Revelate Fitness, founded by Corkonian Chris Kennefick, attracts thousands with tailored workouts designed to make exercise accessible at any age
No heavy barbells, no stacks of protein shakes, no big displays with leaderboards or advertisements for the next Hyrox event.
This room has men and women, some up to their 70s, all competing against one person: themselves.
There’s no trainer shouting at them to pick up the pace, no anxious glances over their shoulders to see how far they’ve fallen behind, and no intimidating workout programmes or complicated machines to master.
Three activities: bike, row, ski — with each individual collecting metres, being given tailored workout programmes that suit their fitness level, and guided through the session via a tablet. Everyone gets their own station, and each workout is different, with the music changing and sessions varied for the hundreds who pass through the door every week, all on their own fitness journey.
Revelate Fitness is the brainchild of Cork man Chris Kennefick, who has designed a system which doesn’t reward the dedicated gym bunnies or force new users into the usually intimidating gym setting, but rather gives everyone the opportunity to improve their own fitness, whether they’re 17 or 78.
“I have an engineering background, but I’ve been involved in gyms for the last 14 years,” said Chris at Obodo, his first gym, which he started at the height of the CrossFit fad over a decade ago on the South Douglas Road.
“It was during COVID that we looked at the system in our gym and asked: can we give our members a better class? We thought the best way to do that was to go down the technology route,” said Chris, who found a lot of the technology being sold was targeted at hardcore gym users, part of large-scale gym networks.
“I found my own team of engineers and we started testing and building the app. We put the app onto the bike, rower and skier, and give a user an experience that’s tailored to them. So it’s not like a ‘one size fits all’ class where you have to keep up with whoever is in the room.
The app, which was made in-house, is designed to be as user-friendly as possible
“Now we’re up to about 25 gyms using the system, so there’s around 2,500–3,000 people using it, but the key to all of it was: how do we make a good class to get people fitter and healthier? If we do that, people will keep coming back.”
Obodo is a ‘hybrid’ gym. In their own room, away from the racks and weights, are the Revelate entry-level classes, which can number up to 10 across the day and give hundreds of people a chance to take their first baby steps into the gym.
But for those who want to go further, the Revelate philosophy continues with weight classes that also rely on consistent progress against yourself, with screens displaying the correct technique for various activities, allowing users to learn the right form without needing to face the awkwardness of asking and re-asking coaches and fellow gym members.
I always ask them why they keep coming back — they never give me a straight answer, but they keep coming back!
“We looked at gyms and chatted to a lot of people who all had the same story: ‘It’s too intimidating. I go, and I don’t know what I’m doing. There’s always someone next to me absolutely flying it, and I’m always lost and confused.’
“So with the app, we can tell them to go at one pace or another — just follow the screen in front of you. We’ve got my dad and my uncle in, and they’ve been here for two and a half years and have done millions of metres.
“I always ask them why they keep coming back — they never give me a straight answer, but they keep coming back!”
‘Metres’ is the yardstick, if you will, for progress. There are no leaderboards in Revelate, no times to beat or power levels to reach. It’s about consistent progress. The ‘million metre’ wall displays the name of everyone who reaches the target, with further trophies for the next million along the way.
Obodo gym has a ‘Million metre club’, in which they display names of those who have passed the landmark number on a wall insdie the front door
Chris says the metric helps users track their progress as a personal achievement, rather than battling to top a leaderboard, as seen in some other classes.
“We could give people all sorts of data, and maybe 5–10% love that, but what most people want to see is ‘how many metres have I done?’ It’s like the 10,000 steps — it’s just for people to know that they’re improving.
“We had a lot of people who told us: ‘I went to the gym before, I didn’t enjoy it. I gave up after a month because I was lost. But I enjoy this because I know what I’m doing.’
“What we found was that once people got a little bit fitter, they became a bit more confident, and then all of a sudden they were branching into another class, like a strength class, even doing a 5k.
We had a lot of people who told us: ‘I went to the gym before, I didn’t enjoy it…but I enjoy this because I know what I’m doing.
“If you can get those people in, get them a little bit fitter, build their confidence, it just kicks off from there,” said Kennefick, who says the clients who give him the greatest enjoyment are the grandparents in their 70s or the Special Olympics group that comes in during the week, rather than the well-established fitness gurus.
“We didn’t get too caught up in who was the fittest or strongest — it’s about rewarding people for their own effort, and we’re seeing the benefit of that now.
“And now the gyms can offer more to their members because they’re starting with this, but then they will naturally want to do a strength or conditioning class.
“Revelate is designed to be done once or twice a week — it’s not your be-all and end-all.”
The classes are tailored to each individual iser, who tries to better themsevles every session, on their way to improving their overall fitness
Chris says that right from the beginning, the software — which works on a tablet that sits on the machine — was designed to be simple to use for people of all ages. Gyms around the country have signed up for the licence, in which they buy their own tablets and pay an annual fee, as well as a small user fee, in order to keep the service going.
Fees are kept low to encourage more smaller gyms to adopt the system, which he says has seen superb success, particularly in rural areas.
“At the beginning, it took time to sell when there was no social proof behind it, but now we have the credibility, and gyms are hearing more about us through word of mouth.
“We’re starting to scale up, even outside of Ireland, which is great.
If you get people fitter, that has a knock-on effect on everyone else’s lives
“We’re telling the gyms that you can reach a way bigger market because people know what to do. My goal has always been to get as many people into fitness as possible. We’ve dozens, even here, training who would never otherwise have seen a gym.
“And if you get people fitter, that has a knock-on effect on everyone else’s lives,” said the Cork native, who added that the new system also frees up staff members from directly running spinning classes, which Obodo uses the extra time to allow them to pursue other opportunities in the gym, including marketing, management and programming.
But scaling up is the next step.
“The big thing we’re trying to do now is focus on big team competitions. So we recently had 10 gyms taking each other on as a fundraiser for ‘Lust for Life’ with Bressie, and all of a sudden you had 20 people in a class competing together against other gyms.
“We think that will be really popular. It’s really accessible, it’s individual, and we’re working on loads of those events. It’s always easier to do competition when you’re in a group with your buddies.