I first met Erik in July 2022; it was my first meet back after a long hiatus and I found myself befriending a group of women in my flight. I had been self-coached for my time in this sport and was blown away to see how relaxed they all were because they had this man in yellow pants running around telling them when to start warming up, what to put on the bar for each warmup, how much time was left until they hit the platform, and what order to go in. I watched them each take their attempt, speak a few words with their coach, and then just walk back to line without having to pull out a calculator or speak to the judges. Their attempts were well-chosen and I believe everyone went 9/9. Every one of them told me at the end of the meet…You have to get Erik as a coach!

Still, I wasn’t at the point I thought I needed a coach so I continued to train myself, but I started to notice his online presence, giving his athletes kudos on great lifts and easily-actionable advice on less-than-great ones. It was a far cry from me watching back my own videos and trying to figure out what went right or wrong. I also noticed people doing different variations depending on their sticking points, versus my cookie-cutter program that didn’t care my squats looked different every time I dropped or that my bench was stalling.

I did another meet in December and again saw his athletes have a calm, successful day because all they had to do was eat and lift.

Afterwards I reached out to some of his athletes to ask what it was like working with him and I heard the same things: he is very responsive; he programs individually for the person’s particular goals, strengths, and weaknesses; he gives great pointers without making you feel stupid; he never makes a lifter feel less important because they lift less than someone else. I was still a bit apprehensive because I have a toddler so I don’t have two hours to spend in the gym every day and sometimes I have to skip or move a training session due to lack of sleep/illness/my kid just won’t go to bed, but Carlee was in the same position and she assured me Erik was very understanding and from then I was sold.

From the get-go I knew I made the right decision; he programmed me four days so I could swing workouts if I needed to, and they were all around an hour so I could knock them out between my kid’s bedtime and mine. He also set them up in order of importance so I could drop an accessory or two if I was even more pressed for time. He laid out everything I needed to adjust from the standard percentage-based program I’d been running for years to an RPE based one, included embedded links to movements I likely wouldn’t have heard of, and answered any questions I had along the way.

I cannot sing enough praise about how much mental stress he has taken off my plate in both training. For example, deadlifts went terribly one session, but he sent me a video of a previous session where I did well and pointed out the differences, and the next session went well again. My back was hurting on squats so he inquired about my warmup routine (apparently “drink preworkout” is not a warmup routine) and gave me a handful of mobility exercises to do beforehand which eliminated my back pain. He’s always available for my hundreds of questions ranging from “why does this feel harder today than it should” to “should I change weight classes” to “hey what do you think about these knee sleeves”. And he always checks in on my short term goals and long term goals to make sure we are focusing on the right things.

My two meets under him were the smoothest I’ve ever experienced because all I had to do was show up, eat, and lift; he sent me meet attempts (both good and meh paths) and warmup attempts and does absolutely everything else. No matter how many other athletes he has in a meet I’ve never felt forgotten, and he seemed just as excited for my first 300lb deadlift as he was for another athlete qualifying for nationals.

Added bonus: while not the goal of the program, I get an insane amount of comments from everyone now about how good I look. Mass moves mass and also looks amazing in a sundress apparently.

While I did well under self-coaching, I am kicking myself for not joining the roster sooner. I can’t thank Erik enough for how much I’ve progressed since we started working together and I cannot wait to see what we can accomplish in the future.

• Total increase under Team Hogan ~ 126bs

• DOTS coefficient increased from 343 to 388