Strength Den — Local services in Mill Valley

Denzel Allen's breadth of knowledge and brilliant approach are nonpareil, and I am exceptionally grateful to be working with and learning from him, and getting stronger thanks to his expertise.

After 25 years of casual marathoning, strength training, boot camping, mountain biking, TRXing, and engaging in myriad forms of exercise (with a lot of hubristic poor-forming along the way) I've recently suffered a raft of serial injuries that took most fitness modalities off the menu. Yeah. Crummy.

Enter Denzel and The Strength Den.

I first began working with Denzel shortly after being diagnosed with a torn disc in my lower back. He crafted a personalized training plan for me, and with his guidance I have not only been able to continue to maintain strength as I recover from my injury, but I have also been able to build more strength in the process—by learning truly proper form and by unlearning, with his nuanced guidance, patterning that has likely exacerbated/led to my injuries. He's constantly changing up the workouts and is always deeply attuned to my strengths and limitations, which vary from day to day, and I appreciate his stalwart commitment to keeping my form on point.

Denzel's super personalized attention, rooted in his wisdom and experience that says anybody can build and maintain strength—and every single body is different—is particularly important for me not only as a person negotiating injury but also as a fifty-year-old woman. I'm not interested in "killing it" or "crushing it" at the gym or in faddish workouts or vapid health club scenes. What I'm interested in is staying strong, and staying strong smart—for life.

Lucky for me, that's precisely what Denzel is helping me to do—and what you, too, will find in the Strength...

The Strength Den has completely transformed my relationship with strength training. As a former competitive athlete (volleyball, basketball, tennis), I’ve always loved training — but chronic shoulder and hip impingement issues made lifting consistently nearly impossible throughout my twenties and early thirties. I’d try to get back into it, only to end up sidelined by pain. I’d been through several rounds of physical therapy, tried dry needling, massage therapy — nothing ever really stuck. Two years ago, I couldn’t squat a 30lb dumbbell without flaring up.

Then I joined The Strength Den — and everything changed.

What makes this place special is how truly personalized their approach is. This isn’t a “one size fits all” gym. From day one, the coaches took time to understand my history, my limitations, and my goals. I started working with Ada (their in-house physical therapist), and together with the trainers, we built a smart, individualized, progressive program that helped me get stronger in all the right ways. Over time, I was able to train consistently, without pain, and actually start progressing again.

Yesterday, I hit lifetime PRs: 315lb squat, 205lb bench press — something I never thought I’d be able to do.

This is an incredible gym for anyone serious about getting stronger. Whether you’re just starting out, coming back from a setback, or looking to take your training to the next level, the team here meets you exactly where you’re at. The culture is welcoming, the programming is intentional, and the results are real.

I can’t recommend The Strength Den enough. It’s more than a gym — it’s a place where people get stronger,...

I've gone to semi-private workouts at Strength Den for a year and cannot recommend the program highly enough. Denzel has built a customized training plan for me, focused on total body strength and mobility all geared towards getting me back to competing at former D1 level in golf now in my mid-30s. Not only have I seen amazing improvement in speed and stamina on the course, but have completely gotten rid of nagging shoulder and back injuries and am more confident applying my new strength to any athletic pursuit. Even my day-to-day body positioning and awareness has improved.

The gym itself is the perfect setup to focus and improve each week. Denzel changes my workout frequently to keep pushing my limits, and is amazing at refining basic techniques I've done for many years with other coaches (bench press, squats, etc) as well as slowly incorporating news ones that are on the cutting edge of my sport's fitness training, consistent with what I've seen the top pro athletes doing. The available times are perfect to suit my schedule, and whether I book a session in the morning or night and whether I'm alone or with a couple of other people I get a ton out of each session physically and mentally with his constant coaching...