Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha (3 page)

Many guys feel that rules are restrictive. In reality, the right rules give you freedom. They allow you to make time for what you really need to do to become an Alpha. That's why we created the Alpha Rules. They sit just far enough outside of society's rules that you can live the life you want, and yet they still provide guiding principles that anyone can respect.

But this list is only the beginning. We encourage you to create your own set of rules. Part of being an Alpha is setting your own standards and principles and sticking to them. So we encourage you to write down your rules and add to the list. But here's the law: you must follow those rules. If you choose to set a standard by which you want to live, then you must actually follow through. Doing so will help ensure that your life doesn't lead down a path to the ordinary.

Rule #1.
Make time for what's important.
Everyone
is busy, but there's a huge difference between being busy and being productive. Alphas are willing to sacrifice small things for important ones, even if it means giving up a little fun.

Rule #2.
Consider the problem from all angles to find a solution. Alphas know that sometimes you need a hammer, other times a key. Developing an understanding of how to address problems is an infinitely valuable life skill.

Rule #3.
Embrace ego as a mechanism to become more confident. But ego should never prevent you from listening to others or being willing to learn. Alphas are always open to the idea that they can learn more.

Rule #4.
Understand the importance of sex. Alphas want sex to be meaningful to them in a number of ways. Whether you quantify that by performance or connecting with your partner, great sex is something that Alphas are great at. Put somewhat less delicately, Alphas are fucking
great
at fucking.

Rule #5.
Say no to things you don't like.

Rule #6.
Don't ask permission—beg for forgiveness (it's easier).

Rule #7.
Don't criticize an idea unless you're willing to provide an alternative.

Rule #8.
Get your clothes tailored. A $200 suit that fits well looks better than a $500 suit that doesn't.

Rule #9.
Show love. Never, ever, ever hold back from giving a compliment, as long as it's sincere. There's never a bad time to say something nice; get in the habit of doing this. People will love you for it.

Rule #10.
Always be the first to reach for the check. Do this even if the other person invited you out. If he or she puts up a strong fight, let 'em have it. Alphas try to take care of others and never want to be beholden to anyone, but they don't force dominance on other people, especially financially.

Rule #11.
Answer all insults with a smile. Alphas understand that not everyone is going to like them, and some people will be vocal about it. There's no point giving them the satisfaction of giving a shit.

Rule #12.
Admit your mistakes with honesty and humor. Accepting responsibility for your actions, especially when they're mistakes, is vitally important. Alphas do this, and they always go the extra step to make things right.

Rule #13.
Take the lead. Always suggest a day and time to meet instead of leaving it in the air. Alphas don't wait for others to suggest things—they make things happen.

Rule #14.
Understand that scared money don't make money. This is an old saying that is common in the poker world, and it's another way of saying “fortune favors the bold.” Alphas take risks and savor both the sweetness of victories and the lessons learned in defeat.

Rule #15.
Learn how to cook. If you're approaching thirty and you can't make a few meals, take the next month and learn. Seriously, time to grow the fuck up. Alphas know how to feed themselves. It's a basic human function.

 

CHAPTER 1

The Fitness Industry Is Completely Fucked Up

ENTER ADAM: UNMASKING THE FAÇADE OF EVERYTHING PUBLISHED IN THE MAINSTREAM

“You want answers? You can't handle the truth!”

—
A FEW GOOD MEN

Y
ou want to know what the problem is
with being an editor for the most-read fitness publications in the world, as I am?

You might think it's the low pay, the ninety-hour workweeks, and the complete anonymity that comes with not having your name on 95 percent of the stuff you write. All reasonable guesses, but that stuff isn't so bad when you get to work with some of the smartest people in the world, learn the best ways to improve your life, and train with athletes who are even cooler and more badass than they appear on TV.

The real problem: it's really hard to do my job the way it should be done. It's bullshit, and I'm tired of it. And I've finally reached a point where I'm ready to call out the industry because it's time for a fucking change.

Is this a rant? No. It's a much-needed stand that will explain why most guys never see the type of results promised and why you are actually capable of achieving much more than you probably think.

The fitness industry is just like the food industry—or any industry, for that matter. The truth is always hiding somewhere between what you see and what you believe.

How do I know? I've been part of the process that created the problem, and I have been diligently working to find a solution. And what I discovered was that in order to fix a broken system, we needed to introduce a little chaos.

That chaos is
hormones.

Not the steroids and antiaging clinics that make everyone think of José Canseco and doping controversies. There's nothing controversial about what we'll share—but the end game is just as salacious and headline grabbing. And if we should remember Canseco for anything, it's that he shed light on a reality that was overlooked by all: people who focus on hormones age better, look better, and perform the way they want.

