This story is part of This Is 50+—an in-depth look at guys who are thriving later in life, with tips and tricks on how all of us can future-proof our bodies.
Danny Verna, 50, is an institutional equity sales trader in Hopkinton, MA. He knows getting in shape—he served for four years in the US Marine Corps after college, and, as he puts it “developed an increasing interest in fitness as I’ve gotten older.” Yet, two years ago, despite training three times a week, he found himself with extra weight and “a body composition that “didn’t reflect my efforts in the gym.” Today, he’s lighter, leaner and has a whole new attitude about training. Here, in his own words, is what changed.
I 'D SUCCESSFULLY GOTTEN lean several times in my life. Back then, I’d sought out the quickest path. Like many, I had proven to myself that I could “get in shape” or drop 20 pounds in 4 to 6 weeks with restrictive dieting, circuit-style weight training, and cardio. Always with the end goal or a specific date in mind, I had achieved decent results—but not without losing myself a bit in the process, compromising mood, mental health, and quality of personal relationships. And despite those short-term sacrifices, each time I was unable to sustain the results.
Whereas competition, vanity, and ego drove my earlier pursuits in the gym, injuries, parenthood, and health/longevity have provided me with a more sustainable “why” in this phase of my life. Ironically, I have achieved my best results in the past couple of years.
Prior to 2022, I’d been doing my own programming, training three times a week with a very basic home gym setup. Between some nagging overuse injuries (hamstring, shoulder, forearms), along with some extra body fat—I’d crept up to 205 pounds—I knew there had to be a better way. I reached out to Bryan Krahn that March for physique improvement, and he quickly demonstrated that there was a better approach.
Over the course of the next 16 weeks, I made more progress in the gym than I had in years. By mid-August, I was 180lbs with visibly decreased body fat, improved health markers and bloodwork, and I was moving and feeling better in all areas of my life.
HERE'S THE SECRET: Starting small and “stacking wins.”
I’ve always been goal-oriented and self-disciplined but this became a journey of self-discovery that has fortified all areas of my life. Instead of focusing on the mirror or the scale and what I wanted to see, I began to fall in love with the process. It became about the day-to-day boxes I would check to make a sustainable change. I was no longer getting in shape for a vacation or for summer, but for me. For life. To set an example for my kids. To be a better husband and father. A better friend and colleague.
The cornerstones of my change were diet, training, walking, and recovery.
• I had sustainable and satisfying calorie and macro targets.
• I resistance trained four times per week, hitting each major muscle group twice.
• I walked daily, starting with 2 miles and slowly increasing over the course of 4 months until I was walking 4 to 5 miles a day without fail.
• I slept 6 to 8 hours per night.
IN THE BEGINNING I was having 3,000 calories per day. As I lost body fat, got stronger, and increased my daily step count, we would modestly decrease calories while keeping protein high. By the fourth month, I was at 2,100. I enjoyed eating 4 healthy meals a day at similar times with 50 to 60 grams of protein.
Because my calories weren’t overly restrictive to start, I didn’t reach the weekend feeling like I had sacrificed so much that I deserved a “reward” for my efforts. Saturday and Sunday are no different from Monday through Friday. This is where I had failed often in the past. And this is why I believe more extreme diets and training programs aren’t the answer. The week is a microcosm of the entire diet and training program. If you can’t make Saturday and Sunday consistent with the rest of the week, you won’t get results. Similarly, if you don’t plan for the “diet after the diet” your overall results will fade very quickly.
In retrospect, my initial calorie targets were barely putting me in a deficit, and walking 2 miles wasn’t burning meaningful calories. It didn’t matter. It was empowering to check those boxes daily and look up after a week of consistency and stack another win. What before was a diet and training program was now a way of life.
MAKING A SUSTAINABLE change in my fitness was far from an overnight process. It’s been an evolution. My lifting program remained the same for the first 8 weeks, and we only changed it once at that point. But instead of going to failure on every set of mostly barbell exercises like I did previously, I was now using cables and machines and dumbbells and tracking my progress in a training log. Progressive overload can come in several forms: Increased weight, increased reps, increased sets, and perhaps most overlooked—focusing on improved technique.
A bigger change was how I approached aerobic training. Instead of dreading formal cardio, I looked forward to getting outside for a walk.
THE FIRST TWO months were about checking those daily boxes, and the accountability of weekly check-ins with Bryan. I am fortunate to have been in a position to hire a good coach to eliminate much of the noise and self-doubt around approach so I could just focus on executing.
I learned a great deal about myself during this transformation.
I learned to slow down and be more present. The time will pass and the future will arrive no matter what we do. Why not make the here and now better in the moment we are in?
The art of delayed gratification is a valuable endeavor. Shortly after my four months of work with Bryan, I sustained a compound fracture of my left ankle and toe. Immobilized for two months following surgery that required ligament repair and titanium screws and plates, I had a long road ahead of me that continues to reverberate to this day.
The lessons I learned during my transformation continued to benefit me as I worked to rehab my body back to full strength over the course of the next 6 months. Stacking small daily and weekly wins took on an even greater meaning. Just several weeks ago, I had surgery again to have all the titanium removed. My rehab continues, and I am looking forward to returning to my daily walks in the near term, and regaining the fitness I had pre-injury. It’s not a race, it’s just life.
This is just the beginning. See what else guys at 50+ are thinking, doing, and crushing here.
