Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha (16 page)

Not addressing these hormones isn't just keeping you fat; it also might kill you. But if you
reprogram
your hormones, you literally have the chance to upgrade the way you look, feel, and age.

Program Stagnation

On the reverse side of the coin, the guys trying to build muscle have it just as hard as those trying to lose fat. That's why the term
hard-gainer
exists—because for some people, gaining muscle seems to be the most difficult task in the world . . . when it should be the easiest.

The motto for gaining muscle should be easy: eat big, lift big, get big. But it's not. Once again, hormonal issues control the speed at which you gain muscle.

But the average guy at the gym doesn't know that. In fact, he doesn't know anything. He just does what seems to come naturally to him—what he's always done.

This guy starts out with the same program he used for high school football. He has no idea why he's not seeing results; he just knows he's not. So he steps it up and jumps onto a program from a magazine. He doesn't know why he picked that program; he just thought the exercise model looked good. Again, this guy knows nothing, so he doesn't know if it's a good program—he also doesn't know enough to match his diet to that program. So, again, no results.

Time for a new program, right? Hey, if it's broke, why fix it when you can just replace it?

This is a phenomenon known as program hopping—which is when clients move from program to program to program, often without finishing any. Even when they do finish a program, these hoppers don't really think about the overall structure of their training as a whole. They move to whichever program seems cool at the moment.

The problem with this is that even in the best-case scenario, even if one of the programs works for this guy, he's going to sabotage his results by either staying on it too long or moving on to something that doesn't make sense.

He has no idea about periodization, which models each workout you do so it's built on the one before it—your results stack on top of each other, and everything becomes successively more effective.

But our guy doesn't know that. He has no idea about periodization. He has no idea what he's doing isn't just ineffective . . . it's counterproductive.

How counterproductive?

Well, let's look at the worst-case scenario. Our guy has no idea about anything . . . so he has no idea that the program from his favorite muscle magazine might be intended for steroid users. He has no idea that with his natural hormonal levels, he can't hope to even recover from it, let alone gain muscle. He doesn't realize that instead of just being a waste of his time, this program will lead to overtraining, a phenomenon that will put him in a worse situation . . . because overtraining forces hormones like testosterone and GH to drop lower and others like cortisol to creep ever higher.

This combination can lead to even lower hormonal levels and a worse physique. But guys just keep doing it, because it's what they've always done.

In order to reverse the trend, men have to stop doing what they've always done. No more programs that only go for four weeks. No more generic nutrition advice. No more acting like the human body plays by certain rules—like you can't eat after 7 p.m.—that have no scientific basis. There are some rules, but there's also lots of freedom to find a sustainable plan that works for you, without having to follow a bunch of dogmatic rules that would make you miserable.

Most importantly, there's plenty of proof that an Adonis lives within every man and that any feelings of underachievement can be overturned once the hormonal switch has been flipped.

 

CHOOSE YOUR PILL

We realize that our program might sound like a stretch. Or you still might not understand the processes of metabolic slowdown or program stagnation. Maybe GH and testosterone still sound illegal. But they are two of the most natural hormones known to man. And we'll teach you all of this—and how to make your body work in ways that you've always wanted.

At this point, you need to make only one decision: believe that a better body and a better life are very realistic options and that there's a reason for
every
previous frustration and doubt that has stood in your way before.

If you've reached that point, then you're ready to leave your ordinary world, knock down the barriers, and progress to the type of life you've always wanted—and never thought you could have.

CHAPTER 6

An Unreal Life

HOW TO BE MORE AWESOME AT BEING AWESOME

“After a certain age every man is responsible for his face.”

—
ALBERT CAMUS

W
hen we first started the process of pitching this book
—combining the ten years of experience and findings into the one concise
^*
document that you now hold in your hands—our book agent had one major question: How could we possibly promise guys an unreal life?

From day one, it was the primary rallying cry, the reason why we felt this book needed to be written. We knew that we had developed a program that could literally transform your body from a physical standpoint; but for us, that wasn't reason enough to write a book. There are tons of fitness books, and even more of the diet variety. And there are lots of great websites with information. Hell, you can visit either of our websites for some of that knowledge. And there are many others that have played a key role in our education. (See our acknowledgments if you want to know our preferred sources for fitness and nutrition information.)

But we wrote this book because our unique approach to training and diet had a synergistic effect with a far-reaching impact that went beyond looking fucking amazing in a mirror. We found that, as we changed bodies through hormone optimization, the domino effect reached into areas of life that we could have never assumed. Once was an aberration. Twice was nothing too impressive, maybe even coincidence. But then the list grew to literally hundreds of success stories. And when we say success, we literally mean success.

Men had changed their lives. They had become more than who they had been before and beyond what they'd thought was possible.

