F45 Training Mackay City comes out on top of global gym award

The owners of F45 Training Mackay City “can’t wait to celebrate” winning the franchise’s world trophies for 2020 and 2021, giving them hope that their “man crush” and F45 ambassador David Beckham could one day visit. Find out how they took gold.

A gym in Mackay has been named the best F45 franchise in the world for 2020 and 2021 thanks to its innovation through Covid lockdowns.

Owners Lee and Kim Renshaw opened their Mackay City gym only five years ago, and hope their success inspires other small business owners in the region.

British émigré Lee was particularly thrilled by the chance that F45 celebrity ambassador David Beckham could visit Mackay.

“Me being from England and obviously (having) a bit of a, what can I say, man crush on David Beckham, ... it’s just blown me away,” he said.

“How good would that be for the community of Mackay to see someone like that here.

“I could imagine Wood Street having a bloody party.”

Mackay mayor Greg Williamson visited recently to congratulate the gym’s team members on their “passion, drive and determination to succeed” as a small business in a regional city.

There are more than 3500 F45 franchise studios in over 65 different countries, with more than 800 in Australia alone.

Mr Renshaw said topping both the Australian and then global charts in two consecutive years had been “very very crazy and hard to believe”.

Their win came from adapting to hard times, with their Zoom workouts during the pandemic helping around 400 members from across the globe stay active.

“We reached people from all over the world (such as) my English family,” Mr Renshaw said.

“My wife (Kim) does all our social media (and) it’s what makes it such a strong team.

“(We’re) starting to gradually build back up and obviously having these world number one titles just shows that we were able to do that.”

Mr Renshaw said he and the F45 team couldn’t wait to “share the news with Mackay in general” and celebrate “that positive energy after what we’ve all been through over the last few years”.