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Eric Andrews | Powerlifting Coach

@ericthestrong

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🇱🇧“Per aspera ad astra”
💪 Powerlifter, coach & NASM CPT, PES
💕 @a_blair_witch
🌊 Coaching: @hightidestrengthclub

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High Tide has always been about more than the PRs and numbers on a spreadsheet. It’s about creating a community and culture & developing athletes as humans in a collaborative environment that fosters growth.
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This might be a new year, but the vibes are the same, just refined. My goal has always been to help athletes and these posts showcase my beliefs behind me and my coaching style. If any of this resonates with you, welcome to High Tide, you are in the right place 🌊
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#powerlifting #hightidestrength #powerliftingcoach by @ericthestrong

Meet day should be about lifting, not stressing about attempt cards, warm-up timing, or the flight order.

But a lot of lifters show up without a handler…or with a friend who’s trying their best but doesn’t really know the flow of a powerlifting meet.

That’s where I come in.

With High Tide Handling, I offer meet day support for lifters whose coach can’t attend or who simply want an experienced set of eyes managing the day.

On meet day I’ll help with:
• Attempt selection
• Warm-up timing
• Flight tracking
• Adjustments if things change
• Keeping you calm, focused, and ready to lift

Your only job is to step on the platform and execute.

I’ve handled lifters at everything from first meets to national-level competitions, and the goal is always the same: create the best possible environment for you to perform.

If you’re competing and need a handler, send me a message and we’ll get you taken care of.

Limited athletes per meet so everyone gets the attention they deserve.

🌊 High Tide Strength Club by @ericthestrong

Finding your next meet shouldn’t be hard.

I built MeetAtlas to make it simple. Compare meets, pick what works for you, find your best meet.

Updated daily, expanding federation coverage, with new features in development.

Try it → meetatlas.xyz. 🌐
Link in bio by @ericthestrong

Meet recap - Kelly at 2026 USAPL Northeast Regionals 🌊

Kelly came into Northeast Regionals after a fairly long offseason dealing with hip, knee, and shoulder issues, while also dropping nearly an entire weight class (8kg) along the way.

Safe to say…squat didn’t go the way we wanted. After a solid opener, we took our shot and missed twice at 192.5kg. The goal for the day was to try and get a crack at 200kg again at the lower bodyweight, hence the large jump. Just a lesson for next time, when things don’t feel right just set the numbers aside and take what is there on the day.

What I’m most proud of is how we navigated the rest of the meet day. Kelly regrouped, hit a strong 130kg bench with room for more, then absolutely smacked 260kg on deadlift for a PR. He came incredibly close to 270kg too, only losing it when his hand opened up near the top. This is “only” a 7.5kg PR but that was from a qualifier meet we did just for fun, I really see this as a 12.5kg PR from his last full meet, which is incredible.

570kg total at 80.3kg bodyweight and a 392.1 DOTS, improving his DOTS by 13.4 points while dropping 16 pounds of bodyweight, huge gains.

More importantly, this was another example of how much Kelly has grown as a competitor and human. A year ago, I think a rough squat day might have derailed the whole day. This time, he bounced back and finished the day with his best lifting yet. All the while during his training Kelly has taken on a new role in the gym as a personal trainer and has had great success with his clients so far. Spending hours in the gym growing his own craft and learning from others, while also building up the UPH community. Strength comes in many forms for Kelly, and I know that he’ll continue to grow in all ways going forward.

And for now…back to work 🌊 by @ericthestrong

My first strongman meet recap!

What started as a silly little side quest turned into one of the most fun competitions I’ve ever done. Five events, some unexpected wins, a sandbag disaster, and a bus that nearly ended me. Somehow walked away with 4th overall and a whole new appreciation for strongman.

And honestly, I think the biggest takeaway from this whole experience is that you don’t always have to be good at something to make it worth doing.

We spend so much time chasing PRs, perfecting our training, and trying to get better at our respective sports that sometimes it’s easy to forget how much fun it can be to just try something new. To be a beginner again. To make mistakes. To push yourself in ways you’re not used to.

I’ve got some big powerlifting goals to chase in 2027, but I’m glad I made time for this one. And it definitely won’t be my last! (LFOD location next year perchance???)

Huge thanks to everyone who made the day so special. Couldn’t ask for a better community of people to share these experiences with.

Until the next side quest.

Ever forward. 🌊 by @ericthestrong

Stop bouncing your pause squats - athlete feedback series!

Here’s a quick snippet of feedback I was giving an athlete who was missing a key piece of the pause squat. They were pausing in the hole - great obviously lol, but was still trying to “rebound” or use the stretch reflex, and it was absolutely killing their form.

The point (for me) on pause squats is learning about maintaining tension and your brace going into the hole, finding depth correctly and being able to use the tension you’ve built up to hit the squat. Is the stretch reflex good? Maybe in some cases sure, but look at some of the best squatters, they are NOT dive bombing into the hole. Use pause squats to learn how to control the squat.

#powerlifting #squats by @ericthestrong

Being strong and believing you’re strong aren’t always the same thing! Something I’ve been thinking about more as a coach is how the training process impacts an athlete’s confidence. It’s easy to get caught up in chasing heavier weights every block or constantly hitting new PRs to prove we’re making progress. But sometimes, the most valuable thing we can do is stack good training sessions and let that evidence build over time.

