Speediance Didn’t Kill Partner Mode — But It Lost the Coolest Version

There has been a lot of confusion around Speediance Partner Mode, especially after the V3 software update. Some people have said Partner Mode is gone entirely. That is not quite true. The normal workout Partner Mode still exists. If you go into a structured workout, select Partner, and start the session, Speediance will still ask who each person is and let both users participate.

What disappeared in V3 is much more specific: the old Free Lift Partner Mode. And that is the one I wanted to document before it vanished from every machine in my house.

I still have one Speediance running the older V2 software downstairs, while my upstairs machine has already moved to V3. So I brought my daughter Lily down to help me demo the old Free Lift Partner Mode while I still could. What followed was part feature demonstration, part kid-assisted chaos, and part reminder that some of the most interesting fitness tech ideas are not always the most useful ones.

The Partner Mode That People Are Actually Missing

In the old V2 Free Lift screen, there was a Partner button. Tapping it split the interface into two sides, one for each cable. Each side could have its own resistance number. In our case, Lily had 8 pounds on one side while I had 44 pounds on the other.

That sounds simple, but it is actually a very Speediance-specific trick. Because the machine has two independent motors, it can let two people lift at the same time with different resistance on each side. Lily could be pulling down 8 pounds while I was pulling 44 pounds, and both of our rep counts would move independently on the screen.

This is the kind of thing Tonal cannot really do in the same way. Tonal is excellent at what it does, but this specific two-person, two-resistance, simultaneous lifting setup is exactly the kind of demo-friendly feature that helped Speediance look different in its early marketing.

And that is why removing it feels strange. This was not some hidden beta feature buried six menus deep. This was the sort of capability Speediance showed off early because it made the hardware look uniquely flexible.

Cool Does Not Always Mean Useful

Here is the problem: even in V2, this feature was already half-broken as a training tool.

The Free Lift Partner Mode did not require Lily to log into an account. That made it fast and casual, which was great for playing around. But it also meant her lifts were not tracked to her profile. In fact, the whole session still flowed into my Free Lift volume. So if Lily pulled 300 pounds of total volume, that would distort my numbers.

That matters because my entire training philosophy is built around progressive overload. I want to know what I lifted, when I lifted it, how many reps I completed, and whether I am moving forward over time. A mode that lets two people lift together but cannot properly separate their stats is fun, but it is not very useful for serious training.

Lily understood the fun part immediately. She was watching the rep counters, noticing when she was ahead of me, and asking why the colored lines on the screen moved differently. But from a training perspective, the data was not clean. The machine knew that two sides were moving, but it did not know enough about who was doing what.

The Interface Was Better in Some Ways, Worse in Others

One of the interesting things about comparing V2 and V3 is that the old Free Lift screen was not perfect, but it had some real strengths. In V2, the Free Lift screen used the whole display. The resistance numbers were large. The buttons were easy to hit. The dynamic mode, accessory selection, and partner information were all visible in a way that made sense for quick manual lifting.

In V3, Speediance made the Free Lift screen look more like the structured workout screen. That design works nicely when you are following a programmed workout. But for Free Lift, especially the old Partner Mode use case, it feels worse. The interface is less immediate and less specialized for what Free Lift is supposed to be.

That said, V2 had its own awkward choices. For example, when Partner Mode was on, barbell mode could not be selected because the two motors cannot be used independently in the same way with a bar attached. That makes sense mechanically. But instead of clearly explaining the limitation, the interface just made the button unavailable in a way that was not especially obvious.

There were also control issues. When I used the Bluetooth handle, it turned on both sides instead of just one, which is exactly the kind of behavior that makes the mode feel unfinished. The idea was impressive. The implementation was not polished.

Why Barbell Mode Exposes the Limitation

The weirdest part of Free Lift Partner Mode shows up when you start thinking about the barbell attachment. With individual handles, two people lifting different weights at the same time makes sense. One cable is mine, one cable is Lily’s.

With a barbell, that logic falls apart.

If one side is set to 51 pounds and the other side is set to 8 pounds, the bar becomes awkward immediately. It is like loading a real barbell unevenly. One side wants to pull much harder than the other. That is not a training feature. That is just a bad time.

So Speediance has to restrict what Partner Mode can do with barbell-style movements. That is not a failure of the hardware. It is just physics. But it reinforces the bigger point: Free Lift Partner Mode was best as a playful functional trainer mode, not as a fully realized training system.

The Best Use Case Was Goofing Off

Honestly, the best part of this demo was not discovering some hidden elite training method. It was watching Lily interact with the machine.

She noticed the green and yellow lines on the screen. She described them as looking like they were making knots. She asked whether the L and R stood for Lily and Rachel instead of left and right. She celebrated being ahead on reps. She also gave the best possible summary of the mode without meaning to: it is fun.

That is what Free Lift Partner Mode was really good for. You could throw it on quickly, let your kid try a few light movements, compare rep counts, and mess around with the machine in a way that made digital resistance feel interactive.

But would I build my real workouts around it? Absolutely not.

It did not track individual users properly. It did not track specific exercises. It could corrupt your volume numbers. It did not support barbell work in a useful partner format. And because it was Free Lift, it lacked the structure that makes progressive overload easy to measure.

Assist Mode Is the Feature Speediance Should Be Emphasizing

While we were already in Free Lift, I also showed Lily Assist Mode. This is one of the most underrated Speediance features.

When Assist Mode detects that you are struggling to complete the rep, it can reduce the resistance mid-rep. For someone like Lily testing a weight that is too heavy, that makes the machine feel safer and more forgiving. For adults, it can work almost like an automatic drop set.

Personally, I do not want it on for my own heavy training because I like knowing when I actually hit failure. I do not want the machine quietly helping me finish a rep that I could not complete at the prescribed load. But as a safety feature, it is excellent.

My complaint is that Speediance treats it like an optional setting buried inside the experience. In my opinion, Assist Mode should be easier to default on, especially for users who care more about safety, beginners, or households where multiple people use the same machine.

What Speediance Should Do When This Comes Back

According to community discussion, and at least some indication from a Speediance representative, removing Free Lift Partner Mode may have been a mistake and it may return in a future update. I hope it does. But I also hope it does not come back exactly as it was.

If Speediance wants this feature to matter, it needs more than two independent resistance numbers. It needs:

• Separate user login or guest profiles for each side.
• Clear tracking so each person’s volume stays separate.
• Better accessory rules that explain why some modes are unavailable.
• Independent handle controls that behave predictably.
• A Free Lift interface designed for quick manual lifting, not copied from structured workouts.
• Optional exercise labeling so Free Lift data is not just generic volume.

The hardware is capable of something special here. Two independent motors really do create possibilities that competing smart gyms cannot easily copy. But the software has to turn that possibility into clean, useful training data.

Final Thoughts

Speediance did not remove all Partner Mode in V3. That is the important clarification. Structured workout Partner Mode is still there.

But Speediance did remove the old Free Lift Partner Mode, and that is the version that best showed off what makes the hardware unique. It allowed two people to lift at the same time, at different weights, on different cables. That was genuinely cool. It was also messy, incomplete, and not something I would recommend for serious training.

So my verdict is mixed. I want Speediance to bring it back, but not because the old version was great. I want it back because the idea is great. The execution needs to catch up.

Until then, Free Lift Partner Mode remains exactly what Lily and I proved it to be: a fun, strange, uniquely Speediance feature that is better for experimenting with your kid than for tracking real progressive overload.