About ARATÉ Method · Westlake Village

Train for morethan the workout.

ARATÉ Method is a coach-led boutique fitness and performance studio in Westlake Village, California, built around one core belief: physical training and mental engagement belong in the same practice. Through our signature group programs—DRENCHED, METHOD, FLOW, and PRIME+—alongside 1:1 Personal Training, we combine progressive strength, metabolic conditioning, joint mobility, and cognitive reaction training into one purposeful system.

Designed for adults, busy professionals, parents, and lifelong athletes across Westlake Village and the Conejo Valley who want lasting physical capability and mental sharpness, every session is reserved in advance and guided by expert coaches. ARETÉ was founded and built by entrepreneur Brent Ramirez, strength and conditioning coach Marland Burke, and neurologist Dr. Adam Darby—uniting community hospitality, elite athletic progression, and applied neuroscience under one roof.

Explore the Method Contact UsGet strong. Stay sharp. Live ready.

ARETÉ/ ah-ruh-TAY /

An ancient idea.
A modern way to train.

ARETÉ comes from an ancient Greek idea of excellence.

Not perfection.

It meant developing your abilities. Practicing your craft. Meeting your potential with intention.

To us, that idea feels surprisingly modern. Excellence might mean lifting more weight.

But it might also mean keeping up with your kids.
Moving confidently through the world.
Learning something new.
Having the energy to say yes to an adventure.
Staying composed when things get difficult.
Showing up when motivation isn't there.

ARETÉ is not a destination.
It is the practice of becoming more capable.

The core belief

The body is only part of the system.

Traditional fitness tends to separate things.

Strength happens here.

Cardio happens there.

Mobility gets its own class.

Mental performance gets treated like another subject entirely.

But your body doesn't experience life that way.

Movement requires attention.

Balance requires awareness.

Reaction requires perception and decision-making.

Strength has to be controlled.

And real life rarely asks you to perform one skill at a time.

We train the whole system.

An athlete moving through the ARETÉ Method

Move.
Think.
Adapt.

The ARETÉ Method combines the fundamentals of great physical training with carefully integrated cognitive challenge. During a workout, you may be asked to:

01Remember a sequence
02Respond to changing cues
03Switch attention
04Make a decision under fatigue
05Coordinate multiple movements
06React to something unexpected
07Maintain control while your mind is working

Sometimes you will notice the cognitive challenge immediately. Sometimes you won't.

That's intentional.

You came here to train, not take a neuroscience class. We build the thinking into the movement.

Research informs the practice

Curious about the science?

Research explores how exercise and cognitive challenges relate to learning, attention and memory. That work inspires our approach: purposeful movement with opportunities to practice focus, reaction and decision-making, guided by a coach.

BDNF is a growth-factor protein involved in neural plasticity. Exercise studies often measure it in blood; those measurements do not directly establish changes in the brain or results from our classes. The research supports a rationale for exploration, not a promise of individual outcomes.

Read: aerobic exercise and memory — Erickson et al. (2011)Read: exercise, BDNF and cognitive training — Nilsson et al. (2020)

ARATÉ Method is a fitness studio. We support training and overall wellness; we do not diagnose or treat medical conditions.

Strong body. Sharp mind.
One system.

The technology behind the method

The workout is human.
The system behind it is smart.

AraPraxOS is the technology we developed to bring the cognitive side of The Arete Method into the training experience.

Our proprietary training platform allows us to introduce interactive challenges involving focus, memory, reaction, attention, processing, and decision-making while the body is working.

The challenge can change.

The pace can change.

The complexity can change.

Game results help members and coaches follow practice over time. They are training feedback, not a clinical assessment.

Explore AraPraxOS for your organization →

But technology is not the experience. It supports the experience.

ARETÉ isn't an app with a gym attached to it.

Your coach still matters.

The movement still matters.

The people around you still matter.

Technology simply gives us another tool for making the training more dynamic, responsive, and intentional.

Human coaching.
Intelligent training.

Fitness for the life outside these walls.

We're not interested in preparing you only for the gym. We want the gym to prepare you for everything else.

The trail.

The trip.

The game.

The meeting.

The stairs.

The kids.

The weekend.

The unexpected.

The next 30 years.

That's why our definition of progress goes beyond calories burned or how exhausted you feel when class ends.

Strength.Stamina.Mobility.Coordination.Focus.Confidence.Adaptability.

The question isn't only: "How hard did I work?" It's also:

"What am I becoming capable of?"

