Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha

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