The Speediance Safety Start Problem (And Why I Turned It ...

What Speediance Called a Safety Feature

When Speediance rolled out V3.0 and then V3.1, one of the headlining additions was something they called **Safety Start**. The name implies it's protecting you. The marketing implied it was a long-requested safety feature, especially for users who were concerned about the cables suddenly engaging at high weight and pulling them into the machine.

I've now had the V3.1 firmware running on my 2S for weeks, and I have a specific, data-informed opinion: **Safety Start is the wrong solution to the right problem, and the way it was implemented created a different problem that's arguably worse.**

Let me walk you through exactly what it does and why I don't use it.

What Safety Start Actually Does

Here's the mechanical reality. When you activate Safety Start, you pull the cable out to a specific position, hold it there, and hit confirm. The machine then locks that cable length as the minimum retraction point. The cable will not retract further than where you set it for the duration of your set.

The intent: if you're doing a fly or a cable cross, the cable won't suddenly snap back toward the machine and pull you with it when you're near the machine at the end of a rep. For certain movements where a user is close to the frame at full extension, you can see why someone asked for this.

The problem is what they had to do to the cable retraction system to make it work: **they slowed down the retraction speed across the entire machine.** Not just when Safety Start is active. Always.

I noticed it the day I got the new firmware. When I bring a cable back toward the machine, it now moves noticeably more slowly than it did on V2.x. If I pull a cable out and then release it quickly — something that happens naturally when you're done with a set and letting the handle swing back — there's now visible slack in the cord. I showed this in my V3.1 video: the cord literally folding into itself when I transition from a high anchor point (L0) to a low anchor point (L7) with the firmware-modified retraction speed. That's not a feature. That's cable wear waiting to happen.

The machine downstairs — my original Speediance, which didn't get the 2S-specific firmware — still retracts the way it always did. The difference is noticeable the moment you go from one to the other.

The Range of Motion Problem

Now here's the part that actually matters for your training.

Safety Start sets a fixed cable length. That fixed length becomes your maximum extension. Which means **it caps your range of motion at whatever point you set it**.

I watched a user online demonstrate using Safety Start on basically every single exercise in their workout. When I looked at their range of motion on cable flyes, they were getting maybe 60% of the stretch I get on the same movement. The cable was locked before full extension. That means incomplete eccentric stretch, limited mechanical tension at the end-range, and — most critically — a false sense of what that movement is actually training.

For general fitness users doing moderate weights, this might not register as a problem. For someone doing jiu-jitsu, it's a real issue. The position that gets me in trouble on the mat isn't the midrange of any movement — it's the locked-out, fully extended position. My arm getting controlled at full extension. My shoulder getting loaded at maximum stretch. That's precisely the range of motion I need to be *strengthening*, not locking out of.

My training philosophy — eccentric mode cranked to near-maximum, slow controlled return, full range of motion on every rep — is specifically designed to build strength and resilience at the extremes. Safety Start is directly opposed to that.

The Actual Bug People Were Trying to Fix

Here's the context that explains why this feature exists. Before V3.1, there was a real bug in the Speediance software: it would sometimes apply a weight update mid-workout without warning, particularly on unilateral (one-arm) movements. The machine would think you'd set a PR on one side and suddenly apply a heavier weight to the other side without prompting you. Users were getting thrown off-balance or pulled into positions they weren't ready for.

That's the bug Safety Start was trying to address — people were using it as a workaround to prevent being surprised by sudden weight changes.

V3.1 appears to have actually fixed the underlying bug for bilateral movements. When the machine wants to increase weight during a barbell or dual-handle movement, it now prompts you and lets you accept or decline. That's the right fix. The bug remains in unilateral movements, and that's where they still need to do work — but for the majority of use cases, the real problem is now properly addressed in software.

Which makes Safety Start a solution in search of the problem it was designed to solve.

What I Use Instead

Here's my actual setup:

**For range-of-motion protection:** Full retraction. I pull the cable out, position myself, turn on the weight, and go. I bring it back slowly at the end of the set, maintaining tension all the way to the machine. The 1-second pause at the machine turns the weight off reliably — it has never failed to do so for me across over a million pounds lifted.

**For weight surprise prevention:** I have both 1RM settings set to "both sides jointly using the latest 1RM" in Training Preferences. This keeps left and right arms at matching weights. I also have Unlimited Sets turned on, which means the machine doesn't auto-increment weight just because I did extra reps — I control when I want to test a new max.

**For the retraction issue created by the firmware:** I'm working around it by being deliberate about transitions. When I go from a high to a low anchor point, I manually guide the cable down rather than letting it swing. It's a minor annoyance. I'm hoping a future firmware update brings the retraction speed back to where it was before.

**For situations where a cable might actually pull me into the machine:** I use the one-second pause, I keep my stance accounted for relative to the frame, and I train with eccentric mode engaged so the resistance profile is predictable throughout the rep. Those things matter more than a cable length lock.

Bottom Line

If you bought the Speediance 2S and you're using Safety Start on every movement, you are capping your range of motion and leaving performance on the table. The retraction behavior it required also introduced a legitimate issue that Speediance needs to fix in a future firmware update.

Turn it off. Fix your stance relative to the machine. Trust the one-second pause. And if you're worried about weight surprises, stay in the dynamic weight modes (Stamina, Gain Muscle, Strength) instead of using the Customize input box — that's where the machine's intelligence actually lives.

The irony of Safety Start is that the truly safe way to use the Speediance — full eccentric loading, controlled return, proper positioning — doesn't require it at all.