Physique Zero is a muscle-building program designed for people over 35 with family and job commitments and no time to spend hours in a gym. Its emphasis is TUT, time under tension, brought to a new level to make every repetition work.
This program works well for everyone, even beginners, guys hitting a plateau, or anyone tired with long hours spent in the gym with little to show for and a lot of pain in the joints.
This program is not revolutionary in that it runs through tried and tested methods of extended Time Under Tension, progressive overload, different repetition ranges, and periodization.
However, it is packaged in an easy-to-follow blueprint for those guys who are unwilling to sacrifice hours in a gym but still yearn for a method that packs on muscle from the comfort of home without grinding tendons and joints to dust.
Physique Zero comes at a very competitive $15 price tag but is packed with materials, including nutrition manuals, workouts, videos, and specific techniques for improving pull-ups and push-ups.
This program was created by veteran fitness coach Alain Gonzales and is sold only on the official website: projecthypertrophy.com.
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What’s Physique Zero All About?
Physique Zero is a pure bodyweight muscle-building program for people with a desire to attain muscle hypertrophy without the need for equipment.
There may be different reasons why anyone would seek an alternative way to gain lean muscle other than traditional barbells and plates, dumbbells and machines, and gym memberships.
These could be:
Time restrictions. A dedicated gym workout split routine takes a lot of your time.
Sore joints and tendons through repeated, low repetitions and heavyweights.
Aversion to crowded gyms.
Workout inefficiency (standing in a line just to use a piece of equipment).
Unwillingness to sacrifice undue time in a gym could be better spent for the family, wife, and kids (or just relaxing after a hard day’s work).
Just One Problem Though
However, there is a problem with bodyweight workouts: the stigma of being considered second best to traditional weight workouts regarding the effectiveness of muscle-building.
This prejudice stems mainly from the difficulty of increasing resistance in a given exercise. With weights, you simply add resistance by tiny incremental steps with plates or pins.
However, with bodyweight exercises, you need to learn how to effectively leverage your arms and legs to increase or decrease difficulty.
Failing to know how to do this will result in exercises that are either too easy or way too difficult, thus failing one of the critical factors of resistance training: progressive overload through tiny increases in resistance over time.
Even when you have the bodyweight resistance dialed in, eventually, you hit a plateau as you cannot figure out how to increase the intensity further once you have reached the top level of strength and hypertrophy that standard sets and repetitions allow for.
For example, when you can do ten pull-ups, how can you increase the intensity to break through a plateau when you cannot perform 11 or 12 repetitions, no matter what, or don’t have plates or weighted vests to make the repetitions more challenging?
Alain Gonzalez created the Physique Zero program precisely to overcome this situation with a good old trusted technique. It’s all about extending each set to well beyond the standard execution times by slowing down the tempo.
Rather than just blasting your repetitions away in, say, 30 seconds to complete a set to failure, you deliberately slow down the eccentric and the concentric part of each repetition to increase the total TUT, the time under tension.
In other words, Physique Zero teaches you how to make each repetition and set count. As a result of this approach, your body is constantly stimulated and never adapts to a given repetition range or resistance load.
Each set is performed with a focus on time rather than repetition count. I other words, you don’t obsess about repetitions records but keep going in a controlled and slowed fashion until you hit a determined timeline.
The optimal TUT in the Physique Zero program is 70 seconds. That’s a long time. A standard set of 8 to 10 reps lasts for about 25/30 seconds. Lower reps of 5 to 6, even less, 15/20 seconds. Now, try adding another 30/40 seconds on top of that, and you get the drift.
It’s excruciating! (but safe on your joints as you use moderate resistance).
You cannot use extremely high intensity with this technique. You need to dial your repetition range into 10 to 20 rather than 4 to 6.
But that’s precisely the other point of the program, which is being joint-friendly. When you start young in the gym, you keep trashing your joint with low repetitions and high volume, no matter what.
