Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed walking into a gym class? Felt like the odd one out? Or, heaven forbid, watched your name being ranked on a leaderboard?
Gyms can often feel intimidating to the uninitiated, which is particularly worrying given the importance of cardiovascular health.
To help ease the transition for those who don’t identify as a ‘gym bunny’ or ‘fitness fanatic’, Corkman Chris Kenefick created an app that would personalise each class to its user.
The former rugby player created Revelate Fitness for gyms in 2022, and claims to have more than doubled its network in the last year, announcing a 150% year-on-year increase.
The magic of the technology, says Kenefick, is its accessibility.
“We wanted to make a system that anyone could use, not just something designed for fit people,” says the founder, explaining that he wanted an app that users would be comfortable using within 15 minutes of trying it.
“I got my dad and my uncle into the class,” he adds, “that was two and a half or three years ago, and they’re still training twice a week!”
Chris Kenefick Revelate Fitness
Revelate runs gym cardio classes for people of a range of abilities – teenagers, Special Olympic athletes, and 80-year-olds have all participated in the classes. This is down to the app’s ability to set individual targets in a class setting.
Traditionally, a spin class sees an instructor working out at the top of the room, leading a class through a series of movements, with speed and difficulty levels changing over time.
If you’re unable to hear the instructions or keep up with the average pace, though, you could soon feel left behind.
For Chris, the beauty of the app was that it would allow the user to track their own progress, setting personal goals and instructions, allowing instructors to get off their bikes and help participants with their form and technique.
“The app will see the effort you’re putting in and start setting you targets,” he explains. “You’re always racing yourself and trying to beat your own score.”
As of writing, the fitness class app is currently used by 25 gyms across four countries, with more than 2,500 people taking part in classes each month.
Chris hopes that the app will allow people to become more comfortable in the gym and help them to build their confidence, which will ideally lead to a more diverse and social setting.
“The idea is that you could have my dad – who is 76 – next to an inter-county hurler, but it doesn’t matter because the system will tell them each what to do at their own level,” he says. “Technically, my dad can beat the inter-county player because whoever beats their own target first wins!”
“We also track people’s metres,” he continues. “Every time you finish a class, we’ll tell you how many metres you’ve done, with the goal to get to a million. We have 240 or 230 people who have done a million metres. We have one guy who has done seven million!”
“You don’t have to be the fittest, you just have to train to get your metres,” he insists. “We reward the effort.”
To learn more, visit Revelate | Fitness that works.