The coaches are the gym.

Chris came to strength training fifteen years ago wanting to get strong, which for him meant learning - reading everything published on the subject and surrounding himself with the most experienced lifters he could find. Other lifters and gym owners started asking him to write their powerlifting programs, which led to a tenure at Lifetime and, after it, founding Boston Barbell. He coaches to hand athletes a toolkit: the ability to read their own technique, gauge their readiness, and manage small aches before they turn into injuries. The people he clicks with believe in process and can tell information from wisdom - a rehab client, a busy professional, a physique client, or a nationally competitive powerlifter alike. His signature is blending advanced biomechanics with heavy progressive overload, with a particular focus on unilateral glute work - which shows up as better aesthetics, fewer injuries, and results on the platform. He'll take a movement a lifter already knows and change their body position to improve their leverage or shift where the muscle grows - the same hinge-dominant, unilateral glute approach he used coaching a Medellín women's football club with a multi-million social following. As a coach he's a four-time USAPL National Champion, with athletes who've earned national titles and world-record squats.

John came to strength training 18 years ago to get better at soccer, then fell for powerlifting about 6 years ago, which is how he met Chris and found Boston Barbell. He coaches with a heavy emphasis on biomechanics and pain mitigation - he watches how you move, finds the pattern limiting a lift, and fixes it with cueing, activation work, or a change to your setup instead of grinding through it. He's big on the reasoning behind the training, because clients who understand what they're doing train harder and make better calls on their own. Give him someone who wants to learn - especially anyone training around aches, old injuries, or movement limits - and he's in his element. He'll see a sumo deadlift lighting up the lower back, trace it to glutes and hamstrings that aren't loading, and fix it by fitting the stance and cue to a lifter's actual hip structure rather than a generic setup. Off the floor he manages the facility, and you'll hear him before you see him.

Education: B.S. Supply Chain Management - UMass Boston

Ashlyn got into lifting to stay strong after high school sports and gravitated to powerlifting, which is what brought her to Boston Barbell for real coaching. She competes in the USAPL 65 kg class, where she's a 3-time state champion, a two-time national qualifier, and holds state records in the junior squat and total. She coaches around clear goals - she sets early wins with a lifter, then builds the next target from there. One 64-year-old client came in unable to split squat his own bodyweight, so she started him on pole-assisted bodyweight reps, added range of motion as he could handle it, then load; he now split squats with 45 lb dumbbells in each hand. Whether you're chasing a PR or touching a barbell for the first time, the throughline is the same: she'll meet the goal you actually have.

Sam got into training after losing more than 70 pounds in 2020, moved into bodybuilding, and settled on powerlifting as his sport. He quit high school football to chase it and placed top 20 at USAPL High School Nationals in 2022 in the 82.5 kg class, with a 600 lb gym deadlift on the books. He no longer competes; these days he coaches, runs Boston Barbell's marketing and social, and is building the gym's app and website. His coaching is blunt and practical - he helps clients find specific, sustainable steps toward a goal and a training pace they can hold long-term. He'll be honest with you about your training, and the people who get the most from him are the ones honest with themselves and committed, whatever their experience or starting point. Tech neck from phones and desks is one he treats often - soft-tissue work, mobility, and targeted exercises that retrain posture instead of only stretching the symptom. He also spends real time teaching people to hinge, a skill that protects the lower back under the bar and every time you lift something off the floor.

Education: B.S. Finance - Miami University (Ohio)

Anna spent 17 years as a competitive cheerleader and first worked with strength coaches while cheering at Northeastern. After college she bounced between different kinds of training, missed lifting, and found Boston Barbell - the coaching pulled her in far enough that she changed careers and got certified to coach. She works mostly with beginners, and she runs an upbeat, encouraging room that makes the first months of training feel a lot less intimidating. When a client's knees caved and hurt on the back squat, she cued them into a band around the knees to press out against, which switched the glutes on and let them squat pain-free. She's now training for her own first powerlifting meet in the USAPL. Outside the gym, cooking is her other obsession.

Victoria came up through dance and figure skating, then got hooked on lifting when a trainer wrote her a real strength program - she went on to learn to lift heavy in college and earned her NASM certification specifically to get more women comfortable under a barbell. She met Chris while working at Lifetime, and after a coaching offer there fell through when COVID hit, she found Boston Barbell, trained under Chris, shadowed his classes, and built up her own group and 1:1 clients. She also works in radiology at Mass General, which shapes how she coaches: she's seen how injury and lost function wreck quality of life, so she trains people for strength and resilience that lasts. Her sweet spot is beginners, women, and pre- and post-natal clients. When a client named Lily had knee pain in every lunge pattern, Victoria traced it to a strength gap rather than a mobility one, built her up with bilateral and supported single-leg work first, and got her to pain-free 140 lb split squats for sets of 6 to 8. Clients know her as the encouraging voice in the room and for building real confidence under load.

Education: B.S. Health Science - Merrimack College; A.S. Medical Imaging - Regis College

Kenny started lifting in high school for soccer and got serious about it rebuilding his left leg after a tibial plateau fracture in 2020 - watching the muscle come back made him want to see how strong he could get. That turned into competing at the USAPL Collegiate National Championships in 2022 and 2023; he met a Boston Barbell athlete at a meet, Chris invited him in, and he's trained here since. He competes in the 75 kg class with a 518 lb squat, 336 lb bench, and 496 lb deadlift, and has placed at both regional and state level. With an engineering background from WPI, he now writes a large share of Boston Barbell's programming and coaches Barbell Club athletes. His philosophy is patience - he treats a powerlifting career as a multi-year build and makes people respect the recovery and mobility work newer lifters skip. When a lifter can't sumo deadlift without their back rounding, he'll track it to hip mobility and tight hamstrings and quads, then rebuild with a stretching routine and cues added one at a time until the pattern holds. He's known for coaching deadlifts with a PVC pipe.

Education: M.S. and B.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering, and B.S. in Robotics Engineering - Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)

James picked up training in high school to hold up on the football field and has kept at it for 15 years. Before he coached, he spent over a decade as a licensed massage therapist, which is the throughline in how he works - he came to see strength training as what keeps clients healthy over the long haul, earned his ACE certification, and now coaches and does bodywork at Boston Barbell. He met Chris at Lifetime and left convinced Chris understood training better than anyone he'd been around, so when Boston Barbell opened he knew it was where he wanted to grow. On the floor, his focus is making training make sense - both how to do a lift and where it fits in the bigger plan. He's at his best with beginners, especially the ones carrying mental blocks about the barbell. One client came in essentially frozen at the idea of most lifts; James chipped at the hesitation session after session until, two months in, the client had blown past his starting numbers and believed he belonged under the bar.

Education: Massage Therapy - Salter School (Tewksbury); ACE certification course

James also offers massage therapy at Boston Barbell. See massage services →

Emma found strength training through college soccer at Merrimack, where learning to train and recover properly turned into something she loved - enough that she came to Boston Barbell to get into powerlifting and ended up coaching. She works with beginners and competitors, and her focus is a solid foundation and habits a client can keep: she starts from where a lifter actually is, holds them accountable, and builds programs around their real goals and schedule. One client with knee pain couldn't reach depth on the squat because of limited ankle mobility and rough mechanics; she got him squatting pain-free by working the mobility, strengthening the right muscles, and cleaning up the pattern. She coaches Boston Barbell athletes Zipporah Griffith and Shakeena Crooks, both of whom have come a long way since they started. She competed herself, with a 330 lb squat, 165 lb bench, and 308 lb deadlift. Outside the gym she played college soccer at Merrimack and is starting a family.