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GZCLP Explained

GZCLP is Cody Lefever's linear progression built on his GZCL method. It gives a beginner far more work than a 5x5 without asking them to make more decisions, and it changes when you fail rather than when the calendar says so.

The three tiers

The GZCL method sorts everything you do into tiers by how heavy it is and how much of it there is. GZCLP applies that to a four-day beginner week, and every day has all three.

Tier	What it is	Prescription
T1	The main lift, heavy and low rep	5x3, last set all out, around 85 percent of a training max
T2	A second main lift, moderate load and volume	3x10, around 65 percent
T3	Accessories, high rep	3x15, last set all out, light

Across the four days each of squat, bench, deadlift and overhead press appears once as a T1 and once as a T2, so every lift gets both a heavy day and a volume day inside a single week.

Day 1 T1 Squat T2 Bench T3 accessories Day 2 T1 Press T2 Deadlift T3 accessories Day 3 T1 Bench T2 Squat T3 accessories Day 4 T1 Deadlift T2 Press T3 accessories

The ladders

This is what makes GZCLP different from every other beginner program. It does not change on a schedule. It changes when you fail.

T1 ladder: 5x3 -> 6x2 -> 10x1 -> reset lighter T2 ladder: 3x10 -> 3x8 -> 3x6 -> reset heavier

You add weight each time a lift comes up. When you can no longer make the reps, you drop to the next rung, which keeps the tonnage roughly constant while the load keeps climbing. The two ladders run on their own timetables, so it is completely normal to be on 6x2 for your squat and still on 3x10 for your bench.

How it compares

	StrongLifts 5x5	GZCLP	Wendler 5/3/1
Days per week	3	4	4
Lifts per day	3	2 main plus accessories	1 main plus supplemental
Progression	Every session	Every rotation, off the T1 top set	Every four-week wave
Changes when	You fail three times	You fail, by dropping a rung	The wave ends

GZCLP is a good first program for somebody who wants more than three lifts and can train four days a week. If you can only train three, StrongLifts or a 5x5 is the better fit.

Running GZCLP in Ægir Iron

GZCLP as written adds weight every time a lift is trained, which is a jump in pounds no template can know. What Ægir Iron carries instead is the thing that jump is for: each lift moves once per rotation, sized by the reps you earned on the T1 all-out set. Each four-day rotation is its own cycle, so finishing one prompts the training-max bump and the next rotation reprices itself. You pick which rung of each ladder you are on when you load it, so when you stall you come back and load the next one. T3 accessories carry no percentage, because GZCL does not prescribe one for them, and they can be turned off if you would rather choose your own.

Run GZCLP free →