Turns out, hormone optimization is the holy grail for living an unreal life. It sounds crazy, but read the rest of this chapter and then you can judge for yourself.

 

LIVING THE DREAM

We define an unreal life as having a level of success, confidence, and happiness in every aspect of your existence that means something to you. Our goal is to help you create a level of satisfaction so that you sit back and wonder,
how is this real?

That's an unreal life—and that's what we're going to provide.

It means having the sex drive of your prime, a brilliant mind that works efficiently, and the body of a god.

Great. Now how does that actually happen? After all, if it were that easy, there'd be no reason for us to explain that it's not impossible.

There's a fundamental flaw in how we were taught to achieve things. Despite plenty of clichés that preach quality over quantity, our behaviors still drive us toward a mentality that focuses on doing more, achieving more. Want more money? Work harder. Want bigger muscles? Do more reps. Want to meet more women? Ask out more girls.

Fortunately, life doesn't have to work in a linear fashion. In fact, stepping back from this quantitative approach has endless benefits.

So what's the missing piece? The fact that you're not searching for a missing piece. If science has taught us anything (and trust us, despite the wealth of research in this book, we know that life is not experienced in a lab—but truths are supported there), it's that the most important relationship is cause and effect.

It's not: What do I have to do to reach my goal?

Instead it's: What's the catalyst that makes everything come together?

We're going to put an end to the typical cause-and-effect behaviors you see. Such as when you want better sex, you pursue more women. If you want a better body, you buy a gym pass. If you want to get smarter, you take a class.

Your frustrations are globally linked to a mind-set of
how
you approach your goals and desires. And in order to overcome those problems, we're going to provide the exact outline that will put things in motion. Think of it as a domino effect. It's not that you weren't knocking down dominos before; you were just hitting pieces that weren't the backbone of the entire system. Once you find the right trigger point—that's when things really get started.

So where does it all begin? The answer is sex.

 

SEX AND THE SELF

When it comes to being a man, sex is probably the most misunderstood subject, both internally and externally. Like it or not, men are Neanderthals. We mean that in the nicest possible way—but not the paleo way.
^*
We intrinsically link the definition of our manhood to our sexual prowess, our ability to attract and sleep with women, and even the size of our penis. Men define their manhood by their manhood—and everything that stems from it.

The desire for sex can be a force that encourages and propels you to do great things, such as achieving a high level of success or power. But it can also be destructive. The drive to have women can derail you from your quest to become the Alpha by diverting attention away from your goals of improved sense of self and achieving your potential. More than anything else, women bring out the competitive, comparative nature that typifies the traditional perception of the Alpha that we want to rewrite.

This very battle is illustrated in the Hero's Journey. The power of sex to propel you is known as the Woman as Temptress. The idea here is that while the woman would provide short-term gratification, the powerful urges could easily distract you from your greater purpose and mission.

This is not to say that women or sex are bad. Both are great, but your journey is about a higher level of understanding of self and not giving in to carnal urges before you achieve complete control of the life you want. That's what self-mastery is about. You need to control the drive for sex and temper it with the drive for love, the drive for improvement, and the decision to act in certain ways to achieve a higher level of self-actualization, rather than to compete with others and win a masochistic pissing contest. And because the temptation and power of sex are quite possibly the most powerful in all of life, once you are able to demonstrate your ability to understand and master those drives, any hurdle in life can be overcome.

Still not convinced that sex is as important as we say it is? Here's a quick quiz.

 

On a scale of 1 to 10, how good do you think you are in bed?

Put another way, if your previous sexual partners had to rate you, where would they put you?

 

We've asked 300 men these same two questions, and not one of them responded with less than an 8 on either one.

Either every person we interviewed is a stud, or this quiz is giving us an important piece of info about men: they need to think of themselves as sexually competent in order to feel competent as men. It's just how you define yourself.

This isn't something to be embarrassed about. Yes—there are other factors that define who you are. How you treat people matters, whether you're a good father or influence makes a difference, and doing your best to be a good human being will always be important. But on a primal level—your subconscious drivers of masculinity are strength and virility. These are a direct reflection of your ability not only to produce a family but also to protect it.

We were born to procreate and protect. No one can deny this sociological reality. And these priorities stem from sex and your sex drive. It doesn't matter if you believe in evolution or creationism—sex drive and the ability to reproduce and expand your legacy (through children) are an area of pride, joy, confidence, and motivation.

 

THE UNKNOWN POWER OF SEX

Accepting that sex is important is essential; it means you recognize that it's an important part of life, of relationships, and on the highest psychological level, it's directly tied to building a more confident and successful self. Here's why: University of Chicago researchers discovered that sexual frustration—a lack of interest in sex—is growing. If you feel this issue, don't worry, you're not alone. Some studies show that up to 20 percent of men have a declining interest in sex.