But as the years creep by, your physique starts sending you the first signals here and there that maybe it’s the time to take it a little easy. You experience a sore shoulder here, an inflamed elbow there, a knee that that not seem to recover fast enough from the last squat workout, and so on.
The Physique Zero bodyweight program aims at four different goals:
Increase your strength, hypertrophy, and endurance in the safest possible way.
Drastically cut down your workout time to as little as 8 minutes.
Make your bodyweight workouts more effective with enhanced TUT and lock-free repetitions.
Relieve your mind of ineffective repetition record chasing and focus on timed sets instead.
The program offers a clear workout blueprint with full-body routines through the week performed at different intensity levels to give you the necessary variation for stimulus.
Rest times between sets are moderate (30 to 60 seconds) to stimulate lactic acid accumulation, an essential prerequisite for testosterone production. For more details on how the program works, you can scroll down.
After all, if you are considering ditching the weights for bodyweight but you are still not sure about their effectiveness for hypertrophy and strength, you want to make sure that Physique Zero was put together by someone who knows what is talking about.
You want to make sure that a bodyweight program such as this one not only does it save you time and money but is also effective in building muscle, isn’t it? I have done my research and here is what I found out about the Physique Zero’s creator, Alain Gonzalez.
Author Alain Gonzalez’ Credentials
Alain Gonzalez is a Florida-based Virtual Coach To Skinny Guys and Fitness Author. He has helped countless clients transform their bodies from skinny to jacked through the years, just as he did on himself.
Over the years, he has accrued a vast following with accounts on Instagram and Facebook. He also happens to be the brother of Alby Gonzalez, another accomplished natural bodybuilder who also runs his fitness brand and is the author of other programs such as Isometric Mass, reviewed here.
Alain Gonzales stresses that he is NOT a bodybuilder but a regular guy who, through discipline and dedication, has overcome his limitations to become a strong, confident man.
Today, Alain has made it a priority to help other people in the same shoes as before to overcome their limitations and progress toward achieving their full potential.
All in all, Alain Gonzalez is a genuine author and fitness expert who knows what it takes for skinny guys to build muscle, as he and his clients are the living embodiment of the validity of his training methods.
Who Is Physique Zero For?
While nothing revolutionary, Physique Zero has at least the merit of offering a clear-cut blueprint for building mucle with bodyweight workouts only.
This program is particularly suitable for people above the age of 35 and up, family men with kids and job commitments with no much time to waste in the gym, and possibly a worry or two about the long-term effects of heavyweights and low repetitions on joints and tendons.
However, Physique Zero is just as suitable for young guys (and gals) who want an effective bodyweight muscle-building program safe because the techniques are effective for hypertrophy and time-saving.
There’s been a considerable shift in recent years from traditional weight resistance toward bodyweight and calisthenics in general because of its practical and minimalist approach.
If you are NOT concerned about the spectacular calisthenics routines or street workouts that require years of practice and are hard on your joints and tendons anyway, then Physique Zero is for you.
This program is about building muscle with your body weight in the most effective way, not doing fancy party tricks. In any case, you need to have made your muscle and strength first before you can do advanced street workouts.
And to build muscle size and strength, you need to go back to basics and do basic bodyweight movements to and beyond failure.
The Physique Zero program has a few tricks under its sleeve to make these basic bodyweight exercises even more effective for building muscle and strength since strength is always related to muscle size.
You don’t need to go down to low reps and heavy resistance with short sets to achieve that. Moderate resistance, higher repetition range, and increased TUT will do the trick without damaging your joints or frying your central nervous system.
Physique Zero does an excellent job of providing a simple bodyweight method for practical muscle gains for all the guys out there who are tired of the gym and want to have the ability to train at home just as effectively.
How Does Physique Zero Work?
Physique Zero promotes a multi-faceted approach that considers varied repetition ranges, emphasizing medium to high repetitions and a full range of motion.
