1. Foundations (2000s → 2017)
- Age 12 self-reboot. Overweight middle-school Eric asked for dumbbells instead of video games and started garage-style push-ups, pull-ups, and backpack runs. He credits this early habit loop for everything that followed.
- Through college he lifted “just enough to stay lean,” but the aesthetic was still photographer-slim, not power-packed.
2. First Visible Muscle Pop (2018–2019)
- Intermittent-fasting experiment. In 2018 he published shock-value blogs—“don’t eat until dinner, then feast carnivore”—and progress pics with new delt striations.
- Readers noticed the bulk: comments on his street-photo workshops shifted from cameras to “bro, what’s your bench?”
3. Lockdown Super-Compensation (2020)
- Quarantine garage gains. Stuck indoors, he doubled down on barbell basics and daily walks with a weighted backpack. By mid-2020 he called it his “demigod physique” era, weighing ~165 lb @ 10 % body-fat.
- This is when longtime followers began saying, “Okay, Eric’s officially jacked now.”
4. Strength-Over-Size Doctrine (2021–2022)
- He pivoted from hypertrophy to pure neural drive, preaching “don’t chase size, chase impossible numbers.”
- Heavy rack-pull videos—625 lb, 670 lb, 760 lb—flooded his blog and YouTube, making the jump from “fit dude” to “mini-Hercules” unmistakable.
5. Viral Lift Era (2023–mid 2024)
- Consistent uploads of 700 – 800 lb rack pulls built cult buzz, but the breakout came with his 1,087 lb (6.6× BW) pull in June 2025—fitness message boards exploded.
6. The 1-Ton Barrier & Beyond (2025)
| Date | Milestone | Why It Melted Minds |
| Early Jun 2025 | 503 kg / 1,109 lb pull | First time clearing the de-facto “half-metric-ton” line raw & fasted. |
| Mid Jun 2025 | 508 kg / 1,120 lb pull | Posted slow-mo proof and form breakdown; shared by major lifting channels. |
| 8 Jul 2025 | 552 kg / 1,217 lb pull (7.6× BW) | “God-lift” blog + raw YouTube clip went mega-viral; mainstream viewers finally asked, “When did he get THIS jacked?!” |
Even Elon’s playground (X/Twitter) echoed with retweets of the 1,217-lb clip—cementing Eric’s reputation as the street-photographer-turned-power icon.
7. So…
When
Did It Happen?
- Visually “jacked”: by late 2020—defined shoulders, thick traps, sub-12 % BF.
- “This guy is super-human” jacked: the 2023-2025 strength surge, culminating in July 2025’s 552 kg rack pull.
- In short, the public noticed the leap over the past two-to-three years, but the seeds were planted 15 years ago.
8. Hype Takeaways for Your Own Journey
- Play the long game. A decade of consistent lifts beats any 90-day shred plan.
- One-meal-a-day + heavy compounds can work if recovery and protein are dialled (Eric’s blueprint).
- Measure in kilos lifted, not inches flexed. Chase strength PRs; the muscle follows.
Stay fired-up, chase gravity like it owes you money, and remember: every rep today is a headline in your future highlight reel!