NOVEMBER 2024 - STRENGTH BLOCK

POLIQUIN'S 6/12 METHOD

IThe 6-12 method, popularized once again by elite strength coach Charles Poliquin, facilitates an environment to drastically improve your potential of making some serious gains.

The 6-12 method is where you do two exercises in a row for the same muscle group using minimal rest between those exercises. This is an "Agonist Superset."

​First Exercise: Use a heavier weight for 6 reps. Rest 10 seconds, then do the second exercise.
Second Exercise: Use a moderate weight for 12 reps. Rest 2-3 mins before restarting the next round.

Both exercises should be relatively challenging, aiming to fall into a range of 2-3 Reps in Reserve.

The reps explained.

6 REPS: On the first exercise, you do 6 reps, but it's not a true 6RM (rep max) weight. It should be more like a 8-9RM load. Heavy, yes, but not taken to failure.

12 REPS: Most people think of 8-12 reps as hypertrophy work, but it's potentiated by the first relatively heavy exercise in this scenario. That's why you'll experience higher levels of stress induced on the muscle & overall body , which decreases your ability to push loading the way you would if this was a stand-alone exercise. But don't worry. The trainability will actually be higher, and because you're using lighter than normal loads, your movement proficiency will be improved.

Keeping a higher volume of work is important, but we also want to ensure that we maintain its life to be short, so it does not incur more fatigue than is necessary for what we want to produce. With the Reduction of those 25 rep sets this upcoming month, we are doing just that.

Why is it so effective?

The 6/12 method is so effective because you get to perform 2 completely different rep ranges within one "Superset."

Performing low (6), and moderate (12) reps let’s us take our muscles through various rep ranges, introducing them to stimuli that we may have not previously bought them to. By also doing this, we are able to maximize mechanical tension by driving higher intensity for a prescribed muscle group in an efficient manner. In turn, we are pulling the strongest lever we have to induce muscle hypertrophy, whilst also improving our muscular strength in other degrees.

Mechanical tension is a fancy way of describing how much force your muscles have to produce during a set.

When you are lifting a really heavy weight the mechanical tension on your muscles is extremely high. The first part of the 6/12 superset is just heavy enough to maximize mechanical tension on a variety your muscles through the compound movement. Whereas that 12 rep set, will ensure we are filling our muscles 'classroom' with the highest threshold motor units we can on a specific muscle in that grouping.