Is Perseverance Barbell actually free?

The programming is free to read on this site — the full novice, intermediate, and advanced program. Running it inside the Resolve app takes a paid plan; the app isn’t free, only the guide is.

Do I need any equipment besides a barbell?

A barbell, plates, and a squat rack with safety pins cover all four lifts this program is built on. A bench is needed for bench press day.

What happens after the novice phase stops working?

The app flags you as ready for an intermediate phase (Build/Groove/Test days) and later an advanced phase (block-periodized training) once your linear progression stalls out — you confirm the move up when you are.

Perseverance Barbell

A squat, bench press, deadlift and overhead press program you can start with an empty bar and keep running for years. No account needed to read it. The Resolve app runs it for you, on a paid plan, if you want the arithmetic done.

Never lifted a barbell? Read the four lift pages in order, then do Day A with the empty bar. About 40 minutes of reading. Your first week · Start with the squat · Getting started

Already lifting? Skip the basics. The full rules for each phase and each lift's fault list are one link away. Intermediate phase in full · Advanced phase in full · Start directly in advanced · Squat faults · Deadlift faults · Your first meet

Three sessions, two workouts, one bar

Working weight over time, one lift. You move to the next phase when the current one stops working, not on a date.

Day A is squat, bench press, deadlift. Day B is squat, overhead press, deadlift. You alternate them, three times a week, and add a small fixed amount to each lift every session. That is the whole novice program.

Learn the four lifts with the empty bar. — One page each. Setup, the movement, what goes wrong, how to bail. Nothing on the bar until the pattern feels boring.
Do Day A: squat 3×5, bench 3×5, deadlift 1×5. — Sets of five. Rest until you are ready, two to five minutes. Write the weights down, or let the app do it.
Next session, add the fixed jump. — Squat and bench +5 lb (2.5 kg), deadlift +10 lb (5 kg) — a bit more in your very first sessions. Keep going until you miss reps two sessions running.

That "two to five minutes" isn't a guess — see how long to actually rest between sets for the real research behind that range, and which end of it to lean toward as a set gets heavier. Wondering whether this actually fits your schedule? See how long a real session takes, and what to cut first if you're short on time for a real worked estimate, not a guess.

Novice, then intermediate, then advanced

A new lifter adds weight every session, on a fixed schedule, for as long as that keeps working. Once it stops — a lift missing reps two sessions running — progress moves to a slower, weekly clock: one real test attempt a week, lighter days around it. Once weekly progress stops too, training runs in multi-week blocks against a training max, with a real peak and taper if you have a competition date. None of these moves happen automatically — each is your own call, every time. Full numbers, one page per phase:

How the whole program works — The arc, who starts where, and direct-to-advanced enrollment for an experienced lifter.
Novice, in full — The A/B split, real increments, the stall and reset rules — enough to run it on paper.
Intermediate, in full — Build/Groove/Test, the rep-scheme cycle, the weekly press rotation.
Advanced, in full — Blocks, training max, the peak and taper, direct-to-advanced enrollment.

One page per lift. Same shape every time

Setup, the movement, the faults you will actually make, how to fail safely, and where the lift sits in the program. Jump links go straight to the section.

Everything else, by when you’ll need it

The program and the four lifts above are the whole thing. These pages answer the questions that come up around it, grouped by when they come up. A new lifter reads the first group before touching a bar and the second as the weeks go on. An experienced lifter can skip to the third.

Before your first session

Read these once, in this order, before you load a bar.

Getting started — What you need, and the questions that come up in the first few weeks.
Finding your starting numbers — Pick a conservative first weight for each lift without testing a max, and why starting heavy backfires here.
Warm-up sets and plate math — Why every set gets a ramp, the ramp the app computes, and how to load a bar by hand in lb or kg.
Bracing and the Valsalva maneuver — What the “breathe and brace” cue on every lift page actually is, why it stabilizes your spine, and a real safety caveat worth knowing.
Equipment worth adding — Fractional plates, shoes, bars, sleeves, wraps, straps, chalk: why, when, and what each isn’t for.
Mobility work for the four lifts — What actually limits squat depth, the overhead press lockout, the bench-press arch, and the deadlift setup — and the real drills for each, once a technique cue alone doesn’t fix it.

While you’re running it

The habits that keep the novice progression working, and what to do when something outside the gym gets in the way.

Common early mistakes — Five habits that stall a working program: dishonest logging, program-hopping, fighting the reset, chasing soreness, missing sessions.
Nutrition basics — Protein, bulk/cut/maintain, and recomposition for a novice, and where the app computes your actual numbers.
Sleep and recovery basics — Why under-recovery shows up as a missed rep, real sleep guidance, and normal fatigue versus a reason to back off.
Accessory work — Whether, when, and how much to add on top of the four lifts. Short answer: chin-ups, back extensions, not much else yet.
Conditioning and cardio — Whether cardio hurts your lifts, low-impact steady-state versus high-intensity intervals, and how much fits alongside heavy squat and deadlift days.
Training around aches and injuries — A decision tree from a harmless ache to a structured comeback, and what the app’s pain-scale gate and rehab tools are for.

Further along

For when the program has moved past novice, or you have a meet on the calendar.

Stress, recovery, and adaptation — The real theory behind why novice, intermediate, and advanced run on three different clocks — from the same source Practical Programming builds its own model on.
RPE and RIR — What the two effort scales mean, how they convert, and where the advanced phase and the attempt planner use them.
Your first powerlifting meet — Weigh-ins, flights, attempts, what to wear, and a real timeline for the day.

Depending on who you are

The same program and the same rules. What they actually mean for an older lifter, a younger lifter, a woman, or a lifter who’s pregnant or postpartum.

Older, younger, and women lifters — Bone density and joint considerations for older lifters, growth-plate-safe loading for younger lifters, and real training differences for women beyond the novice page’s increment rule.
Pregnant and postpartum lifters — The real tension in the official guidance on training while pregnant, and a phased, symptom-guided return to loaded barbell work after birth — not a fixed calendar date.

Reference

Look a term up.

Glossary — Every term this program uses, defined in one place and linked to where it’s explained.

The app does the arithmetic. Reading the program here is free either way

Enroll in Resolve on a paid plan and every session is generated: the loads, the warm-up ramp plate by plate, the resets when a lift stalls. You check sets off as you lift. Or run it from this page with a notebook, for free. Same program.

Run into a term you don’t recognize anywhere on this site — RPE, training max, opener, recomp — see the glossary for a short definition and a link to wherever it’s actually explained.