One method.
Different ways to train.

Different days call for different things. Sometimes you need intensity. Sometimes strength. Sometimes movement. Sometimes more coaching.

ARETÉ gives you different ways to train without losing the philosophy behind the training.

DRENCHED

Move. Sweat. Work.

High-energy strength and conditioning built around effort, intervals, athletic movement, and the kind of workout where sometimes you simply need to go.

METHOD

Train the system.

Intentional strength, movement, mobility, coordination, and cognitive challenge come together in the clearest expression of the ARETÉ philosophy.

FLOW

Move with awareness.

Yoga-inspired movement, mobility, balance, control, and breath create space to build capability without always turning up the intensity.

PRIME+

More coaching. More personal.

The same class community size, with an additional coach and no more than five members per coach. A weekly curriculum combines strength, conditioning, and yoga with more guidance and support.

Different experiences. Same pursuit.

Explore our programs

Built from different perspectives

Three founders.
One bigger idea about fitness.

ARETÉ wasn't created from one discipline. It grew from the intersection of three.

Business and community. Strength and conditioning. Neurology and cognitive performance.

That mix shaped a studio where training can be demanding without being mindless, science-informed without feeling clinical, and deeply personal without losing the energy of a community.

01 / 03

Brent Ramirez

Co-founder

Brand · Experience · Community

Brent's background is in building businesses, brands, programs, and communities people want to belong to.

As an entrepreneur and longtime local business owner, he approaches ARETÉ through the entire member experience: how the studio feels, how people are welcomed, how technology supports training, how programs evolve, and how a group of individuals becomes a community.

How do we create a place people want to keep showing up for?

“Training should challenge you, but the place you train should also feel like somewhere you belong.”

02 / 03

Marland Burke

Co-founder

Strength · Conditioning · Coaching

Marland is the physical training engine behind ARETÉ. His experience in strength and conditioning helps shape the programming, coaching standards, progression, and training culture on the floor.

But great coaching is more than writing a difficult workout. It means knowing when to push. When to adjust. When to teach. When to simplify. And when someone needs a little belief from the person standing beside them.

At ARETÉ, strength is built with purpose.

Strong training. Smart progression. No ego required.

03 / 03

Dr. Adam Darby

Co-founder

Neurology · Cognitive Training Advisor

Dr. Adam Darby brings the neurological perspective behind the ARETÉ brain + body philosophy.

His expertise helped shape how ARETÉ thinks about attention, reaction, memory, coordination, decision-making, and the relationship between cognitive demand and physical movement. That perspective helped inspire a simple question:

What happens when we stop treating the brain and body like separate training problems?

The answer continues to shape the ARETÉ Method.

Serious about training.
Not too serious about ourselves.

ARETÉ members and coaches outside the studio

Science matters here. So does effort. But so does:

Knowing your name.
Laughing between sets.
Getting a high-five after something difficult.
Having a coach notice when you've been gone.
Training next to people who want to see you succeed.

We believe great training lives somewhere between discipline and play. Between pushing harder and knowing when to listen. Between individual progress and shared experience.

You don't need to arrive at ARETÉ already fit.

You don't need to know all the equipment.

You don't need to prove that you belong.

You show up.
We start there.

Excellence is
a practice.

There is no finish line for ARETÉ. You don't arrive at excellence. You practice it.

One rep.

One decision.

One class.

One challenge.

One return after time away.

Again and again.

Some days your best will feel extraordinary. Other days, simply showing up will be the win.

Both count.

Because ARETÉ isn't about perfection.

It's about becoming
more capable.

Your body is trainable.

Your focus is trainable.

Your capacity is trainable.

You are trainable.

Come see what you're capable of.

Try ARETÉ Explore the programs

Train for morethan the workout.

An ancient idea.A modern way to train.

The body is only part of the system.

Move.Think.Adapt.

Curious about the science?

The workout is human.The system behind it is smart.

Fitness for the life outside these walls.

One method.Different ways to train.

DRENCHED

METHOD

FLOW

PRIME+

Three founders.One bigger idea about fitness.

Brent Ramirez

Marland Burke

Dr. Adam Darby

Serious about training.Not too serious about ourselves.

Excellence isa practice.

Come see what you're capable of.

An ancient idea.
A modern way to train.

Move.
Think.
Adapt.

The workout is human.
The system behind it is smart.

One method.
Different ways to train.

Three founders.
One bigger idea about fitness.

Serious about training.
Not too serious about ourselves.

Excellence is
a practice.