The bodyweight exercises are performed with specific techniques, which the author calls Bodyweight Training Amplifiers.
These techniques are in place precisely to offset the main limitation of bodyweight training, which is the difficulty of increasing the intensity by simply adding more weight.
There are four distinct Bodyweight Training Amplifiers:
1 – Timed Sets – While the workout guide offers different repetition ranges, these should be used only as a guideline. What you should do instead is focusing on the cadence, deliberately slowing the repetitions with an emphasis on the eccentric part.
In the timed sets you manipulate the tempo of the different phases of a repetition:
Eccentric.
Isometric at the bottom.
Concentric.
Isometric at the top.
The point here is to increased TUT, or time under tension, up to 70 seconds, preferably with a stopwatch. For example, a slow cadence could be 3:0:1:0, whereas the eccentric takes 3 seconds.
The strategy is striving to achieve the same number of repetitions you would be able to do with a normal speed while slowing the tempo.
2 – Training Density – This refers to the ability to perform a given workout volume in the shortest possible time. You achieve this by resting less between sets and trying to condense as much workload as possible in a shorter time-frame.
For example, if it takes you 1 hour to finish the workout initially, by decreasing the time frame you force your body to become stronger so that it can withstand the increased volume in a shorter period. That means more muscle.
3 – Variations – These refer to the modification of basic exercises to make them more challenging as you progress over time. Think of decline push-ups instead of floor push-ups, or one-legged squats (pistol squats) instead of two-legged squats.
4 – Isometrics – Isometrics are a valuable tool in the hypertrophy arsenal. They allow for a new kind of stimulus mostly associated with very long TUT. Isometrics should be performed at the most difficult position such as the top of a pull-up or the bottom of a push-up.
The main benefit of isometrics is maximal motor unit activation, which is very difficult to achieve with different resistance training.
Moderate To High Repetitions For Hypertrophy And Strength
Alain Gonzalez stresses the importance of moderate to high repetition ranges for strength and hypertrophy. He reasons that you can get bigger by increasing volume, with the added benefits of keeping your joints safe.
Aside from the central nervous system, joint stress is often a limiting factor in weight resistance training, which causes repeated micro-tears and inflammation over time, a recipe for disaster later on.
While the low repetition ranges for strength resonate for most people seeking to increase muscle size, the reality is that your bones and tendons cannot sustain those high loads forever.
Studies have shown that moderate repetition ranges trigger just as much hypertrophy as lower ones with the additional benefit of being sustainable. In other words, you can train with lighter loads and still build muscle.
Especially as you age, you should make health and longevity a priority and stop chasing personal best records. Your joints will thank you.
The Physique Zero program stresses the importance of proper execution with no bouncing, yanking, kipping, and throwing, and a recommended time under tension of up to 70 seconds, way more than the typical 15/30 seconds.
This approach entails, of course, a complete shift of mind towards quality and mind-muscle connection, basically using your bodyweight to feel the muscle working rather than using your muscles to do as many repetitions as possible up and down in a handful of seconds.
Of course, this also means a reality check and an ego re-assessment.
The 8-Minute Bodyweight Exercises
The Physique Zero program contains a full bodyweight workout manual and a separate 8-Minute workout blueprint for those with little time in hand.
The 8-Minute workout blueprint centers on the principle of progressive overload, but it does so in a minimalist and time-efficient way. Make no mistake, though, because these mini-workouts are very demanding.
You should do this blueprint before following the primary workout blueprint to prime your body to the increased time under tension and learn the technique.
You have to outperform your last performance every week by doing more reps without sacrificing tempo. Once you can do two more sets in a controlled manner, you can move on to the main workout manual.
This preparatory blueprint hinges on two fundamental techniques:
Timed Sets – The Physique Zero provides repetition ranges as a general guideline, but you should focus on time under tension instead of up to 70 seconds, preferably with a stopwatch. This way, you learn how to deliberately slow down your tempo and especially emphasize the negative or eccentric part.