But you don't need a chemistry set to become superhuman. You can achieve that
naturally.
No pills, no shots, no injections. As we've already mentioned, the benefits go far beyond looking fucking awesome. Your hormones are the key to optimizing physical, social, and cognitive performance. This is basic endocrinology that's sixty years of research in the making—only no one has the balls to talk about it.

Until now.

No one's talking about it because the fitness industry is not an open forum for discussion. It's close-minded, dogmatic, and really confusing. It's no wonder most guys are unsure about what they should eat, when they should eat, and the best way to exercise. And if your health weren't the crux of everything in life, this wouldn't be a big deal.

But your health directly influences everything in your life. And we mean
everything
—your wealth, happiness, intelligence, sex life, and longevity. And that's just the short list. Every aspect of how you live and feel depends on the way you exercise and what you eat. But you don't hear that from the media. You just see the same cover lines: “Build Bigger Biceps,” “Get Back in Shape,” and “Six-Pack Secrets.”

But I have a question: How are those headlines working out for you?

 

BEHIND THE FEAR

The information you receive from the mainstream media is somewhat designed to help you achieve those goals of bigger biceps and firmer six-packs. But they all miss the bigger picture. Larger biceps aren't about doing curls. Getting back in shape isn't about getting the cardio in. And having a six-pack isn't about not eating after seven
P.M.
That's a bullshit sundae topped with enough restrictions to drive anyone to the late-night Dairy Queen in a way that blows up your best-laid plans.

I'm sorry, but you've been screwed.

You don't get the results the media offers—but you do get plenty of frustration. This is because the gatekeepers in the fitness world would rather be consistent than progressive. They assume they know what the readers want, and therefore the information you receive is always pushed through a selective filter.

This leaves us with a frustrating reality: information spread by the mainstream media that is oftentimes designed to maintain the status quo rather than be completely transparent.

That's because people don't like admitting they're wrong—or just not completely right. Oftentimes what prevents personal growth is narrow-mindedness, not outright stubbornness. For whatever reason, they're unwilling to make changes to their value system.

What does it all mean? You've been fucked over with half-truths. I won't call them lies, but they
are
deceptions. Most of what is assumed to be the foundation of fitness just isn't all that accurate. That's not to say that none of it works—but not all of it is likely to be information that will work for you. And that's why you're stuck with the same frustrating thoughts about your body, your life, and your confidence.

This is partly human nature and partly culture: whether you want to admit it or not, changing your mind is seen as weakness, even though we know that sometimes the best decisions require us to let go of a previously held belief and accept a new mind-set that is better. But our refusal to change easily occurs because of the backlash that is associated with shifting your stance.

When politicians shift positions, they're called flip-floppers; when musicians do it, they're called sellouts. In the fitness industry, it's a little different. There's no gentle term, so they're just called idiots. They are decried for their inconsistency and accused of changing their message to suit a hidden agenda or to sell a product.

Despite the idea that this industry is supposedly propelled by science and research—which should be absorbed and applied to an ever-changing understanding of the human body—the truth is that it's not. Unfortunately, people would rather be comfortable with familiar ideas that they believe to be true than be challenged with new ideas that actually force them to think. The comfort in these beliefs creates a dogmatic view that paralyzes your ability to move forward.

As men, we hit a wall because the information we received, the advice we accepted, and the fitness and diet programs we welcomed into our life limited what we could achieve and who we could become.

We're tired of it all. You deserve more.

That's why I've spent several years working to create a blueprint—combining science with real life results—to prove how the truth was really being kept from you.

Is this a fuck-you to the fitness industry? Nah. But it
is
a stand that's long overdue. This is the first time anyone in the mainstream is taking a more open and honest approach, tackling the topics no one discusses, debunking the myths that are ruining your body, and opening your eyes to a world where sensational cover lines can be actual goals, not a marketing sell.

We are here to change the game, but not with the same old rigmarole; the only thing I can guarantee about this new world is that it won't be one filled with half-truths and empty promises.

 

LOOK (AND FEEL . . . AND FUCK) LIKE A REAL MAN

While we understand that much of the excitement you have for this book is probably tied to the workouts and diet plans, it's important to understand why we've written this book and exactly what's at stake. A bad hormonal environment is a Molotov cocktail waging war on your body. When your body isn't functioning optimally, you only experience the symptoms. Rarely do you understand the cause. That's why we will connect the dots so you understand how your daily behaviors set off an easily prevented domino effect of problems you desperately want to avoid.

We've listed nine problems that can be easily avoided if you fix your hormones. Some might be impacting you now, whether you know it or not. Others inevitably wait in the future. And all of them can be removed from your reality. If you didn't need your eyes to read, we'd tell you to close them now. Because this shit is about to get scary.

