Speediance V3.1: The Safety Feature That's Actually Dangerous

The Update Everyone's Asking About

V3.1 dropped on my Speediance 2S a few days ago. I've now lifted over 75,000 pounds on it across multiple sessions. Here's the real breakdown — good, bad, and ugly.

What's Actually Good: Progressive Overload Prompts

The best change in V3.1 is how progressive overload now works on bilateral movements. Before, the machine would just silently add weight to your working sets without asking. You'd hit Start and suddenly you're lifting 10 pounds more than you planned.

That's dangerous. That's the real safety issue — not cable retraction speed.

Now the machine prompts you. It shows you what it wants to increase to, and you can accept, pick a different weight, or say no. This is finally how it should work. I've seen it trigger multiple times during my sessions, and I've been selecting "none" because I'm focused on running right now and don't want to chase progressive overload in my lifting.

This works for barbell movements and dual-handle movements. Unilateral (single-arm/single-leg) exercises still have bugs — but more on that later.

What's Bad: The New Firmware Breaks Retraction

Here's the thing nobody's talking about: the new firmware that enables Safety Start also makes cable retraction noticeably slower. On my original Speediance downstairs, retraction is snappy. On the 2S with the new firmware, it's sluggish.

I demonstrated this live in the video. I pulled the cable out fast and let go — it barely moved back. That's not how these machines should behave. The cables should retract quickly under tension, helping you control the eccentric phase.

I reached out to the Speediance team about this. They confirmed it's tied to the Safety Start feature implementation. It's not a bug they can easily patch without affecting the Pilates functionality they're building.

What's Ugly: Safety Start Itself

Let's talk about Safety Start. The marketing calls it a safety feature. It's not.

Here's what it does: you pick your starting position, hit the button, and the cable locks at that length. It won't retract beyond that point during your set.

Sounds useful? Here's why it's not:

**It limits your range of motion.** I demonstrated this live. Without Safety Start, I get a full stretch — the cable pulls my arms back, I feel the eccentric load through my entire range. With Safety Start on, the cable stops short. You're literally limiting your range of motion for every single rep.

**That defeats the entire point of these machines.** The reason I prefer digital cable machines over free weights is the eccentric loading. When the weight comes back toward the machine under tension, it's protecting your joints. You're loading the muscle through the stretch.

Safety Start eliminates that. It's making the machine less safe by removing the eccentric benefit.

**Who was this actually built for?** I traced it back. The feature exists to support upcoming Pilates programming. It's not solving a lifting safety problem — it's enabling a different workout modality.

I showed exactly what happens: with Safety Start on, I can't get a full stretch. The cable has slack in it mid-rep. That's unacceptable for serious lifting.

Partner Mode: From Broken to Worse

Remember when V3.0 removed partner mode entirely? Well, V3.1 brought it back — but worse than before.

The old partner mode let you control each side independently. My wife could have her side on with 44 pounds while my side was off. That was a legitimate safety feature.

Now? Both sides have to be on at the same time. You can't turn them off independently. There's no guest profile anymore either. You can't log in a second user to count their reps against their profile.

This is a massive downgrade. My wife and I can't do custom workouts together and have each person's lifting counted separately. This has been the #1 community request for two years. Tonal had it from day one.

The Unilateral Bug (Still Present)

Single-arm movements still have issues. The machine sometimes applies different weights to each side without prompting. I was doing a high-to-low cable fly and suddenly couldn't even pull the weight — it had jumped way too high on one side.

The 1RM setting that should keep both sides at the same weight has a bug. It works fine for bilateral movements now, but unilateral exercises still misfire.

My Real-World Lifting Workflow

Here's how I actually lift on this machine:

1. **Warm-up sets** at 20 RM for 13 reps using stamina mode

2. **Working sets** at 15 RM for 13 reps with Unlimited Sets on

3. **Eccentric mode at max** — I want the weight to come back under load every time

4. **One-second pause** — when I finish a rep, I hold for one second before starting the next. The weight turns off automatically.

I've never needed Safety Start. The one-second pause handles everything Safety Start claims to solve — and it doesn't limit my range of motion.

The Bottom Line

V3.1 is an upgrade over V3.0 — but that's a low bar. The progressive overload prompts are genuinely good. Everything else? Mixed at best.

If you're deciding whether to update:

- **Do it if you want the progressive overload prompts** — they work well

- **Skip Safety Start** — use the one-second pause instead

- **Expect slower retraction** — it's noticeable

- **Don't expect partner mode to work** — it's worse than before

I'm still lifting on this machine every day. Over 1.2 million pounds total across both machines now. But I go downstairs to the original Speediance when I want snappy retraction, and I do my arms work there too because the weights never exceed what it can handle.

These machines are still the best option in their price class. But Speediance has some work to do.