If you're stressed out, worried, or just need to let off some steam, consider trying out smash therapy. Our own Shannon LaNier is on the scene to try it for himself. 


<div class="block">If you&#39;re stressed out, worried, or just need to let off some steam, consider trying out smash therapy. Our own Shannon LaNier is on the scene to try it for himself. </div>
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Wake Up With Cheddar

On the Scene: Trying 'Smash Therapy' at Raze Up in NYC

And if you're stressed out, worried just needs to let off some steam. Consider trying out smash therapy. Our very own Shannon Lane is on the scene to find out more. Good morning, Shannon. Good morning. That's right. I am all geared up to smash a bunch of stuff. So it's gonna be a lot of fun and hopefully it'll be some therapy for us all. So I wanna bring in Matt, one of the co-founders here of this raise up smash therapy space here in the Bronx. What made you wanna do this? Hey, we just, this, we saw a uh an opportunity and, and something that New York didn't have and especially the Bronx and it's something we wanted to bring to the community out here. Ok. So how does this work? We got our gear on you people come in, they get their gear. Then what? Yeah. So for safety for safe, for safety reasons, first, you're gonna sign the waiver after you sign the waiver, we're gonna give you a suit, we're gonna give you some gloves and then you're gonna wear your hat. You got it right. We're gonna take you through a safety video um, after we take you through the safety video, we're gonna walk you over here and have you pick the right, pick your weapon. Now, this is the fun part where you get to pick a weapon of choice to go and smash with. Is there a more popular item that people like to pick? Um, a lot of times it's either a golf club or this hammer right here, this sledge hammer is kind of heavy. So I think I'm gonna go with something easy. I'm gonna pick, oh, this golf club. There we go. I can really do some damage there. All right. All right. And then they come in here. Yes. All right. So this is the actual, one of two smash rooms that you guys have here on display and what is in this room? Explain what all this is here. Yeah. So this is the smash wall. So, um for safety reasons, we want everybody to throw in one direction um to make sure they're not throwing everything around. But, uh, so what we have here is just a set of some, some simple glass items for you guys that we've set up that you guys can just sit there and smash and, and we get a lot of all of this stuff from the community. So there's a glass center not far from here and we work with them to acquire this glass and we get through, throw this at the wall, this shit with the, or you can smash it right there. Um, yeah, so a lot of times people, obviously you can see from all the dents that throwing against the wall is very popular or just beating the wall just like this as you can see, you know, uh, with some of the damage we need to fix up there. That, yeah, that, that's an option as well. Basically how we think about this, you've, you've bought this room for 30 minutes, we're gonna stock it with some items and then we're gonna let you go to work. Ok. And you have items like this, you have old computers, computers, this right five cabinet file cabinet is always popular. So does this, does this actually work when you talk about smash therapy? People take this as a mental release or a stress reliever. So does it work? What do people say when they come out? Yeah, anecdotally. I mean, when people come in a lot of times they're, they're talking about, hey, I've got stress in my life. I've got stress with a partner, et cetera. And then we put, we'll put them in here and they'll come out, they'll be sweaty. But what you'll see is the relief in their face. And if you look at the reviews that we have on Google and some other platforms, usually it's five stars. I mean, people come out of here loving it and we have an exit survey that we provide sometimes to people and more often than not, we're getting perfect scores. Ok? So I want you to step back. I wanna get a little opportunity to smash some stuff before we go. And then first I'm gonna start something simple. I gonna throw a bottle ready. OK? Here we go. Oh I fucking smashing, ok? This will do. Oh That does help. I feel uh I still get smashed a bottle. That sucks. I'll just stick to this and me some stuff. But don't worry when we come back, I got belt smashed, ok? When we come back out here live, we are going to be in another room. Wait till you see the other room. We're really gonna get smashed in with some bigger weapons and some big, bigger things to smash. I do feel a little bit more stress relieved if you will just by smashing. He does, he does seem calmer but I, I don't know, I would rather just cry. Instead I go to the cry room a smash and welcome back everyone to wake up a chatter and baker and I'm at a, we live in Lower Manhattan. If you're stressed out, if you're worried, you just need to let off some steam. Consider trying out smash therapy. Our very own Shannon Lanier is on the scene to try it for himself. Hey, Shannon, that's right. Check