Welcome to our summer strength cycle page.
Every summer we engage in a structured strength cycle to help lower the intensity of our training, provide more opportunity for cooling between sets and use the time to pack on some strength and size.
We chose to use a very old school training concept.
The 6-12-25 is a training method that was originally popularized by Charles Poliquin, a well-known Canadian strength and conditioning during a time when Smolov Cycles (Pavel Tsatsouline), Russianand Bulgarian training cycles were popular in Olympic training circles. Poliquin was a fan of German Training Volume and the results for size and strength. This protocol was designed to produce size and strength with the added benefit of aerobic training. Designed for single body parts or muscle groups (e.g. chest, back, pushers, pullers) but easily adaptable to provide a shock to the muscular and cardiovascular systems that can help when trainees stall or need variety from the likes of a 10 x10 (10 sets of 10 reps).
In the 6-12-25, the set of 6 is a heavy “primary” exercise designed in upper rep scheme of strength set and meant to be a major lift with high neuromuscular output.
The set of 12 is also a “heavy”-ish exercise design to stimulate size or hypertrophy. Also meant to be done unbroken, this is a primary or accessory movement depending on the focus.
And the set of 25 is an endurance set of an exercise, bringing great flow to muscles. This movement will be an accessory movement or light weight so the reps can also be unbroken.
6-12-25 is a tri-set or a set of three exercises done back to back with little to no rest between the three exercises. The trainee moves from the first primary movement (A1) of 6 reps, immediately (max 10-15 sec transition) to the second movement (A2) of 12 reps, immediately to the third movement (A3) of 25 reps, and then rests 2-3 minutes between sets. 3 to 5 sets of each tri-set is the high-volume target of this program, producing the best result over the course of 4-6 weeks.
The primary exercise is the heaviest, a primary movement like Bench Press or Front Squat or strict pull up.
The second exercise, such as a DB bench press, a weighted lunge or body rows is slightly less taxing and at an intensity you can manage for 12 unbroken reps.
The third exercise should technically be the least complex, such as a push up, a banded pull apart of light weighted goblet squats. The 25 reps will be very metabolically demanding.
We did this the summer of 2025, and it was very successful. We made the decision that every summer we will use this as our summer strength cycle.
We’re doing this for the following reasons:
- Slow us down for the summer – replacing higher intensity workouts during the hotter, humid months.
- Increase volume – the amount of work you do.
- Creativity – we love that “everything works”. What we have been doing works. This will work (produce strength and “fitness”)…and we see exceptional results when we program our athletes with a less random approach. It lets us feel good about “getting it” and getting good at it.
- Continuing to evolve the GMRx Program – the sky’s the limit!
GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR TRAINING
If you’ve trained with us long enough you know that we’re serious about what we do and about your results.
We know that the more consistently you train and the more energy you put into your training the better your results.
This program is set up to reward those who are both serious about their training and who show up consistently… go figure!
Those who catch on to the training movements reps and loads the quickest will get more training time. We will still approach the whiteboard at the beginning of each class, however as the weeks go on, athletes who are “in a groove” will begin their warmups while we’re helping those who need more time at the white board. This will allow those athletes to warm up more go heavier and probably always get to the core work at the end of the session. This is not to punish those who may need more time at the white board and more coaching help setting up, however this will be an advantage for those who may want to study their program and be ready for it before they show up to train each day.
Below you will find a workout log so that you can track your loads. There is enough room for you to make notes so that if you warm up a specific way, with specific loads, you’ll know exactly what to put on the bar or which dumbbell to grab to get started. We will provide these at the gym as well.
Our coaching team has not been reduced during this program which will allow us to more individualize each of you as you progress and need movements made more difficult or loaded differently. For this we are very excited!
Below you will find the full description of the program, your log sheets if you want to use them, and the schedule/calendar for the dates of each cycle and the off weeks. All of this will also be available at the gym for you.
Welcome to summer strong 2026 at GM RX! This is our second year of Poliquin cycling and we have high expectations!
