Written by Hamza J
Based on Cody LeFever's P-Zero, with some minor adaptations.
GZCLP grown up. Same three tiers, four days instead of three, every session full body, and far more exercise variety. Each of the four main lifts is trained heavy once a week and for volume once a week, and every single exercise in the program runs on the same idea: clear the stage you are on and the weight goes up, miss it and you drop to a shorter stage at the same weight.
P-Zero is for the lifter who has outgrown a beginner program but is not ready for periodisation.
It suits you if:
It leans more toward bodybuilding than GZCLP did: higher rep ranges, more exercises, more variety. If your only goal is a powerlifting total, a program built around percentages of a competition max will serve you better.
| Tier | Job | Load | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | The heavy lift of the day | ~72% of 1RM | 3 sets plus a rep-out |
| T2 | The volume lift of the day | ~52% of 1RM | 4 straight sets |
| T3 | Accessories, four of them | ~50% of 1RM | 4 rep-out sets each |
Those percentages are starting points. From session one the ladders move the weight, so what you enter on day one is a working weight rather than a percentage the app keeps recalculating.
| Day | T1 | T2 | T3 × 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Deadlift | Bench Press | T Bar Row, Leg Press, Chest Dip, Cable Crunch |
| B1 | Overhead Press | Squat | Pull Up, Incline Dumbbell Bench, Seated Leg Curl, Dumbbell Curl |
| A2 | Bench Press | Deadlift | Seated Row, Dumbbell Shoulder Press, Leg Extension, Side Crunch |
| B2 | Squat | Overhead Press | Romanian Deadlift, Dumbbell Bench, Lateral Raise, Flat Leg Raise |
Read the first two columns down and the structure is obvious: every main lift appears twice a week, once as a T1 and once as a T2. The deadlift is heavy on A1 and light on A2; the bench is light on A1 and heavy on A2. That is what makes a full body program recoverable at four days a week.
Six exercises a session, 60 to 90 minutes. Run the four days in order with a rest day between them where you can.
Every exercise in this program is a stage ladder. There are three of them.
| Stage | Prescription |
|---|---|
| 1 | 3 × 4, then 1 × 5+ |
| 2 | 3 × 3, then 1 × 4+ |
| 3 | 3 × 2, then 1 × 3+ |
Three straight sets, then one rep-out set at a higher rep count than the others. That last set is where the work is: the reps written are the minimum, and you keep going until your form changes or the bar slows.
| Stage | Prescription |
|---|---|
| 1 | 4 × 12 |
| 2 | 4 × 10 |
| 3 | 4 × 8 |
Four straight sets, all reps completed, nothing open-ended. T2 is not meant to be hard in the first weeks and that is the point: it is what lets the same lift be trained twice a week.
| Stage | Prescription |
|---|---|
| 1 | 4 × 15+ |
| 2 | 4 × 12+ |
| 3 | 3 × 10+ |
Every set is a rep-out. The reps written are a minimum on all four.
Another way the same tier is often described is "sixty total reps in four sets or fewer, dropping the target by fifteen when it takes more". That is the same thing counted differently: four sets of fifteen is sixty.
Complete every set at the stage you are on, and the weight goes up next time.
Fall short, and you drop a stage at the same weight. The sets get shorter, so the weight you could not quite handle for 3 × 4 becomes handleable for 3 × 3, and you keep making progress on it instead of stalling.
T1 at 100 kg, stage 1: 3 × 4 + 1 × 5+ -> completed -> 102.5 kg, still stage 1
T1 at 102.5 kg, stage 1 -> missed -> 102.5 kg, stage 2 (3 × 3 + 1 × 4+)
T1 at 102.5 kg, stage 2 -> completed -> 105 kg, still stage 2
Increments: 2.5 kg / 5 lbs everywhere.
T1 and T2 cycle back to the top when you miss at the bottom, at the same weight. Missing 3 × 2 + 1 × 3+ puts you back on 3 × 4 + 1 × 5+ without a cut. Nothing in this program ever reduces the weight on the bar; it reduces the reps instead.
