F45: A gym for a new generation
FITNESS mogul brothers, Mace and Reese Robinson are bringing the fun into fitness.
The Blackwater Downer miners are veering away from your typical gym and turning the fitness empire on its head.
With theme nights every Friday night and Hollywood classes twice on Saturdays complete with a live DJ, the new Yeppoon gym will be something the small coastal town has never seen before.
As more and more people become focused on health and fitness rather than clubbing, a shift in popular social scenes has prompted the Robinsons to tailor a studio around a fun "vibe and atmosphere” where "people will want to be”.
After following the F45 franchise for over a year, Mace, 28, approached his brother Reese, 32, about an idea that would see them join "Australia's fasted growing franchise”.
Reese, a former Ruby Union player and golfer, and Mace, a former swimmer, have always had a passion for fitness, but noticed that in Yeppoon, most gyms failed to offer the sort of group training with one-on-one guidance they preferred.
"A lot of your traditional gyms; you've got to pay extra for your personal trainers if you want their attention and the group classes are sort of just someone at the front running the class whereas F45 differs from that,” Mr Reese Robinson said.
"They've got PTs that run the class for you and the trainers are there to actually train people so you aren't paying extra to get the trainer's attention, they're actually walking around actively in the class the whole time.
"A lot of people don't have the confidence to go to a gym where people are training individually because they're self-conscious whereas group training is a lot more of family community based activity so there's less consciousness.
"There's no mirrors there so people feel a lot more comfortable. We're bringing that style to Yeppoon. Everyone wants to look good for the beach and feel fit.”
The studio was put on hold for three months when other businesses, "well within their rights” in the business area submitted disputes after council approval.
The disputes, it seems, were largely due to the location of the new F45 studio and the opinion that "there were too many gyms in Yeppoon” already.
"Our agreement that whole time was that we are offering something completely different,” said Mr Robinson.
"It's not a standard gym or standard style training, it's not another CrossFit, it's stand alone.”
After a "stressful and frustrating process” of agreements, the disputes were eventually dropped, but the battle saw the brothers gain the support of a community who rallied behind them at the many boot camps they ran throughout the year.
At the grand opening on December 2nd, there will be free shirts and hats, two free 12-month memberships valued at over $3000 each up for grabs, as well as give away packs from ASN and a draw.
Mr Robinson plans on running six classes a day from Monday to Thursday and five classes on Friday.
Despite the big things ahead of the fitness studio, he has not forgotten the help he received along the way.
"St Ursula's allowing us to use their undercover area [for boot camps] so we could keep running them even if there was rain so we're going to be throwing a donation their way,” he said.