Zach is a great example of this. Leading into his most recent meet, he never squatted more than 245 kg in training. But he consistently executed his training, trusted the process, and walked onto the platform ready to squat 255 kg for a 10 kg all-time PR. He didn’t need to prove to himself that he could do it before the meet.

As coaches, I think we have a responsibility to do more than write a good program. We need to help athletes recognize their progress, navigate difficult sessions, and build confidence that’s grounded in their actual preparation.

Because sometimes the strongest thing we can build isn’t just the athlete. It’s their belief in what they’re capable of. 🌊
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#HighTideStrengthClub #Powerlifting #PowerliftingCoach #StrengthTraining by @ericthestrong

Meet recap - Zach at 2026 USAPL The Fall Meet!

9/9. 640kg. 403.6 DOTS.
Pretty hard to ask for a better day from Zach taking PRs on all 3 lifts and adding a whopping 47.5kg on his total. This prep gave us a lot of good information, some up and down with bench, learning how to wedge on deadlift, and hitting better depth on squat, but the biggest win was seeing it all come together on meet day.

Squat strength took a huge step forward, deadlift technique looked the best it ever has, and while bench is still the lift we want to push hardest going forward, even that moved in the right direction with a PR.

Zach’s goals coming into the meet were to break 1400 lbs and 400 DOTS and he did both. Now we build toward the next one! 🌊 by @ericthestrong

Meet recap - Sam at 2026 USAPL The Fall Meet!

Sam put together another strong meet and walked away with a PR total at 590kg. He finished 7/9 with 215kg squat, 145kg bench, and 230kg deadlift, adding 5kg to his total from his last meet.

It wasn’t a perfect day, misses at 150kg on bench and 240kg on deadlift left a few kilos on the platform but the bigger picture is still progress. His squat moved forward, his bench is right on the edge of another breakthrough, and we know there’s more there on deadlift too. More importantly, Sam handled the day well, stayed composed, and kept competing even when things didn’t go exactly to plan. It’s tough to see just a 5kg MPR total after his last meet putting up a 47.5kg total PR, but as we know that’s not always how the day goes.

But now we get to take everything we learned from this prep and build the next phase around raising his baseline even higher. Proud of the work and the progress so far, but hungry for what’s next. 🌊 by @ericthestrong

Meet recap - Jake at 2026 USAPL The Fall Meet!

This was Jake and I’s first meet together and the biggest win from this prep was honestly how much things started clicking toward the end. Squat depth, balance and center-of-mass control were all improving week to week, and bench strength was trending stronger than it had all prep even with the shoulder issues we’ve been working through. In a lot of ways, we probably just needed a little more time for those changes to fully show themselves on meet day. Even so, Jake still came away with a squat PR, tied his deadlift PR, and still added to his total.

More importantly, we finished the prep with a much clearer picture of what works for him and what we want to build next. In the offseason we’ll be building up Jake’s work capacity with
higher volume and establishing a stronger foundation to build from. Really excited to see what happens when we give these improvements time to develop and address the gaps where we
need to.

Way more to come for the next meet for Jake, 500 isn’t going to squat itself! 🌊 by @ericthestrong

Introducing your 2026 Three Peaks Strength Summit Novice Men HW Division!

Alex Gagne
Chris Langellotti (not pictured)
Curtis Hennessey
Eric Andrews
Jalen Holmes
Paul McCarrier

Ossipee Valley Fairgrounds
291 S Hiram Rd
Hiram, ME 04041
October 10,th
9:00AM by @ericthestrong

Meet #15 recap!

What a fun day! Signed up for this meet a few months ago, knowing I had a vacation planned, lots of technical work going on with my lifts with squat depth and bench form, but wanted to compete with my friends and athletes and that’s just what I did. Coming in I knew this wouldn’t be my top end, all-time strongest but I’m really proud of the numbers I put up and know there is so much much more to come. This does tie my second best total ever, so that tells me we’re very close to something bigger.

3/3 on squat 255kg MPR tie
2/3 on bench 182.5
2/3 on deadlift 245
682.5kg/396 DOTS

@davidwoolson I promise no EU vacation before the next one lol. The baseline has improved so much this year, will push to the next level next year, very proud to represent #brazosvalleystrength and continue to grow as an athlete.
@a_blair_witch always supporting my way too time consuming sport haha. Love you!
@lizard_lifts thank you for making my day so smooth. And thank you for listening to and stopping my crashouts and always pushing me to be better. Appreciate ya homie, looking forward to our next meet together however that happens lol.
@cam.sbd my dog. Thank you for stepping in to handle and help me out in the AM. Super happy to see your growth as a coach and gameday handler this year. Much more to come from ya buddy, #summit
@hightidestrengthclub @zach.aham @teddlift @samg_strength boys yall did incredible today each in your own right. Thanks for representing HT with honor as always and walking away with PRs and another meet under your belts. More to come from the boys and I can’t wait for the next one.

I love powerlifting. See you in March.
#powerlifting by @ericthestrong