Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha (23 page)

Inevitably, this is what will allow you to take in more carbs without becoming fat—and what will help turn cheat days into fat-destroying splurges.

During this initial phase, you'll be eating slightly below what is known as maintenance calories. Don't worry, once you see the menu of steak, bacon, and eggs, you'll realize that you'll be eating more than enough to be satisfied. The reason we're dropping your calories is to help burn off extra fat. Whereas most guys think they need to add muscle first and then cut fat, the best way to add more muscle is to start by dropping fat and improving insulin sensitivity. And that's exactly what you'll accomplish.

Just as important is what the introduction of intermittent fasting will do for your growth hormone (GH) levels. Before we even begin to focus on what training will do, simply adding intermittent fasting to your lifestyle can cause a
2,000 percent increase
in GH, according to research published by cardiologists at the Intermountain Heart Institute.

How can you get up to a 2,000 percent increase? Easily. Eat more before you go to sleep. A lot more. And then get at least six hours of rest. When you wake up,
don't
eat. Your GH peaks in the night and then shuts off the moment you have your morning eggs. Instead, drink some water, tea, or coffee, and push back breakfast a few hours. And just like that, your GH levels have surged and you've created a better environment for building muscle, melting fat, and fighting off aging. Not only is the burst more intense, but you'll also experience more frequent increases in GH throughout the day, which will keep the fat melting off your abs.

We've found that the insulin reset can be a difficult adjustment for some for about three to five days, as you adjust to a new style of eating. After that, you adjust and wonder why you ever ate any other way—your energy will be increased, your focus better, your stomach always satisfied, and your weight dropping. In fact, by now, you'll be in love with fasting and your body will be as insulin sensitive as possible without having to abstain from carbs for years. Again, this means that everything you eat is more likely to wind up packing mass on your arms instead of fat on your ass.

The Training

As with everything in this program, the diet is only half of the equation. Your first month of training (Phase I) is designed to improve your insulin sensitivity as well as start increasing production of testosterone and GH. We start with an intensive focus on fat loss, as that's the best and fastest way to reset your insulin. While the workouts are metabolic and crank up your ability to burn calories—both in and out of the gym—they are also designed to teach and reinforce the movement patterns that you need to master in order to get the most out of the program.

This is an important distinction between our approach and other fitness books. We want to mimic the approach you would receive if you worked with us one-on-one rather than just throw you into a program that expects you to automatically squat and deadlift like a pro. That's what frustrates us more than anything and why it's so hard for us to train in commercial gyms. No one teaches anymore. It's not your job to know how to exercise correctly; it's your job to be shown and to learn. The workouts in Phase I will give you the same benefits as very technical exercises without forcing you into mastery at such an early stage. Even if you're already a vet of the gym, this progression will make your body more efficient and will inevitably increase your strength gain and your fat loss. Just trust us on this. It's not as much one step back as it is three steps forward—without you even realizing it.

The Mind-Set

Phase I is also about getting your head right. This is arguably the hardest stage because we'll be introducing new strategies—like fasting—into your world. This is your trial by fire. This phase, while only the beginning, determines your worth and how suitable you are for the quest. Think of it like a knight's challenge or a test to become a Jedi. Like any threshold, this one is difficult to cross, but it prepares you for greater challenges. More importantly, once you get through this phase, your body will adjust and the entire process will become easier.

The adaptation curve is where most people quit and fail because it's their first step outside of their comfort zone and out of the Ordinary World. If you can hold tight, stay focused, and keep your eye on the prize, your body will adapt. And you will realize that you can get through anything else we throw at you. This applies to training and any other situation in life. Just like that, we will have created a structure of success, confidence, and happiness—and that cycle will be perpetuated throughout the process until you completely change your body and your mind-set.

This isn't meant to intimidate you. Instead, it's meant as motivation so you can rise up to the challenge. Because we'll be honest: the nature of this programming is such a drastic change from what most people prescribe that the result of Phase I is some pretty amazing progress. While we were testing this program on our clients, the average weight loss during Phase I was ten pounds. In fact, when Arnold Schwarzenegger
^*
first tried the insulin reset, he lost four pounds in just two weeks. Not bad for a guy who's already in good shape.

In terms of sex drive, results are mixed. Some of our test subjects experience resurgence in their mojo, which we attribute to increased insulin sensitivity. Remember, insulin resistance inhibits blood flow and has been linked to erectile dysfunction. Admittedly, some people do experience a small dip in sex drive. This change is most likely due to a decrease in calories; thankfully, every single one of these clients reported a huge rebound effect in Phase II when testosterone becomes the greater focus.

In the end, Phase I is about big steps both mentally and physically. By the time you prepare for Phase II, you
will
be stronger and leaner, and feeling more capable and confident.

 

PHASE II: ADAPT

Unprecedented Territory: Reformulating the Rules of Fitness

Phase II is what we call Adapt—it's when you break out of the priming phase and cut yourself loose from the shackles of the insulin reset. Interestingly, what might have felt difficult in Phase I will now feel like the best diet you've ever tried.

But the progress isn't just on the diet side. After the first phase, you'll operate as an efficient machine in the gym. Some of the efficiency will result from familiarity. You'll now be well versed in the intensity and programming required to make real changes to your body. And we're not talking intensity in terms of workout duration, but in workout intent. You know how to focus and push yourself harder and more effectively than before. What's more, proper form will be ingrained into your very soul, and much like riding a bike, there will be no going back. You know how your fingers can still execute the Konami Code,
^*
even though you haven't picked up a Nintendo controller in years? That's how your form will be.

