Breaking the Routine: Try Something New
In a world where the daily grind of news reporting can often be relentless and monotonous, a group of intrepid reporters decides to break free from their routines and embrace a series of thrilling new experiences.
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00:00In a world where the daily grind of news reporting can often be relentless and monotonous,
00:08a group of intrepid reporters have decided to break free from their routines
00:12and embrace a series of thrilling new experiences.
00:16This film, Breaking the Routine, follows these journalists as they swap their notepads and
00:20microphones for helmets, paddles and harnesses, diving headfirst into activities they've never
00:26tried before. From the adrenaline-pumping rush of virtual racing to real-life racing
00:34and to the quick reflexes required in table tennis,
00:36our reporters discover a new sense of teamwork and competition.
00:41But let's start with a test of fitness and agility, all required for the art of bungee fitness.
00:47It is so much fun. You know, you are the coolest person in the street.
00:56You've got a great story to tell the next day. Like, what did you do last night? Well,
01:01I was flying across the studio on Thomas Street. I was doing handstands with one hand. I was doing
01:08one-finger press-ups because that's what bungee does. It makes the impossible possible.
01:14A fitness studio in Manchester's city centre holds a weekly class for thrill-seekers looking
01:20to exercise in a fun and challenging new way. Body Bar in the Northern Quarter started out
01:25as the first pole fitness studio in Manchester, but now offers an aerial bungee class for those
01:30who want to try a resistance workout like no other. Every week, participants clamber into
01:35harnesses and are attached to the ceiling before undertaking an intense exercise class that makes
01:41strength training and cardio much more enjoyable.
01:44I like to find things that are unique, something that is weird and wonderful. If it's weird and
01:48wonderful but worth doing, then if you get benefits from it, then we're going to bring it.
01:53It gets you giggling. Straight away, you giggle. As soon as the first move, you
01:57bounce up and down. You feel like you're a baby in the baby bouncer. It gets people laughing
02:02straight away. If you're laughing, you're having a good time. So yeah, you're getting happy and
02:06healthy at the same time. It's high intensity, but it's low impact. So the cords will always
02:14pull you and you have to push against them. So you've got resistance training and cardiovascular.
02:20So it's perfect. You've got all your muscles working at the same time. As long as you remember
02:26to breathe, I'll remind you to do that. You're going to win. It's okay. We wanted to bring some
02:32cardio workouts. We're mainly a pulse studio, so we wanted to get people to cross train a little
02:38bit, get some cardio, but make sure it was fun. That was for sure. So yeah, flying through the air,
02:44bungee, spinning, jumping. That was for us. The problem with it, why it's not around so much,
02:50is because it's quite tricky to rig. So we've got the hooks in the ceiling and it's just not
02:57something that's easy to set up in studios. Diving out head first, flying across the floor.
03:04Yeah, I think that's quite a surprise, knowing that you can do it as well. Jumping head first
03:10and spinning around and flying and doing handstands. I think that surprises people
03:16that the cords make things possible. You can do handstands even if you don't think you can.
03:23Inspired by lawn tennis and first played with cigar boxes for bats and champagne corks for balls,
03:28table tennis has come a long way since the 19th century.
03:35Why did you decide to open an Al Fresco ping-pong hall right here in Liverpool?
03:40We love outdoor spaces. I think Liverpool is definitely a city of strong worshippers,
03:44with our other outdoor sites, Botanical Gardens or Borussia in the Baltic, and just having another
03:49outdoor activity, something else to break it up. We spoke to quite a few residents homes and other
03:55people inside Liverpool who do it actively and have found amazing physical and mental well-being
04:01increases, especially with dementia. Table tennis, ping-pong or whiff-waff,
04:05whatever you want to call it, originated in Victorian England where it was played amongst
04:10the upper class as an after-dinner parlor game. I'm just very uncoordinated, so I don't have high
04:17hopes. Have you got any top tips? I think the first hint or tip would always be
04:23don't worry about dropping the ball. I think that's definitely the...
04:26Everyone's dropped the ball once in their life, it's not going to be the end of the world,
04:29and I think you're more likely to get an amazing shot and have a great time if you don't stress a
04:34little bit too much about it. And then just keep it slow. I often sort of laugh and joke about
04:38sometimes people bring people on first dates and they just go really hard, really fast,
04:42and you just watch them smash four games against someone on a first date and you're like, wow,
04:49that's an interesting start of a beautiful friendship. So today we're just going to have
04:53a little go at whiff-waff or ping-pong. Our main goal is going to be to get the ball backwards and
04:59forwards across the net, keeping it nice with a little bit of pace to it. With serving, we're
05:04going to make sure that we hit the ball on our side before it goes over, but then we can just
05:09take it off the paddles. We'll take it nice and slow and just build up a nice little bit
05:13of speed with it. In 1988, table tennis was introduced as an Olympic sport, and I reckon
05:19if I put the work in, Team GB might just be calling me up for LA 2028. One of the things that I'd say
05:26I'd definitely do for a living is help facilitate joy with like bars and outdoor spaces. So I think
05:31it was sort of a little bit of a natural progression from this. Yes, that's obviously
05:34named from the noise that the ball is made out of, like cork used to make when it went
05:38backwards and forwards. I think retro has definitely come on back, but I think just
05:43something else that sort of takes us off our phone for a period of time and sort of facilitates chat,
05:48I feel like sometimes the most important thing about table tennis isn't the table tennis,
05:52it's the chance that you catch up with people. Next up, an experience designed to make you feel
06:00like a champion. Imagine all the excitement and glamour of Formula One racing with a cocktail bar.
