Coaches Corner May 2026

Build - The Poliquin 6-12-25 protocol is a high-intensity, hypertrophy-focused, and metabolic-stress-inducing training method. It involves performing a tri-set of three exercises targeting the same muscle group without rest, starting with 6 heavy reps (strength), 12 moderate reps (hypertrophy), and 25 light reps (endurance/pump). We are doing this protocol on 2 separate days this cycle. As soon as you are done with the first exercise, you should immediately move to the next, taking no longer than 15sec rest, despite how you feel. Each subsequent exercise is picked to be slightly easier, loaded a little lighter and done as quickly as possible with full range of motion and the correct number of reps. The other Build day is filling in some gaps that the Poliquin sets does not account for.

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Build/Grind & Grind - Work capacity focused. Lifting while breathing. If pure strength is the goal, then the work should be done absent of fatigue as best as possible. If work capacity is the goal then fatigue should accumulate as you continue working. For capacity, we want to work throughout the entire body, unless we are trying to hit some areas in isolation. Posterior and anterior chains, the midline through multiple plans and spread out so muscular failure is not the limiting factor (Unless that is the objective of course), typically we want breathing and muscular stress together. 

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Sustain - Sustain work falls into our aerobic category. For work to be aerobic, it must be sustainable and repeatable. For this cycle, within each and every AMRAP, the ideal pace would be repeatable mini rounds completed in the exact same time from start to finish. Let’s look at a 12min AMRAP of 30cal Bike and 200m run. The paces that I am using are not important, but the idea of consistency is. Say it takes 100sec to get 30cals on the bike, and from the time you get off the bike, to back on, takes another 80sec to run 200m….That means that 1 round takes 3min exactly….You would be able to look at the clock and try to repeat that effort 3 more times in 12min. That is a well executed aerobic workout. Not well done would be that same effort on the first round, then the last round looks like 120sec on the bike, and 100sec on the run…This means that you bit off more than you could chew and went anaerobic in the beginning and just tried to survive through the end. Not optimal for the goal of aerobic work.This can be due to many factors, lack of discipline, lack of awareness, lack of personal responsibility, lack of intention, lack of understanding, lack of effort, over estimation of abilities, etc…You get the idea, haha. Repeatable, sustainable and measurable. Not easy, not soul crushing. Aerobic. 

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Cool Down - Core and mobility.

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Josh