T3 cycles back to the top when you SUCCEED at the bottom, with more weight. Clearing 3 × 10+ sends you back to 4 × 15+ at a heavier load. That is the difference between the accessory tier and the other two: it is a loop rather than a descent, which is what keeps the reps high on a tier whose whole job is volume.
Everything below assumes your form is already solid. Finding your working weight, adding weight, chasing reps, all of it only works if you can perform the lift correctly. While your form is not locked in, that is your only job. Make good form the goal of every set, not the weight on the bar. Drilling the movement with an empty bar beats loading plates onto a lift you cannot control yet.
To learn, don't hesitate to search Google and YouTube (there is a lot of good free material) and record yourself from the side to compare against a proper demonstration. In general, good form means a full controlled range of motion, a braced neutral spine, no bouncing or momentum, a consistent setup every rep, and ending the set when technique breaks down rather than grinding sloppy reps.
You enter working weights, not maxes, because the ladders move the weight from the first session and a percentage would be stale by the second.
Work them out once from your one rep max:
T1 = 1RM × 0.72
T2 = 1RM × 0.52
T3 = about half of the 1RM for that movement
Example:
Your squat 1RM is 140 kg / 310 lbs:
T1 squat = 140 × 0.72 = 100 kg / 310 × 0.72 = 223, round to 220 lbs
T2 squat = 140 × 0.52 = 72.5 kg / 310 × 0.52 = 161, round to 160 lbs
For the accessories you will not have a one rep max, and you should not test one. Take a weight you can do for eighteen or twenty clean reps and start there. Stage 1 asks for four sets of fifteen or more, so a weight you can only just get fifteen reps with on a fresh set will not survive to the fourth.
Round down everywhere. The T1 rep-out set on the first week should give you two or three reps past the minimum. If it gives you exactly the minimum, the weight is too heavy and the ladder will spend its first month walking downhill.
| Tier | Warm-up |
|---|---|
| T1 | Full ramp: empty bar, then roughly 40%, 60% and 80% of the working weight |
| T2 | One or two sets, since the T1 has already warmed you up |
| T3 | None, the first set is at fifteen or more reps |
The T1 is the only exercise in the session that needs a real ramp. Everything else is either warmed by it or at a rep count that warms itself.
| Tier | Rest |
|---|---|
| T1 | 3 to 3.5 minutes |
| T2 | 2 minutes |
| T3 | 90 seconds |
Rest properly before the T1 rep-out set. It is the set that decides whether the whole session counts as complete, and rushing it costs you the stage.
Missing is part of the program. Dropping a stage is not a failure, it is the mechanism. A program with no way to miss is a program that stalls.
If you drop through all three stages of a lift twice in a row, your starting weight was too high. Cut that lift 10% and start again at stage 1.
If a T3 is collapsing to single figures by the fourth set, the weight is too heavy for the tier. Cut it 10%.
If your sessions are running past ninety minutes, cut a T3. Four accessories a day is the design, three is fine, and a session you do not finish is worth less than a shorter one you do.
If you feel wrecked rather than tired, take a light week: same sessions, two thirds of the weight, no rep-out set taken near failure. Then resume at the stage you were on.
There is no block length and no scheduled deload. P-Zero runs until it stops working, which for most people is several months.
Take a light week when several lifts drop stages at once. When a lift has cycled through all three stages more than twice without the weight moving, that lift needs a reset rather than another cycle.
P-Zero is described in Cody LeFever's book and on his blog:
Twenty four slots, each on its own three-stage ladder, is exactly the bookkeeping a notebook loses. Virtus Athlete tracks which stage every exercise is on, drops it when you miss and adds the weight when you clear it, and handles the accessory tier's loop back to the top so you never have to remember which end of the ladder you are at.
Free on iOS and Android.
Build unlimited programs, log every set, and track your progress over time. Free on iOS & Android.
App Store
Google Play
