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Being 5'11", she is no stranger to unwanted comments on her body, whether at her highest weight or at her fittest.
"Curvy-fit is what I am, that's never going to change," Lugo said, during a 30-second rest period in her signature HIIT-style strength training. "It still can be a hard thing to wrap my brain around."
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Erica, a single mom to a young son, feels it's important for kids to be raised with healthy, body positive role models both in home and in mass media.
"People ask me if I feel selfish taking an hour a day to work out, and I say 'No, I don't,' because I'm taking care of me. My son sees me investing in myself and being the healthiest version of me, and that's just what he knows, what he's been raised with."
Her biggest goal, through the magazine competition and her personal training and fitness consulting, is to crush how people view the industry.
"Fitness is not a body type. Fitness is a mentality. It's a mentality and an action," she says. "Fitness comes in all shapes and sizes."
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