The Arriera Method — 1:1 mentorship for strength instructors, Boston & online
The Arriera Method is one-on-one mentorship for instructors who want to teach strength — the programming, the audition, the cueing, the career. Built by an instructor who evaluates and trains new strength coaches for a living.
Sound familiar? You finished your CPT and no studio has called back. Your audition feedback keeps saying "programming." You just got hired and every week of classes feels like a scramble. You're staring at five certifications and can't tell which one gets you hired. This is exactly the gap this mentorship closes.
You have the credential. What auditions actually test is whether you can build and command a class — sequencing, load logic, transitions, cueing under pressure. We rebuild your audition class move by move and rehearse it until the panel has nothing left to flag.
You leave with an audition-ready class and a rubric-graded practice teach.
You got hired — congratulations, now the real learning starts. Every week needs a fresh class, the feedback is vague, and you're programming by instinct. We build you a repeatable programming system, review your filmed classes against a real evaluation rubric, and turn survival mode into command.
You leave with a programming system you can reuse every week — and film-reviewed proof you're growing.
NASM, ACE, ISSA, AFAA — the internet will happily sell you all of them. We map your goals (studio, gym floor, group, 1:1) to the credential that actually serves them, then build your study-and-hiring timeline so the cert becomes a job, not a PDF.
You leave with a decision, a timeline, and the first version of your teaching resume.
Block structure, movement sequencing, push/pull balance, load strategy, timing math. The reason classes feel effortless is that someone engineered them — you'll learn the engineering.
What evaluation panels score, the mistakes that end auditions in the first round, and rehearsal with the same 10-category rubric used to assess working instructors.
Setup cues before the work, coaching cues inside it, safety cues scripted in advance — and a voice that beats the music without shouting over it.
Which credential fits your goals, what it costs in time and money, and how to turn study hours into teaching hours as fast as possible.
Getting on a sub list, building studio relationships, negotiating rates, stacking formats, and growing from first class to full schedule without burning out.
Tell me where you are, where you're stuck, and what you want to teach — it takes a few minutes. Start the questionnaire. Every submission gets a reply.
We talk through your situation and I tell you honestly whether mentorship will help — and which package fits. If it's not a fit, you'll leave with a next step anyway.
Video sessions with homework between them: class maps to write, teaches to film, cues to script. You build; I review against the rubric; we sharpen.
Every package ends with a written summary: what's strong, what to keep training, and your specific next moves.
the Arriera Method
I teach strength on Boston's biggest stages — boutique studio rooms, and the city's largest free outdoor fitness series, where my class Solid Strength runs all summer on the Seaport waterfront.
More useful to you: I'm also the person on the other side of the audition. As a format trainer I help run instructor training cohorts, maintain the training syllabus, and evaluate new strength coaches with a structured rubric — so I know exactly what gets people hired, and exactly what gets written in the feedback that keeps them waiting.
The method is named for the arrieras of Antioquia, Colombia — the muleteers who carried everything across the mountains my family comes from. They packed the load right, knew the route, and got everyone through, no matter what the trail did. That's the job at the front of a strength room, and it's a craft you can learn. The arriera doesn't get stuck. Neither will you.
No. Part of this mentorship exists for people choosing their certification. If you're already certified — or already teaching — we skip straight to programming, class review, and audition work.
No — sessions are on video and the craft travels. Boston folks get one bonus: the option to run a practice teach in person when schedules line up.
Certifications teach exercise science to thousands of people at once. Mentorship is one evaluator looking at your class, your cueing, your audition — and telling you the specific things a panel will flag before the panel does. The two work together; one is not a substitute for the other.
Take the questionnaire to get things moving — where you are, what you want to teach. You'll get a real reply and a free 20-minute fit call: no pitch, just an honest read on your next move.