AMRAP Sets – These are “as many repetitions as possible” sets to complete muscular failure. You should not use them all the time but on rotation throughout the week.
The workouts are full-body sessions performed throughout the week with repetition ranges between 10 and 20, including some isometrics and different rep tempos, while resting times vary between 45 to 60 seconds.
You typically do only 2 of these demanding sets for each bodyweight exercise for a full-body workout, each time a different workout with different degrees of intensity.
The workouts are called:
Bulletproof.
Infusion.
Burn.
Upper Limits.
Lower Limits.
That’s five short, full-body workouts per week with basic push/pull and squat movements and their variations.
Physique Zero Components
Physique Zero is a digital program. You can access it through a download page, and the ten components come in PDF format with video thumbnail links to YouTube video demonstrations. Here is a quick breakdown of what’s inside:
1 – The Physique Zero Main Manual – The foundation of the program with all the theories. It’s a 20-page manual where the author introduces you to the critical factors for building muscle through bodyweight training, such as:
Volume.
Intensity.
Frequency.
Potentiation.
Repeated Bout Effect.
Muscle Protein Synthesis.
Bodyweight Training Amplifiers.
Rep Tempo.
Training Density.
Variations.
Isometrics.
Energy Flux.
2 – The Physique Zero 8-Minute Workouts – A 4-page manual, this is the priming training regimen you should follow before switching to the leading workout guide.
This minimalist workout blueprint aims at honing the new hypertrophy techniques:
Timed Sets (extending time under tension rather than worrying about rep chasing).
AMRAP Sets (as many repetitions as possible).
Only when you master these new demanding techniques can you switch to the full workout schedule.
3 – The Physique Zero Workout Guide – An 18-page manual with all the workouts laid out. The manual covers different topics and the whole workouts schedule like this:
Progression.
Plus Sets.
AMRAP Sets.
Warming Up (two warm-ups to choose from).
The Complete 4-Week Workout Schedule
BulletProof Workout.
Infusion Workout.
Circuit Workout (A or B).
Burn Workout.
Upper Limits Workout.
Lower Limits Workout.
4 – The Physique Zero Nutrition Manual – A 19-page manual covering all aspects of nutrition. This is not a meal plan, just manual teaching you how to calculate your calories and macro needs:
5 – The Physique Zero Execution Videos – This is a collection of 20 videos divided by muscle group and collected in a 5-page PDF manual. You click on the video thumbnail, and it will take you to YouTube, where Alain Gonzalez demonstrates how to execute each exercise correctly in the Physique Zero program.
Here is a breakdown of the exercises:
Pull-Ups.
Jamb Hammer Rows.
Reverse Push-Ups.
Plank Push-Ups.
Doorway Curls.
Triceps Extensions.
Power Pushaways.
Side Laterals.
Iron Cross.
Pike Push-Ups.
Elevated Pike Push-ups.
Push-Ups.
Elevated Puch-Ups.
Plyo Push-Ups.
Wall Iso Holds.
Bulgarian Split Squats.
Squats.
Hip Thrusts.
Calf Raises.
Ankle Hops.
6 – The Physique Core Six Pack Workouts – An 8-page PDF manual with six different ab circuit routines and demonstrative pictures.
7 – The Physique Prime Recovery Techniques – A 10-page PDF manual covering mobility and flexibility issues and a technique to improve them, the Myofascial Release.
After a brief introduction of Myofascial Release, the manual presents various YouTube clickable thumbnails that lead you to the videos demonstrating how to execute these exercises correctly.
These exercises aim to improve the mobility of crucial part of you body typically affected by lack of flexibility, such as:
Thoracic Spine.
Posterior Chain.
Arms.
Anterior Chain.
Latissimus Dorsi.
Posterior Deltoid.
Trunk.
Anterior Deltoid.
Posterior Shoulder.
Posterior Chain.
Medial Chain.
Quads.
