You’ve resolved to get more exercise… but jogging chafes your thighs, yoga’s too self-righteous and the gym is just plain boring. Well, did you know that jumping on a trampoline burns up to 800 calories an hour (compared to jogging’s 500)? Opened in October, Berlin’s first-ever trampoline park, Jump Berlin, might be the fun, high-intensity workout you’re looking for.
That is, if you can find it. It’s located in the far-flung neighbourhood of apartment high-rises known as Märkisches Viertel, in a sports complex off the main road, and not particularly well-signposted. Once you do reach the cherry-red 2250sqm gym (shared with a separate beach volleyball facility), €13 buys you an hour’s worth of trampoline mayhem (€79 for a monthly pass), plus €2.90 for mandatory nubbed friction socks which are yours to keep.
The biggest area is the freestyle zone, which includes slanted trampolines around the outside that give new meaning to the phrase “bouncing off the walls”. There’s also a dodgeball area, a pair of basketball hoops where you can practice the slam dunk of your dreams (beware of queues here), two long “tumbling lines” for aspiring gymnasts to perfect their floor routines and an air cushion onto which you can leap from a three-metre platform.
And the clientele? Unsurprisingly, it’s mostly children and teens with the odd smattering of tank-top-wearing gym bros, but don’t let that stop your inner child from jumping for joy.
