What to expect at the new Cult.fit gym in Chennai

Bengaluru health start-up Cure.fit made an entry into Chennai last week, with its fitness vertical Cult.fit. And wellness enthusiasts have a reason to fist pump as this 5,000 sq ft space in Velachery promises a wide range of workout formats — from boxing to HIIT (high-intensity interval training) to dance fitness to yoga. All of this with, believe it or not — absolutely no equipment!

A quick tour of the space reveals three studio sections, one exclusively for yoga and the other two which rotate the other workout programmes led by a trainer.  We are told that this fitness model is largely technology driven, which means that every session needs to be booked on the Cure.fit app, which also facilitates logging in crucial detailing such as hours of sleep, water intake and meals. 

With a total of seven workout categories to choose from — it’s no surprise that the highlight is the gym’s two celebrity curated programmes by Hrithik Roshan (HRX) and Tiger Shroff (Prowl). 

Although, it is a tad disheartening, especially for us ladies to hear, that we won’t actually have the actors on a virtual screen working out with us. Who wouldn’t want to break a sweat with Hrithik steering the: ‘just one more, you can do it’ motivational speak.

Subscription available for a hundred days, three months, six months and 12 months. Price: INR 13,300 upwards.

Flex your vision

With aggressive expansion plans for the brand, we caught up with co-founder Ankit Nagori to find out what is in store:

You have plans for 500 outlets across India by the end of 2020. How many of these will be in Chennai?
Actually, I think we’re going to exceed that, so 800 studios by the end of 2020. For Chennai, we have 30 Cult.fit studios and an additional five spaces under our food delivery vertical Eat.fit, planned for the end of 2020. Eat.fit should be launching here in the next two months. 

Given the extensive use of technology you have incorporated in your business model — what are your thoughts on some creative ways that the layman can make use of technology to up his wellness game? 
I think tracking and logging patterns like your active minutes, number of steps and sleep is a great place to start. There are plenty of cool apps out there to help you do it...

We hear that your brand doesn’t just integrate technology with workouts, but also that a bulk of business operations are algorithm or machine driven — right from menu programming to selecting venues for a space in a new city. Is that how you decided upon Velachery? 
Yes, within Chennai we did get a list of micro markets that would work well, and Velachery was one of them. Also, with half a million users for our Cure.fit services, technology helps us understand consumption patterns, where our brand works better (complexes, residential areas, high street), the kind of densities (population) we need and even the kind of proxies for a particular centre to work like the retail around it, malls and so forth. 

Is your AI product that was in the pipeline going to be rolled out sometime this year? 
Yes, we have an AI health assistant in the works — the first version of which will be launched at the end of 2019. It will help people plan better and fulfill their health needs digitally. 

What’s next? 
Our Dubai roll out later this year, which takes us international and focusing on opening in 50 cities by 2020 end. 
 

sonali@newindianexpress.com | @brightasunshine