8 – The Physique Zero Push-Up Mastery – A 3-page booklet with a 30-day push-up progression method and an optimistic target of 100 push-ups in one go.
9 – The Physique Zero Pull-Up Mastery – A 26-page manual divided into 10 phases with a somewhat optimistic final target of 40+ pull-ups.
10 – The Physique Edge – A 16-page ebook tackling important aspects and habits contributing to your ability to build muscle, such as:
Anabolic Sleep.
Switch Off The Telephone.
Kick Bad Habits.
It also makes suggestions to the benefits of some supplements like:
A brand of sleep tea.
Creatine Monohydrate.
Beta-Alanine.
L-carnitine.
L-Tartrate.
Betaine.
A brand of supplement with all of the above ingredients.
Effective muscle-building program based on bodyweight workouts.
Easy on the joints and tendons.
Time-efficient.
Ideal for busy family men with no time for marathon gym sessions.
Ideal for people over 35 who think for the long term: joints and tendons health.
Simple layout and format, easy to follow.
Created by a qualified coach.
Affordable, just $15.
60-day money-back guarantee.
Against
The two dedicated manuals for pull-ups and push-ups are somehow optimistic. It’s unlikely that you will ever reach the set goals with good form: 100 push-ups and 50 pull-ups. These are just ideal targets to strive for but realistically not attainable. For good progression, the central workout manual and the 8-minute workout booklet are all you need.
Closing Thoughts On Physique Zero
If you are unhappy with your muscle-building progression, have limited time, and want to take care of your joints and tendons, then Physique Zero is a valid alternative to regular weight training programs.
Not only was this program written by a reputable coach, but it is also a comprehensive plan based on rock-solid bodyweight training foundations.
Physique Zero uses a blend of high-intensity techniques such as timed sets, moderate resistance, and increased time under tension. These methods are proven to work for hypertrophy without the harmful effects of high-resistance, low repetition methods.
This blueprint allows you to build muscle comfortably and safely from the comfort of home without a worry about achy joints or inflamed tendons.
Especially if you are over the age of 35 and have been training for a while, you may want to look at the long-term effects of traditional heavyweight resistance on your joints.
Physique Zero offers manuals and video tutorials for optimal implementation, a time-efficient structure, and a good deal of materials covering nutrition, recovery techniques, and push-up/pull-up specific training.
Overall, it offers a plan to build muscle effectively by increasing resistance and extending the working sets, and condensing the workout volume quickly with reduced resting times.
If you are a busy family man with kids and commitments who still want to pack on muscle without aggravating your joints, the Physique Zero program could be the right solution.
Physique Zero FAQs
What Is Physique Zero?
It is a muscle-building bodyweight program that uses condensed volume, reduced rest times, and extended sets as the foundation for hypertrophy (rather than an increase in resistance). As such, it is also joint-friendly.
Who Would Benefit From This Program?
Mainly people over 35 are concerned with their joint health. But also people tired of the long training session in the gym with heavyweights. It is also recommended for those who want to increase their muscle gains with bodyweight workouts but don’t know how to do it or fear it’s an inferior method for building muscle (it’s not).
Can I Use Physique Zero If I Had Injuries In The Past?
Absolutely. This is one of the main advantages of this program. It’s easy on your joints because you don’t progress through increases in resistance or repetition numbers but by extending the working sets TUT and condensing the workout volume in a shorter period.
How Long Does It Take To Work?
Physique Zero works pretty quickly because you challenge your muscles from a completely different angle than before – not heavier weights but more extended sets.
As a result, you can expect to see results within the first week.
In the unlikely event that Physique Zero does not help you achieve the results you were hoping for, you are covered with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
My name is Jay Fielding. I gained an interest in fitness since I was a child, and eventually developed my passion into a career path. I am now a Certified Personal Trainer with a natural ability to program customized body recomposition and motivate people in achieving their goals, be it gaining muscle or losing fat.
