Speediance 2s Max Lat Pulldown at 260 lbs: Does It Break the Machine?

The Challenge

I was browsing the Speediance community Facebook group when I stumbled across something that got my brain turning. Someone posted about doing lat pulldowns on the original Gym Monster and reported it felt "kind of wobbly." That immediately sparked a question: How does the 2s Max handle its full 260 lb capacity?

I had never even attempted a lat pulldown at maximum weight. At 185 lbs bodyweight, I'd experienced the Tonal pulling me up because it's capable of 200 lbs of resistance. But this? This machine, because of the angles, probably wouldn't pull me up even at 260 lbs. Or so I thought.

Setup Matters

Before diving in, I wanted to address the wobble concern directly. The 2s Max has little locks on the base that must be very specifically centered and then locked down. When I first got the machine, I didn't realize this—I had them locked down at the edge, which does nothing. No wonder it was wobbly.

Once centered and locked properly? It locks down solid.

There's also surface area to consider. I have mine on carpet in my office, and it was slightly wobbly for the first week after moving it from the living room. On carpet, it's going to be more wobbly than on tile or concrete. But the difference between improper locking and proper locking is night and day.

The Physics Problem

Here's the challenge: if you're lifting anything above your natural bodyweight, or if you're light and the machine is pulling from above, you're going to get pulled up. I experienced this firsthand at 185 lbs with the Tonal.

Now at 200 lbs walking weight, I still had a problem. The solution? A weighted vest—or in this case, two of them.

I preloaded the back of my vest with weights, then slid additional weights into the front. The goal: maximize weight because 260 lbs was going to pull me around.

First Attempt: 260 lbs

I set the machine to 130 lbs per side—260 lbs total. Smart handles turned on and connected first (pro tip: easier to connect before starting). Free lift mode engaged. Let's see what happens.

Result: I needed more weight.

The cables only came halfway down before my entire body came up, going the whole way against the wall. What shocked me though? Not wobbly in any respect. No wobble, no give to this device. That is a lot of weight.

I went to find my 80 lb weighted vest to reattempt this.

The Realization

While grabbing the second vest, I had a moment. If I turn this thing on at 260 lbs and hold on... I can actually do pull-ups on this thing. My knees touching the wall. The wall not holding any of my weight. This machine is not budging. I am budging. I'm literally doing pull-ups on the thing.

I grabbed my scale to verify. With the first weighted vest: 242 lbs total. Set to 260 lbs. That's 130% of my bodyweight. And the question of whether it's actually 260 lbs? Yeah. I could barely get the cables to budge. And without the vest? The machine just pulls me up. It doesn't even budge the cords.

Second Attempt: ~300 lbs Bodyweight

Back with the second weighted vest. This time throwing both on at full weight. 243 lbs plus another vest plus weights shoved in. This should be enough weight to at least hold me down.

I sat back, turned on the weight, let it go all the way up. Full weight engaged. I counted it as a rep.

I could only get it down to about my shoulders initially. It is heavy. Extremely heavy. On the second attempt, I got it the whole way down and heard the ding.

The answer is yes. If you have enough weight on your body, this thing will actually let you do a 260 lb lat pulldown. And there's no wobble. For that person who said it had wobble, I don't know if that's one of the improvements with the 2s, but that thing didn't shake at all. My muscles were completely shaking though.

What Blew My Mind

I had to put on two weighted vests—probably an extra 100 pounds of weight on me. I had to get my weight up to nearly 300 lbs to be able to try to pull these things down. What blows my mind is there's no give in the cables. There was no wobbliness in the machine.

I was fully expecting this thing to wobble like heck. I was expecting a lot of wobble and a lot of give. When the machine pulled me up at 200 lbs, I could feel there's no give. It's like having a squat rack in terms of its abilities.

Even the Tonal feels sketchy when you're pulling on the machine. It feels like those arms are going to snap. This? I didn't feel anything.

A Few Speediance Tips

While I'm here, a few things I've learned with the 2s:

Smart Handles

Turn them on before you go into your free lift. It's easier if the smart handles are on and connected before you start the workout. Otherwise, you're waiting on them to connect to be able to turn on the weight.

Strength Assessment

If you don't do the strength assessment, it's going to set weights to very, very low. My problem was the opposite—it set them to very high weights because I do eccentric mode. I had to back off the weights a little bit and let it recalculate.

Stamina Mode for Warm-ups

I was speculating that stamina mode would work for warm-up sets. Sure enough, it does work. It is absolutely phenomenal for warm-ups. I'm setting it to 20-13, but then my actual working sets are set to 15-13. I'm setting it to the minimum of which is 15 reps for hitting the 1RM, and 13 is the value. Meaning if I hit 16 reps, I'm going to hit a new 1RM in general.

1RM Setting for Unilateral Exercises

This is another one of those settings where everyone should have this setting turned on. In training preferences, at the very bottom: 1RM setting. "When performing unilateral exercises such as bend-over single arm row, is it necessary to record the 1RM for each separately?" The answer: both sides jointly use the latest 1RM. This is the way to go. You want it to be actually set to the lower of the two sides. Lesser of two sides is way safer.

Final Thoughts

I am blown away. That didn't budge at all. And this is on carpet. Like this machine didn't budge at all. Went on carpet at 260 lbs.

I sound like a shill for the thing, but honestly, I was not expecting that from this. Whenever I saw the person say that it shakes and wobbles, I was expecting a lot of wobble. And I was sure not expecting it to just yank me off the ground.

The reason why it's yanking me off the ground like that is I can hold my own weight and lock my arms in here and not have them bend as it's pulling up on me. So it's just yanking me up with ease. Like it doesn't even look like it's trying. The fan's not kicking on. There's no struggle.

This machine, when I had the Tonal at max weight, those fans kicked on and it sounded like a jet airplane taking off. No criticism—I just had this weighted vest on. But this thing doesn't even seem like it was trying.

It handled 260 lbs lat pulldown as effortlessly as it did. I have a feeling there's nothing you could ask me to do on this thing that would really break it. Anything that I'm capable of doing, of course. I cannot believe with the cables up this high that those cables don't wobble. Absolutely no wobble in the machine at all.

Have a question? Want to see me attempt the same thing on the original Gym Monster? Drop a comment below.