In non-survey studies, the reasons listed for a lower sex drive are a powerful warning shot to your masculinity, and one that deserves your attention. In a study conducted in Massachusetts, a little more than 10 percent of men mentioned having a lower sex drive compared to what they feel is normal. Of those with a drop in libido, nearly 30 percent had subpar testosterone levels. In the scientific world, that's what we call statistically significant. In your terms: that's no coincidence.

That dwindling sex drive opens Pandora's box on your sex life. We found more studies than we'd care to share (thirty-seven, to be exact) that showed a relationship between less sex and more stress. (On the flip side, the more sex you have, the less stress you experience.) Here's where performance anxiety takes a nasty turn.

As we've mentioned, stress increases your cortisol levels. Doctors have linked nearly every kind of stress to an increase in cortisol levels—and that includes illness, major life changes (such as losing a job or experiencing marital problems), and even nervousness and uncertainty. While we don't know the direct impact of how much those increases in cortisol affect your sex life, we do know that cortisol is kryptonite for your libido. So the more stress you have in your life, the more your sex life is suffering.

But new research from the University of Chicago is shedding light on just how significant cortisol can be in harming your sex life. In a study published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association,
men who slept fewer than five hours a night experienced a 15 percent drop in testosterone. And that drop was directly correlated to—and potentially caused by—an increase in cortisol. That might not seem like much, but these were twenty-four-year-old men who suddenly had the testosterone levels of someone fifteen years older.

The worst part? That's just
one week
of sleep deprivation. Imagine more. Or imagine that lack of sleep compounded with all the other stressors in your life.

Just in case you're not intimidated by that study, consider this fact: according to research published in the
Journal of Urology,
cortisol can literally kill the size of your erection. (Where were those studies when we were in college? Then again, we're sure we wouldn't really qualify.)

But that's only the beginning. And anytime a weak penis is the least of your problems, you've got some big fucking problems. When your stress becomes nonstop, it boosts cortisol levels to the point that you inhibit your body's main sex hormone: gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), say researchers at the University of California at Berkeley. That's a mouthful, but what you need to know is that lacking GnRH kills your drive for sexual activity and even weakens your sperm count, making it harder to reproduce. And while we're at it, it also increases your level of gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone (GnIH), which altogether kills your ability to reproduce.

And if that weren't enough, even if you were able to have get it up and have sex, the double dose of hormone shutdown could make it nearly impossible for you to have an orgasm.

Read that again: You. Can't. Orgasm.

How do you turn it all around? Like everything in this book, it starts with training. The right exercise prescription not only lowers your cortisol levels, but it also boosts your testosterone levels, giving you the sexual surge you need and want, say researchers from Turkey.

Remember, our goal is to provide quick fixes to the common problems that are unavoidable and ail all men. Our intent is twofold:

 

1. Make you aware of what's going on with your body so you give a shit.

2. Engineer your body so you can combat, defend, and overcome natural processes designed to make you less of a man. Most men fight blind. We want you to see clearly, be prepared, and defeat the enemy.

 

And that's why the training is about more than just stress. Or just muscle and fat loss. We're creating a body that, from the inside out, will make you the Alpha. Remember how we talked about how life doesn't work in a linear fashion? This is what we're talking about. Your stress might be
triggered
by life events, but it doesn't have to negatively affect your life. By following the steps to become an Alpha, you can prevent the problems that hold you back—whether they are related to stress, sleep, body fat, or anything else. Fix your hormones, improve your life.

Which brings us back to training. Researchers from Switzerland found that overweight men who exercised two and a half hours per week experienced a 46 percent decrease in hypogonadism. The name might sound cool, but it's actually a condition that is marked by low testosterone, low sex drive, and erectile dysfunction—also known as the holy trinity of the limp dick.

So we'll offer the type of exercise you need to set your body straight. Combine that with a diet that's high in fats, and you have a potent combination that will charge your sex hormones and counteract stress. The fat does the trick because testosterone is synthesized from cholesterol. Eat enough fat—but not too much (don't worry, we've taken care of the calculations for you in part 3)—and you'll increase your testosterone.

At the same time, you'll look more attractive, which will increases your self-perception of attractiveness, which will, in turn, make you more sexually confident, say University of Florida researchers. In fact, in the Florida study, participants who exercised felt just as confident about their appearance as those who had a fitter appearance. Meaning that the act of exercising itself improves self-perception and confidence. What's more, a University of Arkansas study found that 90 percent of men who rated their fitness level as above average found themselves more sexually desirable.

As you know, we're not about facades or smoke and mirrors. We will make you look better. But even if you want to deny the changes in the mirror (we're not sure why you would), this program will help you become more desirable. How? Because survey after survey, women say that the more sexual confidence you have, the more you are perceived as desirable.