Sweat Depot Fight Fitness

🥊 Our next celebrated baby
— BOB “THE REAL DEAL” CRAWFORD 🥊
Women loved him.
Men wanted to be him.

Bob “The Real Deal” Crawford instructed for us when I first kicked off Sweat Depot in 2006.

Feminism appeared to be making excellent progress until married women started sidling up to me asking for the timetable for the male instructor.
“No offence, Erin… I just prefer training with men.”
Right.
Goodbye feminism. Enter Mr Crawford.

To look at Bob, you would expect something terrifying.
This was a man who had fought some of the toughest Australian heavyweights of his era — back when Friday Night Fight Night was less looks-maxxing podcasters and considerably more blood sport. (His more notorious opponents include Nathan Briggs and Sam Greco)
And yet to the women in class?
Marshmallow.
I remember walking into one of Bob’s sessions and hearing:
“If the weight is too much, put it down. Listen to your body.”
Oh yes.
The ladies were listening to their bodies.
Very, very carefully.

But that was Bob.
The real deal.
He didn’t need to perform toughness because he had already lived it.
Scary-looking heavyweight fighter on the outside.
Kind, patient, thoughtful instructor underneath.
And almost twenty years later, he still checks in on me whenever he gets a spare moment between his international, high-flying consultation work.
Shhhhh. He’s very important.

Robert, you were there at the beginning. These last few weeks you endured my relentless interrogation techniques to obtain your baby photo (i.e.: "photo Robert, photo Robert, give me your photo Robert") and your modesty crumbled as you succumbed to my strong fi**ed will. ✊👊🤛

You helped give this little-shop-of-horrors credibility, character and more than a few suspiciously enthusiastic female attendees.

And you remain one of our original, bona fide:
🥊 HALL OF MAGNIFICENT BEASTS 🥊
BOBBY “THE REAL DEAL” CRAWFORD
Some things change.
The Real Deal doesn’t.

For anyone who needs to hear this today:
1. your fight history was never meant to be based on ONE round
2. you are meant to WEAR OUT your gloves, not hang them up
3. the truest test of fitness is NOT your knock-out punch, it's your ability to get back UP from the mat***

Just put one more foot in front of the other, you have a whole posse (both seen and unseen) in your corner.

Sweat Depot Fight Fitness - 20 years - one incredible community.
🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊🥊
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***preferably with your hands up 😉

🥇 AND HERE SHE IS.
IS ANYONE REALLY THAT SUPRISED?
OUR #1 FREQUENT FLIER — SHERIDAN DYNE. 🥇

There are people you train.
There are people you train with.
And then there is Sheridan.
Sheridan is my training equal.
No — scratch that.
She is better than me.
Her technique is perfect.
Her counting is honest.
She remembers the rounds.
She does not mysteriously lose reps when things get ugly.
Ten years ago she started a hard round with a mild-mannered:
“Shiiiiiittttt…”
These days, her expletives start with an "farrr" and a "carrrnn"... and this is heaven to me. (That's your fault Carroll).
Because if Sheridan thinks it is hard, then you know s**t has officially hit the proverbial.

About 8 years ago she broke her ankle and still turned up to train in a knee-length moon boot (see ancient retro video).
Because a broken ankle is not an excuse...
It is simply a programming modification.

And then -- there is her massive brain.
Sheridan is far too bright for the Queensland public service.
She should be at NASA.
She is just so freaking smart.
Even when she makes her beautiful soaps and body products, she approaches it like a military-grade science experiment — measuring, refining, recording, perfecting.
Nothing is half-arsed.
Nothing is careless.
That is Sheridan.

Over the years, some of the most important moments have not happened during training at all.
They have happened in the conversations before and after.
She has talked me through some really hard things.
I value her opinion because she is exceptionally smart, deeply kind and incredibly considered.
And — unlike me — she is not prone to the occasional spectacular bout of catastrophic thinking.
So when Sheridan tells me something is wrong?
I listen.

I struggle to explain what impact she has had on me without sounding like I am about to launch into one of those:
“So proud…”
“She inspires me…”
posts that make me want to spoon my eyeballs onto a piece of toast and eat it.
This is not a superficial post for my spectacularly small audience.
It is beyond that.
It is my truth.

I think I train ***because*** of her...

She is one of the most important people in my life.

Sheridan may now feel entirely justified in being concerned by the stalky tone of that statement.
But I am not taking it back.
Over 850 bookings in just five years... and counting.
That is extraordinary.

But the bookings are not actually the impressive part.
The impressive part is the consistency.
The discipline.
The intelligence.
The kindness.
The friendship.
The fact that she keeps turning up.

And, in doing that, she keeps me turning up for me too.

