Its black-painted facade, etched with white floral designs, hints at something different. Inside, women raise barbells overhead, squat and deadlift — calmly and assuredly, free of the bravado that can dominate other gyms.
At Iron + Mettle, a women-centered strength-training studio in Noe Valley, heavy lifting takes center stage. There are no wall-length mirrors and no high-decibel Spotify playlist blasting from a nearby speaker. Instead, small-group classes focus on proper form, progressive overload, and building confidence alongside muscle.
For founder and head coach Danielle Repetti, the atmosphere is intentional. After years of coaching in other fitness spaces, she set out to build a gym where lifting felt accessible — not intimidating.
“When working in those types of gyms, I was like, ‘Okay, I know women walk in here and they want to do this stuff, but then they get turned off by the vibes.’ So that was the spark,” said Repetti.
The idea was further ignited by a discussion with fellow female coaches at a Mission neighborhood gym, where she was employed at the time.
“We were all just looking at each other, like, ‘How is there not a women’s weightlifting gym? It feels like something women want,’” Repetti said.
Iron + Mettle came to life in 2019, first on Valencia Street and later moving to 24th Street, nestled among cafes and boutiques — and near fellow woman-owned businesses like Running Wylder.
For Iron + Mettle client Nikki Pearl, the location is fitting.
Pearl, who lives in San Francisco, is the co-founder of Menopausitive Workshop, a health education program geared toward midlife women. A longtime yoga instructor, dancer and self-described “passionate fitness person,” she had researched the benefits of strength training as part of her work around healthy aging. Heavy lifting stood out — but she didn’t feel prepared to pursue it alone.
“I“I hadn’t ever had a personal trainer before, so I just thought, ‘You know what? I should go to a women’s gym,’” she said.
She now attends small-group personal training classes twice a week with four women in the same age range, working with coach Kristi Swig during 50-minute sessions.
A huge draw for her has been Iron + Mettle coaches’ knowledge about and dedication to women-focused training — something she feels is lacking elsewhere.
“I appreciate what Danielle’s doing — creating community around women’s fitness and women’s strength, and destigmatizing the heavy lifting thing and the ‘Oh, what if I get too bulky?’ She’s filling a really important niche,” said Pearl.
Inside Iron + Mettle, clients have access to dumbbells, kettlebells, cables, and medicine balls, but they primarily reach for barbells and the gym’s black and pink weight plates.
“Every single person who walks in our door learns how to lift with a barbell,” Repetti said.
For many clients, it becomes a tangible measure of strength they didn’t realize they had.
Using the progressive overload model, clients start at a weight that feels manageable — even if it’s just the empty bar — and gradually increase load and repetitions over time..
Clients say, Repetti’s curated a space that makes it easy for people to want to return, week after week, to reap the benefits of heavy lifting.
“The community that Danielle has built with the people that are there, from the trainers and the programs to the environment that she’s created, is very intentional,” said Tammi Jew, an Iron + Mettle client. “It’s not about how much you weigh or even how strong you are. It’s just about being together in a community and getting fit to have good longevity.”
Jew, a former director of business development at Netflix, is the founder of One Act, a company offering products people can purchase as gifts of kindness to others. She’s been going to Iron + Mettle since around 2021 and currently does small-group classes three times a week, with Repetti as her trainer.
Jew appreciates the gym’s holistic approach to fitness, both within the space itself and in Repetti’s monthly blog posts that cover topics such as “How Strength Training Supports Bone Density and Why It Matters for Women,” “Why Every Woman Should Train for Pull-Up Strength,” and “Quick Nutrition Tips for Women in Midlife.”
“No matter how much you’re in shape or out of shape, you feel welcome and can start from where you are,” said Jew. “When I go, I feel very much that I belong there.”
Repetti says members don’t have to build their lives around fitness to belong there. The gym, she insists, is meant to support the rest of their lives — not define them.
Iron + Mettle is located at 3769 24th St., San Francisco.