1. Reduced Intelligence

You might think most of the benefits of hormone optimization relate to how you look and feel. And you'd be right—fix your hormones and you will look awesome. But hormonal imbalance also impacts your brain. More specifically: not targeting your hormones through diet and training means less intelligence and a limited capacity for achievement.

The key is a hormone called BDNF—one of the biggest scientific advances that no one is talking about. What it stands for (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) isn't as important as what it means because if you don't produce more BDNF, it could stand for “brain does not function.”

The concept is best understood this way: Have you ever seen the movie
Limitless
with Bradley Cooper? In it, Cooper's character takes a pill that maximizes brain functioning. He becomes brilliant—not because he suddenly has more knowledge but because his brain is firing and operating at a more efficient pace. This is BDNF.

When you're not cranking out enough BDNF, your brain is functioning on an average level like everyone else's, and your ability to become smarter is limited by the number of synapses you create. Fewer synapses mean less brain activity. But when BDNF is activated? It's like “Miracle-Gro for the brain,” says Dr. John Ratey, associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Become better looking
and
smarter? It's true, but we're just starting to scratch the surface.

2. Stunted Sex Drive

Having sex once a week isn't normal.

Here's the sad truth: there's a nation of guys out there with beautiful girlfriends (or boyfriends) or wives. Girlfriends and wives who want sex every night. This isn't the sad part, obviously. The sad part is that these guys, who should be counting their blessings—and having more sex than is advisable or safe—are falling asleep in front of the TV. Or lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, waiting for their partner to doze off.

These men love their girlfriends, love their wives, and on some level love sex. They just don't want it. Their sex drive, once a proud engine that influenced every decision, now has the power of a toy car with a dying battery.

Declining sex drive is a direct effect of lower testosterone, and it's not normal. It's not okay. It should be a very obvious indicator that you need to make a change. Put in the most blunt terms possible: You're a
man,
man.
^*
If you don't want to fuck, something is wrong.

Some might write this off as one of the natural signs of aging. And to some extent, that's true. However, falling testosterone is no longer solely the province of middle age alone. Whereas you might expect a guy in his fifties to experience what the pharmaceutical companies call “Low T.” This is happening to guys as young as twenty-five. Yes—there are a host of guys just out of college who don't want sex.

Even worse, new research from Australia has found that declining testosterone is not as much a result of aging as we once thought. Your decline in hormonal production is actually the result of your health and your body fat. “It is critical that doctors understand that declining testosterone levels are not a natural part of aging and that they are most likely due to health-related behaviors or health status itself,” says Gary Wittert, MD and study coauthor.

The good news: this is easy to fix for guys young and old. While we can't promise that you'll have the same sex drive at forty-eight as you did at eighteen, it is possible to naturally increase your levels of testosterone—and thereby your sex drive—without pills or creams or doctors. We can tweak them with the right training approach. It's not lifting weights—it's how you lift them and when you lift them. Mix that with some nutrition secrets that you won't find on the cover of your favorite magazine, and you have a potent cocktail that primes you for less fat and more confidence, resulting in more testosterone and, even better, more incredible sex.

3. Accelerated Aging

Listen, we're not going to call you old and slow. But odds are, your body looks a lot older and moves a lot slower than it should. And it doesn't matter if you're a twenty-year-old guy or a sixty-year-old boss; the nutrition advice you've received is creating an impending apocalypse within your body.

You've probably heard of cleanse diets—most likely from your wife or girlfriend, or if you were trying to pass a drug test. (Yeah, we know why you really visit your favorite supplement store.) These are the juice cleanses or liver and kidney detoxifiers that are supposed to rid your body of toxins, improve the functioning of your internal organs, and help you age better. Or, at the very least, you'll eat more fruits and vegetables and be a little healthier. But mostly it's just a marketing scheme to get you to buy a product.

The only
real
cleanse occurs at the cellular level. It's called autophagy, and it's your body's ability to regenerate and become better. Autophagy helps you repair injuries, makes your brain function a little better, helps with muscle growth and fat loss, and even assists in your ability to walk and breathe.

You see, every day there are millions of cellular reactions occurring in your body. Some of this activity causes damage within your body. As with any equipment that is used a lot, the daily stress causes breakdown. Fortunately, your body is built for such circumstances and can naturally heal anything that isn't working at an optimal level. This is autophagy.

So what happens when your internal repair is slow and lazy and doesn't get the job done? That's when you have a damaged internal environment. More specifically, when your workers don't repair your mitochondria—the cellular power plant of your body—then your body is basically fucked.