🥇 SHERIDAN DYNE
#1 FREQUENT FLIER
853 BOOKINGS
How did I get this lucky?
This is proof undeniable God is a woman — and she introduced Sheridan to me. ❤️🥊

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🥈 BANG THE GAVEL. COURT IS IN SESSION.🥈

All rise for our #2 Frequent Fighter — the Honourable Stuart Sapsford.

If I had to choose one word for our beloved Sir Stu, it would be dignified.

Sometime around 2014, Stu’s girlfriend at the time organised a PT session with me because she thought he needed something to compare with his Tattersalls boxing classes.
We came from two very different worlds.
Me: bogan, formerly blue-collared, and blessed with a voice Pauline Hanson would probably covet. 🤮
Stu: refined, graceful, purposeful and really, really clever.

Were we ever going to train together again?
Computer says no.
And yet… 622 bookings later, the evidence would suggest otherwise.
For more than a decade, this stately gentleman has quietly welcomed old students, new students and everyone in between.
He is the undisputed GOAT of the burpee reverse backfist.
And I have personally watched this man put 21-year-old fighters to shame.
No, seriously.
We once had a young fighter from Birmingham make it through about 20 minutes of class before retiring to the corner for the remaining 25 — while Stu, then in his mid-sixties, continued smashing through drill after drill in quick succession.

But what defines Stuart even more than his strength and tenacity to keep training is his generosity.
Generous with his time.
Generous with gifts and thoughtful gestures.
Generous with encouragement and worldly wisdom.
And generous with a little legal guidance to our heavily public-sector Sweat Depot cohort who always appreciate having a barrister with industrial-court experience to round off a sweaty session. You see - this is our golf course 😉.
He is essentially our Legal Gandalf: except with a fresh haircut and great biceps.
Sir Stu. Sir Stu.
What would we do without you?

🥈 STUART SAPSFORD
#2 FREQUENT FIGHTER
622 BOOKINGS
There is no us without the GOAT. ❤️🥊

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🥉 **Coming in at #3 in our Frequent Fighters countdown: TRACEY CARROLL — or simply, “CARROLL.”** 🥊

Carroll is one of my closest friends, mentor, and one of those rare humans who has earned the kind of trust I don’t hand out lightly.

I judge people heavily by the way they interact with my kids.

Carroll is the real deal.
My kids see her as a friend, a carer, a safe human and someone they can trust completely.

And by trust, I mean she will slap you in the face with brutal honesty.

I set up a circuit and say:
“100.”

Carroll:
“100-ish.”

I demonstrate a workout.
Carroll:
“You’re lucky I’m here. I’ll do what I can.”

I yell something incomprehensible across the gym and from somewhere in the room I’ll hear a muffled noise followed by:

“I don’t know, Sheridan.”

Once, I had the whole class doing tuck jumps because a handful of people weren’t listening.

Carroll immediately identified the offenders:
“WE’RE DOING THIS BECAUSE OF YOU!”
Or words to that effect.

And watch out if she starts a sentence with:
💭“So what I’m hearing is...”💬
There's a burn in progress.
Brace for impact.

The first time she walked into my class with her ridiculously savvy daughter Kenz, I remember thinking:
💭Sh*t. She’s going to hit me.💭

Interestingly, this appears to be a recurring theme among the women I eventually love most.

Then she came back.
And I remember genuinely feeling like I had passed some important test.

And the fact that she has continued turning up?

That may genuinely be one of the greatest achievements of my life.

Because Carroll is:
🤺Razor sharp.
Stupidly stubborn.
Cutting.
Ridiculously kind.
Considerate.
Genuine.

And did I mention...
⚠️stubborn?⚠️

She will challenge you, call your bulls**t, make you laugh when you absolutely don’t want to, tell you what you need to hear rather than what you want to hear — and then quietly stand beside you when life gets ugly.

That combination is incredibly rare.

So Carroll, my wise and wonderful friend, mentor, truth-teller and professional modifier of all prescribed repetitions...

With an outrageous **523 bookings**, you are officially our:

🥉 #3 FREQUENT FIGHTER

And after all these years, every time you walk through my doors I still feel just a tiny bit like...

..I passed the test... ❤️

I can't wait to get old with you... 😉

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🥊 Coming in at a feisty #4 as we approach the finish line: the hardcore, long-haul veteran — Annette Graham. 🥊

Annette is an extraordinarily humble human, which means she will absolutely hate the photos I’ve posted.
Cue:
“Oh bloody hell, Erin.”
…at the next class she walks into.
She avoids publicity at all costs.

But we do not mistake humble for frail.
“Tough as old nails” and “salt of the earth” are all for Annette.

