As I walk into the newly opened Cult fitness studio in Velachery, I’m struck by how large it is.
Spread across 5,000 square feet, the studio is the brand’s first in the city; it already has a presence across six cities with a total of 160 centres.
The cool interiors are done up mostly in black, with a row of punching bags to your right as you walk in. Further down the huge hall are rows and rows of medicine balls, hurdles, battle ropes, kettle bells and dumbbells. At the far corner where there are wooden boxes for those challenging box jumps, a door leads to the next room meant for dance, fitness and yoga.
Run by integrated healthcare start-up cure.fit, Cult is its largest vertical. Cure.fit also offers two other verticals — eat.fit that targets healthy eating and mind.fit for mental wellness. Launched in August 2016 in Bengaluru, cure.fit’s new age fitness regimen gained immense popularity; by the end of the year, it had eight centres in Bengaluru alone. Over the next few years they expanded to cities such as Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi, with Chennai being their latest venture.
“We did away with heavy machinery and weights,” says Ankit Nagori, founder of cure.fit. “Traditional gyms seem very inclined towards body building. Ours is for the daily athletes, for people who want to stay fit without necessarily wanting to bulk up. Our workouts are focussed on body weight exercises, strength and conditioning, dance fitness, boxing, HIIT and yoga. We also have a segment that targets sports fitness.”
Both Ankit and his co-founder Mukesh Bansal are fitness enthusiasts and their decision to launch Cult primarily stemmed from the fact that there was a paucity of fitness studios that catered to everyday fitness activities. “Our whole team in fact, is into fitness and sports. We go for Cult sessions together sometimes and participate in sports events too. It’s a good business to be in,” says Ankit.
- Looking for something beyond your local gym? Here are some more fitness studios that go beyond the traditional workout.
- Pedal Beat: Located in Alwarpet, Pedal Beat is a dedicated spin class. Launched in 2016 by Sowmya Arjun, Atul Jagadish, Mukund Rangarajan and Pavithra Charan, it is a dedicated indoor cycling studio. It is the perfect option for cycling enthusiasts who are otherwise held back due to reasons such as traffic conditions, weather and bad road conditions. It also serves as a training centre for serious cyclists, not to mention as an alternative workout destination for those looking for something beyond a traditional gym set up. Cycles here are specifically programmed and equipped with gadgets such as meters to track RPM, speed and other stats.
- F45: Launched in Chennai in 2017 by Deepti Akki and Adith Eswaran, F45 is all about high intensity interval training (HIIT). Originally an Australian brand, the studio counts the likes of Hugh Jackman and Nicole Richie as its clients. Workouts here include a combination of strength work, cardio, resistance, kick boxing and core workout. The sessions are timed with exercises lasting anywhere between 20 to 45 seconds punctuated by rest periods of 10-15 seconds. These workouts vary each day with innovative programmes such as Renegades, Firestorm, Romans, Angry Birds, Hollywood and Quarterback among others. The studio currently has two branches: Nungambakkam and Neelankarai.
- Revoke: Spread across three floors, Revoke threw open its doors late last year in the city. Located on TTK Road, Alwarpet, Revoke boasts of an indoor cycling studio on its first floor, a functional fitness studio also on the first floor, a resistance and cardio space on the second floor that also lets members watch their favourite shows online as they workout. There’s a cafe and a DJ console as well here. The next floor is an open air space for sports and crossfit training.
The fitness studio lets members access all kinds of workouts, including the other two verticals on their cure.fit app. Workouts are targeted at increasing one’s endurance, stamina and core.
One of their popular workout programmes — the HRX, has been curated by Hrithik Roshan. HRX focusses on specific parts of the body each day and encourages lean muscle building. “Hrithik was looking to extend the HRX brand beyond his fitness apparel segment. His workouts involve a lot of body weight and slow movements, which help build muscles in a consistent manner,” says Ankit.
While the Velachery centre is yet to bring in HIIT and sports conditioning, it does offer HRX, strength and conditioning, yoga, dance fitness and PROWL which is a mix of combat, dance and yoga. Members can book a class for any of the group workouts on any given day. Almost all the exercises are trainer-led and each session typically last 50 minutes with classes beginning at 6 am in the mornings (until noon) and 5 pm in the evenings (until 10 pm).
“Members can work out at any of the cult.fit studios across the country. We’re launching a centre in Dubai in the next couple of weeks and members can use the facilities there as well when they’re travelling. They also receive benefits across categories,” says Ankit, adding that what sets them apart is the use of technology in their studios. “All our centres are digitally connected and we use technology to design our workouts as well.”
Incidentally, Mukesh is the co-founder of fashion retailer Myntra and Ankit was the former chief business officer at Flipkart. The company recently raised $75 million in a funding round lead by its existing investor Accel Growth; so far they have raised over $200 million.
The company has been expanding aggressively over the last few years and is looking to set up 15 to 20 centres in Chennai alone by the end of the year. Their next centre will be at Perungudi this month. “We will soon have a presence in areas such as Nungambakkam and Alwarpet too,” says Ankit.