that out. These are real tools. These are gonna be my weapons today as I tried to release some stress and smash some things. It's a popular trend that's growing around the country and we are here in the South Bronx talking to Matt today here, raise up. So, tell us a little bit more about what this is and actually who comes to these rooms to get some smash therapy. Yeah. No. Um, so it's, it's really interesting. So this is, um, this business. It's, it's, it's woman driven, right? So, you're getting about 80% of our clients are gonna be professional women coming in with their girlfriends after work, bringing their significant other info on date night. Um Or, you know, just want to have fun after brunch somewhere here out in the South Bronx, you come over and you smash some stuff. So that's generally the clientele. Um One thing that we really like out here is that it's a, it's a vibrant community where there's a lot of new restaurants and a lot of new places where people can come and enjoy themselves before or after this mass session. So, do you think that people come out here just more for fun? Just, hey, let's have some fun. Are they coming to blow off steam, release some stress and really get some type of therapy? Well, traditionally a room has been about an amusement. Um how we're differentiating from everybody else is that we're really focused on the mental health aspect. We believe wholeheartedly that when you come here, you're gonna walk out stress free or um walk out an ability to kind of go about your day and relieve some stress, um versus smashing somebody's door or smashing something in your house. Um As my uh business partner says it's cheaper than bail money. So that's why. So we're, we're, we're kind of out here to really help people relieve stress by an alternative means. I like that cheaper than bail money. What would you say is the favorite thing people love to come smash. Is there a thing? Obviously, the glass is the number one priority. People love glass. Um Even above just kind of your beer bottles, the plate, we have plate glass occasionally where people come in where those thick heavy glass panels. Um so that it, it's, I think it's more of um the sound of the smash when you break glass versus you know, computer, you're just beaten it to death and you're probably wasting more energy than anything else. But with uh with the glass, it's that, it's that sound, it's easy. Um Anybody can come in and break something. Ok. Well, I tried it earlier and I could not break the darn bottle. So Matt told me I had the scoop back. So I'm gonna let you guys step out to be safe and I'm gonna actually throw this. So he said step back and then throw it. Ok? I can do this guys. Here we go. I'm gonna throw it right there. My gosh. Man, this is why I keep a crow bar because then I can OK, sorry, I may be getting a little intense here but oh, I feel better. Matt. Why do you think? Come on back in, I'm smashing thinking. Why do you think you feel so good after and stuff? Uh I mean, it's, it's, it's what you see every day. Like I said, you know, people uh we, we get upset and we break, we get upset and we break things right. We get upset and we break things, you know, during the Super Bowl. What are, there's, what are all those memes about people breaking their own TV? Sets when their, when their team lose the Super Bowl? Right? Um, this is just a way of doing that in a more controlled environment. We're not where you're not breaking your own $2000 TV, or breaking your own laptop. So you come here and you can break our stuff for a low cost. That's much better. Now, how much is the average cost for this? And how long do we get to stay in here? Breaking things? Yeah, we've got packages 15, 30 minutes or an hour. Um, the packages range from 90 bucks all the way up to $200. If you go to our website, we have group packages for 10 and 20 individuals. Um, you can, you know whether that's for, um, uh, school, school outing, um, you know, or professional sales meeting or something like that. People have come here and use this for whatever they want. Right? Matt. Thank you so much. What's the website one more time? Uh Raise up dot dot net. That's Raz eu P dot net. Um Or, and you can follow us at, at raise up there you go. Follow them and get the smash and just like me. Ok? Step out because I gotta end this, smashing some stuff. I gotta break a bottle, man one more time before we go. All right, here we go. Yes, I'm so accomplished him back to you. I was gonna say we have to end it on that note when he finally broke the bottle. So Shannon is one of the calmest people we know I've never seen him take out his range like this. Who knew what was underneath? He's like an onion. Once you pull back all those layers, by the way, our producers are saying he, he's been off camera for at least 30 seconds. I still go. All right. Coming up on the other side, well, coming up tomorrow actually, he'll go from destroying TV. S to throwing axes. Have you done that? That's so fun. I did it once by the way. Bull's eye baby. My first people to drink while they do that because I feel like that is, is a rest. You're drinking, you're drinking while you're throwing that. No, no, no.