An RBH nurse, she has held the hands of friends I’ve lost, cared for people we know and love, and calmly dealt with the kind of injuries that make the rest of us spew.
See recently: the mangled toe incident of BM and Karen Watkin’s bikeway ankle-roll.

If Annette is nearby, we don’t worry.
There is something deeply reassuring about a woman who can finish a 12-hour night shift, issue a gravelly command with absolutely no room for faffing about, then turn up for a class…
…and quite possibly another class somewhere else down the road.

North Brisbane gyms have been quietly dominated by Annette for decades.

And somehow, while doing all of that, she raised three remarkable sons as a single mum.

Fit, educated, decent gentlemen who everyone in our little shed are enormously proud of.

Her boys have grown up around us (we included ancient video of our little athletes for reference).

Her sons are our sons.

So Annette — with 392 bookings and enough grit to scare the pearls off lesser ladies — you are officially our #4 Frequent Fighter.
Quiet.
💪STRONG💪
Unassuming.
Battle-hardened.
Completely dependable.
And very, very loved.

🥊 ANNETTE GRAHAM — #4
392 BOOKINGS
One magnificent beast.

*** Can someone show her this bloody post?

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🥊Gary - Gaz - Smiles - Smiley🥊
😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁
Number five is our winner winner chicken dinner when it comes to the man who is an alpha enough to train with a bunch of women over 350 times, finish a session with world solving gossip/ geopolitical discussions and return to doing manly things in manly style with tools and stuff.

I dropped a photo of Jamie Drury because Jamie called me and said - I want to look as good as Smiley. I said to Jamie, 'Well Jamie - my good friend and one time lover - can you, can you ever really look that good?"***
I will leave it to the comments to decide.

You are an OG 20 year veteran, and it would be a privilege to spend another 20 years training with you. You have a group of devoted cheerleaders standing behind you...

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***Some, none, or all of these things may be true.

Today we celebrate **Karen Watkin**, her **235 bookings**, and a few milestone moments that are literally built into the bricks, steel and sweat of this business.

Karen is our unassuming Iron Woman — the kind of person who disappears every other weekend to run a marathon, conquer an endurance event, or do something while the rest of us are having a Bex and a lie down.

She is also the reason **Jules aka Frog Gardiner** walked through our doors. During a Fernwood boxing session, Karen — in her calm, quiet way and that lovely musical voice — sidled up to Frog and suggested there might be another place to box if she was interested.

That one conversation changed Sweat Depot history.

I think Karen’s natural habitat, however, was the **Friday night bootcamp**. While normal people chose bed, wine or both, Karen apparently thought 100 chin-ups, 100 burpees and 100 squats sounded like a cracking start to the weekend.

She loved it. 😉

And Karen’s contribution has gone far beyond training.

As co-owner of **Brisbane Posts and Beams**, she has only ever needed a quiet word — or maybe just 'a look' — to mobilise Greg and a small army of steel-hardened men to move, drill, re-drill, weld, melt and mount to somehow keep rebuilding the framework from which we have hung our boxing bags, equipment and occasionally our sweaty bodies.

She has mustered her children into classes, brought people through our doors, helped move the physical bones of the gym and quietly supported this ridiculous little enterprise through incarnation after incarnation.

Karen isn’t simply a long-term OG **Magnificent Beast**.

She is part pied piper, part logistics department and quite literally part of the **structure** holding Sweat Depot together.

Businesses like ours apparently aren’t supposed to last 20 years.

Yet here we are.

And people like Karen, Greg and their family are a very big reason why.

**Karen, Greg and your salt-of-the-earth crew — you are to Sweat Depot what scaffolding is to the Empire State Building.**

You helped hold us up while we kept building.

And you are forever part of our story. ❤️

🥊No 7 in our Frequent Fighters Come with a Kick🥊

I mean literally - we fight to get on the end of a kick bag when there is a thigh kick drill and it Sonya's - aka Sonn's - turn to kick. Powerful with a side of reverberation is just what the Doctor ordered when we have sore glutes, a kick pad, and Sonya's quick succession of thigh pounds.***

Quiet, but deadly. There is always room for this magnificent beast when she stacks 170 sessions and a track record of being one of the strongest women in the shed.

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***'cause we aint doing macrame.

The Thurst.. Kirst.. Kirsten... Thursten.

Hilarious. A crowd favourite.

🥊Welcome to our 8th mate in our Frequent Fighters Count Down🥊

I love training with her. I love her. I love her children. She makes me laugh. The end.

Welcome to the Hall of Magnificent Beasts my tall and witty friend. The 148 frequent fighter points under your belt are a conservative indication of how many times you have made my day.

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