Your efficiency will be further buttressed by confidence. Most physiological changes are actually limited by psychological barriers. In ordinary life, we don't believe we can change, and then we find excuses to support why we failed. Many have said that the first person to bottle motivation will probably make a billion dollars. And while we haven't figured it out yet, we do know that confidence is just as good as the most potent bottled motivation. Because confidence is a drug—you will be hooked after the first phase and hungry for more.

The Diet

The most exciting part of Phase II occurs with your diet. And not just
kind of
exciting—we're talking the kind of excitement normally reserved for teenagers feeling their first boob. Yeah. What could rival pubescent over-the-clothes second base? Only one thing: cheat day, motherfucker.

All your hard work and strict abstinence and strategic timing of carbs in Phase I has paid off. Your body is not only primed to accept carbs, it's ready and waiting to make good use of them when strategically applied in larger quantities. During the cheat day, you will eat whatever you want. Anything at all. Pizza, burgers, wings, nachos. That's not to say that you can't keep it clean and have sweet potatoes, rice, oatmeal, and some lean meat.

Whatever Alpha wants, Alpha gets.

The Training

Phase II is also when things get serious in the gym. We're shifting from understanding intensity, work capacity, and mastering movement to manipulating other variables such as training density and frequency.

Density training will be employed to increase work capacity, enhance strength and endurance, and above all, increase your testosterone. Testosterone is the main focus because it's what will allow you to build more muscle and lose fat, but also because it's the underlying problem that is restricting most men. Research shows that testosterone levels of the average man have dropped 30 percent during the past twenty years. It's time to change that. And using density training that emphasizes certain multi-muscle exercises (think: squats and deadlifts) is exactly the antidote for your lagging T levels.

Sex and Life

As your body changes, you'll also notice huge changes to your sex life. The increase in calories and carbs helps, but the hormonal surge of testosterone and GH (which exacerbates the effects of testosterone) will be responsible for your adolescent-like desire and drive.

Phase II is also where you'll experience the greatest increase in confidence. This is partially due to the undeniable and visible improvements in your physique and performance, and also to the more optimized hormonal environment. Not only are testosterone and GH now improved, but insulin will also be working in your favor instead of just being set to baseline levels of effectiveness.

As a result, you'll notice sometime around the middle of Phase II that you're thinking a bit differently. Brain function will increase, and you will actually get smarter. You probably won't notice this, but what you will notice is increased concentration and a general sense of focus, which will improve your productivity and effectiveness. You might also be faster to speak up and start to feel better in your relationship. Hell, maybe you'll just wear a tighter T-shirt. The point is that your entire worldview will begin to shift as a result of the increased confidence, and you'll have moved one step closer to realizing your potential and creating a happier, more satisfying universe.

 

PHASE III: SURGE

Breaking the Mold: The New Rules of Building Muscle

Any person who has ever been instructed about lifting weights understands that the process of building muscle must occur with some fat gain. In the bodybuilding world, this was known as a bulking phase. And it was a theory that actually seemed pretty sound: in order to build significant muscle, you need to eat more calories. It's true that those calories will help you become bigger, but inevitably some will spill over and turn into fat too.

As you know, we're not really fans of belly fat—or any body fat, for that matter. The only fat we like is that which comes on our steak. We just like adding muscle and eliminating fat. The key to making that happen is GH, which we'll trigger with some high-rep, high-intensity weight training. That's the big focus in Phase III—creating a surge in GH that helps you stay lean while adding size, and optimizing testosterone in a way that makes strength and muscle gains possible without adding fat.

The Diet

While lactic acid training and a boost in GH are certainly powerful, those alone wouldn't enable you to build muscle and stay lean at the same time. In order to accomplish this goal, we're going to strategically
increase
how much you eat on training days. That is, Phase III is the only stage where on every workout day you're eating significantly more than your maintenance level of calories. You'll lift hard and heavy, and then eat hard and heavy. These calories will be utilized toward growth. At the same time, on your non-exercise days you'll be eating significantly fewer calories.

This alternating-calorie approach has been shown by University of Virginia scientists to help maintain weight while gaining muscle and has been the secret to our success with all of our clients. That's because during the course of the week, your calories will still be at or below maintenance level. As we mentioned in Adapt, you'll be establishing your maintenance level of calories at the start of each phase, and Surge will be no different. But while in Surge, your overfeeding on your training days will help you build strength and muscle without fat.

The Training

Depending on how you view it, the Surge phase could either be the most fun part of the entire program or could intimidate you to the point of excitement. Every man needs to be able to rise to a challenge, and in order to promote more GH, you'll be pushing your body to the limit.

Each workout will utilize a total-body approach but will have an upper- or lower-body focus. For instance, you might start a workout with a multi-muscle lower-body movement like deadlifts. But we'll have you perform 20 reps of this movement and then follow with an entire upper-body workout of lactic acid–style training.

Lactic acid training is a difficult progression that increases the amount of time your muscles remain under tension. Time under tension is one of the most overlooked components of muscle growth, and it's important because this type of training has been shown to drastically increase output of GH. When combined, the concurrent
surge
in testosterone and GH makes every rep you perform, every set you complete, and all the food you eat prime for new growth. Research published in the
Journal of Applied Physiology
found that supplementation of testosterone and GH led to nearly three times the fat loss than achieved by taking either testosterone or GH individually. While these surges were due to supplementation, researchers speculated that elevating both levels naturally would have the same synergistic impact.