I\’m a personal trainer and this smart home gym has helped me improve my strength training form

Most smart home gym equipment these days has two costs: the price of the machine itself, and then a monthly or yearly membership fee to access workouts.

As someone on a budget, I can sometimes scrape together the funds to purchase a premium exerciser that I\’ll actually use, but I can\’t always guarantee I\’ll have the funds to shell out another $30 or more per month for the same amount of time. how i want to use that car.

So when I learned that the new Speediance home gym, an all-in-one system for strength training and some cardio (can also be used as a rowing machine), comes with a lifetime membership to the app and workouts, I was intrigued. Unlike most smart home gyms, there are never any ongoing memberships or membership fees.

Honestly, in my opinion, this is a game changer. But of course it\’s only game-changing if the equipment you\’re training on is actually worth it. So I had a unit to test at home and see what it\’s actually like to use.

What is Speed?

Speediance is a compact, all-in-one home gym that can be used for strength training as well as cardio, plyometrics and stretching/yoga. It\’s a self-contained unit with a large touchscreen display where you can stream your workouts, control resistance, and track your workout stats.

It comes with multiple accessories, including a weight bench, barbell attachment, yoga mat, and more. The barbell and handle attachments are Bluetooth-enabled so they count the number of repetitions performed to help you keep track of your total workout volume.

You can choose from hundreds of guided workouts available, or take a free lift workout for a self-guided session. The unit captures all your workout metrics and provides a video guide showing what you should do for each exercise (when following a guided workout).

The unboxing experience

The Speediance arrives almost fully assembled in the box. All I had to do was add batteries to the handles and barbell (because they\’re smart accessories that track your reps) and screw the legs into the weight bench. As someone who has struggled to put together countless pieces of exercise equipment on my own, this was a welcome perk.

I also like that it\’s a freestanding home gym. I live in an older house with an odd spacing for studs, so I wouldn\’t be able to use a system that requires wall mounting.

The platform is on wheels and can be folded away when you\’re not using it, making it extremely compact and quite portable. I\’m small enough and even I can fold and move the unit by myself.

How are the workouts

In the weeks that I tested it, I mostly used Speediance for strength training workouts. When you select a workout, you can filter your workout video library by the body parts you want to train and how long you need to train. Before starting, the display will show you all the accessories you will need.

While there\’s no two-way mirror or 3D sensor like some of the home gym\’s competitors, the smart accessories track your range of motion to help you visualize whether you\’re doing the exercise right.

Also, if you\’re using the barbell attachment or each handle separately but at the same time, the range of motion graph will compare your movement pattern on the right and left side of your body. This can be super informative in helping you identify muscle imbalances or technical errors in your lifts. Even though I\’ve been a personal trainer for over 13 years and am very familiar with most of the exercises I\’ve done with the Speediance, I\’ve found many areas where I thought my form was flawless, but in reality, there were deviations. brilliant feature will help me improve my movement mechanics.

Feel of speed and performance

Speediance cable pulleys work just like a cable machine or functional trainer at the gym. They are smooth and you can raise and lower the pulleys with one hand. Overall, I\’ve found using the grips individually for exercises like bicep curls, pecs, and tricep dips to feel a little smoother and more natural than when I\’ve used the barbell attachment for squats and bench presses.

The challenge is to try to lift evenly from both sides of the body at a smooth and constant rate, and titrate the force produced by the right and left sides to keep the barbell balanced. While this seems a little embarrassing, I know it will actually make me stronger and more efficient at lifting weights. Rather than allowing my dominant side to carry the brunt of the workload, I really need to focus on pressing, pushing, or lifting evenly between both sides of my body.

Speediance rowing machine

After using the Speediance for several weeks, I decided to upgrade it to the rowing attachment. It does require a bit more assembly than the basic Speediance home gym unit, but it honestly only took me 10 minutes. Basically you have to attach the sliding seat and foot together with a couple of pieces for the track.

I have to say I was really skeptical about this as I have become an avid recreational rower over the last couple of years and own the premium Hydrow rower. I imagined the Speediance rowing machine would look like the tiny screwdriver or bottle opener on a functional, but rudimentary, Swiss army knife.

While the Speediance rowing machine falls short in terms of performance specs or the actual feel of rowing on water, I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth the stroke was despite the compact design. And I enjoyed the free rowing workouts in the workout library.

I would say that if getting the best rowing machine at home is your goal, you should consider buying a standalone rowing machine. But the Speediance is a good value and definitely has a smaller footprint than a full-sized rowing machine.

The resistance is impressive

For such a compact smart home gym, the Speediance\’s performance is impressive. You can use the touchscreen to digitally adjust the electromagnetic resistance up to 220 pounds, which is more than enough for me and should be enough for most recreational athletes and home gym users.

Each individual cable pulley provides 110 lbs of resistance at a 1:1 pulley ratio. This means that if you dial 20 pounds on the touchscreen, you\’ll actually lift 20 pounds. (Some inexpensive home gyms have a 2:1 pulley ratio, so you have to increase the resistance to 40 pounds to effectively lift 20 pounds.)

Is it worth it?

Overall, I would highly recommend the unit to anyone who wants a compact and easy to use smart home gym. While Speediance\’s unit cost is similar to some of the other top home gyms, after just a couple of months, you\’re saving money thanks to the free lifetime membership.

Even if you\’re a beginner, the guided workouts and clear video demonstrations will give you the direction you need to perform the exercises correctly. Plus, you can track your progress over time to see your improvements add up to better strength and fitness, a confidence boost that can keep you coming back to working out again and again.