body is responding, rebuilding, and fighting back against decline. Atrophy is pain that sneaks up on you years later. A little soreness now beats a lot of regret later. That's why strength training isn't optional for my clients over 50. It's the antidote.

TIME takes something from you every year. STRENGTH doesn't have to be one of them. Low energy. Stiff joints. Fatigue. Pain. Some call this "slowing down." Here's what it is... Your body STOPPING because you stopped asking it to do HARD THINGS. Those aches and pains? Not age. They're signals. LOUD SIGNALS! Telling you... "It's time to move, lift, and rebuild." It's not too late. I'm 62. Stronger than I was at 42. And I'm telling you... Strength IS the foundation for everything you want to do in the next 20 years. Lift heavy things. Build it now. Or lose it slowly. Your call. 💪

Your trainer should be more than a trainer. Here’s what I mean... Most trainers think about motivation, programming, and getting you to show up. Motivation fades. Routines get abandoned. But habits stick. You know this! What you need is someone who does the thinking to earn your trust. Someone who thinks less about reps and sets, and more about how to change their behavior. Their mindset. Someone who uses every tool available to understand you better, program smarter, and deliver more. Someone who thinks... about the whole you. Bigger picture. Beyond the gym. Someone who sees... all of you. Mind. Body. Habits. And, this is my favorite... a coach who helps you completely reset what you believe aging means. Because the goal isn’t to slow down aging. It’s to redefine what aging better looks like. Say... Thriving at 65. 💪 It's what happens when someone finally builds the right system for you. Is that what you’re getting?

7 fitness myths keeping men over 50 out of shape. Today… Myth #7: “You need a gym to get results.” Truth: Carefully selected equipment, or even a decent hotel gym, is enough to run a strength program. "Needing to join a gym" is a myth that gives execs or business owners permission to do nothing. – No gym near my office. – I’m traveling three days a week. – No time to drive, park, change, train, shower, and get back. So... nothing happens. Strength program equipment is minimal. A set of adjustable dumbbells, resistance bands, and a pull-up bar cover most of what you need to start. Add an adjustable bench and a few kettlebells, and you have a home gym that does the job. I build my online coaching around this. Every workout has a home version and a hotel gym version. The program travels with you because your lift doesn’t pause, and neither should your training. Stop waiting for the perfect gym situation. Honestly... A pair of adjustable dumbbells and 40 minutes is enough to start. And enough to make measurable progress. It's how I started.

7 fitness myths keeping men over 50 out of shape. Today… Myth #6: "Go hard or go home." This is common among high achievers. The intensity that built your career gets pointed at the gym. Then comes the injury, the burnout, the three weeks off. Or... you just quit. Sound familiar? Truth: Men who make the best long-term progress don't train the hardest. They train consistently and recover. More is NOT better. BETTER is better. Feeling destroyed after a session is a sign of too much volume, too fast. The adaptation happens during recovery, not during training. If you're not recovering, you’re not progressing. Lifting 40-60 minutes, executed with good form and progressive overload, beats 90+ minutes of unfocused volume. Train with intensity. But respect recovery. Three quality sessions per week will get it done!

7 fitness myths keeping men over 50 out of shape. Today… Myth #5: "Carbs are the enemy." Truth: Cutting carbs produces fast results that don’t last. And costs you energy, performance, and muscle along the way. Low-carb diets are popular for a reason: they work quickly. Water weight drops, the scale moves, and motivation spikes. But much of that early loss is water, and it comes back when you go back to eating normally. The muscle loss during restriction doesn’t come back as easily. Carbs fuel your training, protect muscle tissue, feed your brain, and regulate mood and focus. Carbs aren’t the problem. It's the type of carbs. Refined sugars and highly processed foods will work against you. Whole-food carbs like beans, rice, potatoes, and fruit, eaten around training, work for you. This isn’t permission to eat whatever you want. (You know the processed stuff works against you.) It IS a reframe. Meaning… your total daily calories and how much protein you get matter far more for fat loss than whether carbs are on the plate. Stop eliminating carbs. Start choosing better carbs.

7 fitness myths keeping men over 50 out of shape. Today... Myth #4: "I just need to eat less." Cut calories hard without enough protein... and you don't just lose fat. You lose muscle. After 50, you're already losing muscle. Fewer calories can mean low energy, bad sleep, and slow recovery. And your plan eventually crashes. Been there. So done that. The fix isn't eating less. It's eating MORE of the right foods. Start with protein. For men over 50 who train, that's 0.7 to 1 gram per pound of bodyweight a day. Most men are well under it. Then add fiber. Men over 50 need about 30 grams a day. Most get around half that. Fiber keeps you full, feeds your gut, and helps steady your blood sugar. Meaning... you can eat a big plate and still lose fat. Real food fills you up. Processed food leaves you hungry. So stop shrinking your plate. Build it right and don't obsess. Eat whole foods 80% of the time. That alone will make a BIG difference.

7 fitness myths keeping men over 50 out of shape. Today... Myth #3: "More cardio is the answer." I ran through most of my 40s. Lost weight, gained it back Lost it again, gained it back. Again. YES, Cardio burns calories while you're doing it. It does very little to build the muscle that burns calories the rest of the day. And your body gets super duper efficient at it, so you need more to get the same result. Lift, and you build muscle. That muscle burns calories while you sit at your desk. Strength training builds muscle.... And building it burns energy too. Pound for pound, muscle burns about 3x what fat does at rest. Keep cardio for your heart. Make lifting your fat-loss tool.

7 fitness myths keeping men over 50 out of shape. Today... Myth #2: "I've tried before, and it didn't stick." Same story every time. You work out and you're fired up for three weeks. BUT... one bad week happens. Then it STOPS. That's not a character flaw. You ran your program on motivation. And motivation always fades. What doesn't fade is a system. Same days. Same times. Same program... not a new one every month. You don't need more discipline. You need fewer decisions. You need to build the fitness habit. When I made the shift in my 50s, from sporadic workouts requiring daily motivation... to a structured program with set days, set times, and a clear protocol.... Everything changed. Not because I got more disciplined. Because I stopped relying on discipline and built something that ran whether I felt like it or not. THIS is what I now teach.

7 fitness myths keeping men over 50 out of shape. Today... Myth #1: "I don't have time." You don't have time for the version of fitness you picture… An hour a day, five days a week. TRUTH?... Nobody running a business has that. You have time for the version that works: – Three strength sessions a week. – Forty minutes each. – Two hours total. I often train at 5:30 a.m. BECAUSE… Later in the day, something always comes up. What about you?... Stop looking for time. Stop thinking you must have the perfect program. Just start the fitness habit. Put it on the calendar and protect it. START. Let’s go!