06:09F1 Arcade is a fully immersive F1 experience without the danger, I suppose. We've got 53
06:18simulators, you can have teams racing, you can race against each other, race against teams.
06:24We have free racing, we have different tracks from around the world, and you're immersed into
06:31sort of a different world of food, cocktails, beer. We have DJs, we have DJs at the weekend
06:38as well. So it's something for everybody, really. Utilising advanced F1 racing simulators,
06:45participants can experience driving on some of the world's most famous tracks
06:50with different race modes, including team racing and head-to-head competitions.
06:55As much as I like a challenge, today I opted for a lower difficulty setting,
07:00as fortunately for me, F1 Arcade takes pride in making sure it caters to all sorts of different
07:06patrons. Genuinely, the sort of people we get here, we have a range from the young kids,
07:12kids' parties, but generally 18 to 50-year-old demographic, really. They're celebrating
07:17birthdays. We have groups of lads coming in and just enjoying themselves before they go out for
07:21a beer. I have older couples coming in with their adult children. I've been here a few times with my
07:31kids. They just enjoy the experience, and I think I've taught myself super nice. I think the food
07:35offering does actually really complement the racing, sort of for everybody, some pizzas and
07:40burgers. Just a nice all-round experience, man. Gosh, if you go into the Elite package, I mean,
07:45you're in full control of the car, the gears, the whole shebang. What it does do quite cleverly,
07:51you've got five different skill levels, so if you are with a team of people that you're racing
07:55that are at different levels, you can all have a different skill setting, but you're all still
08:00racing against each other, and you still feel as though, even with more help on the lower settings,
08:04you can have an equal race. I think that's quite clever. Beyond the thrilling races,
08:09F1 Arcade hosts watch parties for major events like the Silverstone Grand Prix.
08:15These gatherings attract a diverse crowd of F1 fans, bringing an electric atmosphere
08:21that amplifies the excitement of every turn and overtake. To be surrounded by 350 F1 fans,
08:30all in the same arena, I've not seen the likes of it, to be fair. You see with football or,
08:34you know, tennis or whatever, but certainly F1, this is a first for me. Yeah, it's great fun.
08:39And from virtual racing to the real thing, as we go gravity e-karting in Yorkshire.
08:46Hi, I'm Bradley. I'm Caitlin. And welcome to Gravity e-karting at Escape Yorkshire. We opened
08:52in October 2022. We run sessions seven days a week, aimed mainly towards families to get young
09:02people in karting. We can have people come in from the age of four, six years of age,
09:07come in from the age of four, all the way up to about 70 and 80 year olds on track.
09:13I've been karting my whole life, national, international level as well. Try to bring as
09:18much in as I can, all the knowledge I've gained over the years, try to keep the fleet
09:22as good as I can, being one of the best in the country. I've not got any experience personally,
09:28so I've pretty much learned as I've come into this role. And it's been really interesting to
09:32figure out like the electric karts versus the petrol karts and things like that. So obviously
09:36we run electric karts, which is quite easier to drive than what a petrol kart would be. So yeah,
09:40I've learned a lot of knowledge on the job. We run Biz EcoVolt GT karts. They're the top level
09:46of electric karts you can get around here. Battery lasts unbelievably long on them.
09:54They handle pretty well with the Mitus tyres. The immediate feedback after they come off the
09:59track is that they've really enjoyed themselves. And they almost think that the eight minutes has
10:04gone by really quick because you don't realise how long you're actually on there for. You can
10:07get quite a few amount of laps in. You get a lot of competitive people trying to beat their family
10:13and friends. So not only have we got the leaderboard for like a general overview of customers, they like
10:18to be the winner of their race as well, which is why we've got the podium so they can take a quick
10:22picture after their race. For anyone who's nervous about going karting, it's like riding a bike. The
10:27kart isn't going to do anything you don't tell it to do. You've got two pedals, one for each foot,
10:33and all you've got to do is turn the wheel. There's no gears, no clutch, very easy for
10:38any children to just jump in and pick it up. Because they are electric, we are able to control
10:43the speed via a remote. So we're able to slow the family sessions down just so they're able to
10:50adjust to the karts and get a feel of what it is like driving a go-kart. In terms of beginners,
10:55so you do have a quick safety briefing before you go on which does explain all the rules and
11:00things like that. It can be quite overwhelming to start with, but as soon as you've got that
11:04first lap under your belt, then it can get a lot easier from there. Like Bradley said,
11:09we've only got two pedals, so it does help for kids being able to drive. But yeah, in terms of
11:15safety, we are able to slow the karts down if anyone wants to crash. So we're able to control
11:20that speed remotely just to stop any further accidents from there. It's quite a fun activity
11:25to do. It's something different, not in this area. Like Bradley said, we're open to all ages
11:32from four. So it's just a fun activity to do with your family and also you can do it as a
11:38night out with your staff or you can do it as a meeting. And it's also, we've got pro sessions
11:44which are from 12 and above. So if you want in a bit of a quicker race, then you're able to
11:48come along to that one as well.