Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha

other phases will be nearly as effective without it.
    The diet, which will be explained soon, is the most important part of Phase I—nearly everyone coming into the program will have some level of insulin resistance (or insulin insensitivity). Because of this, the nutritional programming is designed to rapidly get your endocrine system back on track by immediately addressing insulin in a truly aggressive manner.
    As for exercise, Phase I is set up for two very specific goals. For those relatively new to the gym or those who haven’t trained in a while, the exercise setup of Phase I will have you seeing results fast. For everyone, it will set the foundation for the following three phases so you can experience exponential improvements. Even if you train regularly, learning the movements the way we want you to do them is going to take a little time. From a hormonal standpoint, Prime is geared toward improving insulin sensitivity, which will be accomplished through exercise as well as diet.
    We’ll talk about each of these benefits, but before we do, we just need to point out the obvious: synergy. By pairing a nutritional structure with a training approach, both of which are proven to improve insulin management, you increase the efficacy of both, allowing for not only rapid hormonal optimization but also rapid results in terms of fat loss and muscle gain.
    Training Program
    Phase I will be comprised of what is known as metabolic resistance training. This style of training uses resistance (either weights or your own body weight) in a fast-paced, circuit-style workout; circuits are executed with very little rest between exercises and are arranged in a noncompeting fashion. This means that you’ll never work the same muscle in two consecutive exercises; rather, the exercise order alternates between opposing body parts. Sometimes you’ll do an upper-body exercise followed by a lower; others times, you’ll do a pressing movement followed by a pulling one.
    By setting things up this way, you are not in danger of reaching muscular fatigue early in the workout; instead, you’ll be challenged both anaerobically and aerobically—meaning you will work your muscles and your cardiovascular system. This leads to an increase in something called EPOC, or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.
    As the name implies, EPOC is a measured increase in the rate of oxygen intake following strenuous exercise. In recovery, oxygen facilitates a number of processes that adapt the body to the exercise just performed (such as cellular repair, muscle growth, and hormonal optimization), so increased oxygen consumption can speed those processes. Another use of EPOC is to fuel the increased metabolism from exercise-induced increases in body temperature.
    All of that is a really long way of saying that metabolic resistance training has been shown to drastically and rapidly increase metabolism, making it exceptional for fat loss.
    Metabolic resistance training has also been shown as one of the best ways to increase insulin sensitivity. While it is true that all weight training helps insulin sensitivity, two separate studies published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research have specifically demonstrated that the effect of metabolic resistance training on insulin sensitivity is greater than with other training modalities.
    Each workout in Phase I will consist of two or three metabolic resistance circuits, each of which will be made up of as many as five exercises.
    Nutrition Program
    Your dietary prescriptions for Prime are some of the most effective and thoroughly researched methods ever discussed. As with all other phases, Prime focuses on intermittent fasting and carb cycling, with an added twist: the insulin reset.
    The insulin reset is pretty much what it sounds like: a specific dietary protocol intended to reset your insulin sensitivity. The insulin reset utilizes carb cycling in the sense that you’re always eating more carbs on workout days—however, this starts out in a relatively intense fashion: with zero carbs three days per week.
    During the first two weeks of Prime, you will take in no carbohydrates whatsoever on the days that you don’t train with weights. On days you do train, you’re limited to 30 grams. We recommend that all 30 grams of carbs come in the form of a post-workout shake.
    Although it’s not exactly fun eliminating carbs for a couple weeks, it’s incredibly effective and surprisingly easy to adjust