Is the Speediance Ring Actually Trash? Here's the Truth

Hi, and welcome back to Toby on Fitness Tech. So, I wasn't planning on making this video, or at least it wasn't in like my plan of of lineups for what I wanted to to to talk about, but it is actually, I think, very important to make. And it's specifically around the Spedience ring. And I got into an argument. It's because of an argument on Reddit where I was defending someone who said that the Spedance ring is trash, right? And I would argue it's not trash. Well, unless you have a defective one, then then it's trash. And a lot of people did get defective ones, but I have two of them and I have zero defective ones. So realize I I have two rings. And that's actually one I wanted to talk about. So I have with me I have the Spedience ring. And let me bring it up a little bit closer to the camera. So this is a speediance ring in the ring clip, right? So it's here in the ring clip and this is the tonals clicker that they had for their bar. So this affixes to your bar and I'll show you that real quick. So basically this thing just snaps on your bar like so and you press the button. But the thing about the tonals that makes it so nice is one, it's movable just like the ring with the ring clip, right? But also, this button has little indentions. So, you can feel when you're at the edge of the button very easily. And the ring is actually surprisingly almost as easy because you can feel these edges. But the problem is in feeling these edges, you accidentally bump the weight a lot. And there's no, it's unbelievable to me that this thing doesn't have a setting to turn like it's such a basic setting they could make so that there's no ability for the ring like lock the weights so that there's no ability for this ring to accidentally change your weights because I don't ever want it to change my weights. So if I do that, I'm going to do that on the screen. So I'm going to go to the screen and make my weight selections there. And so this thing actually bumping my weights is an annoyance and a problem and not actually something that I want because I use the dynamic weight modes for everything like I've talked about in previous videos. And so I have a warm-up set and then I have working sets, right? And it's all using their dynamic weight modes. And uh that's worked very very well since V3 of the software. No real bugs with it. I've noticed like they ironed that stuff out. So big kudos to Speedy and so on because there was a lot of bugs when I first got the device and each version of the software would have different sets of dynamic weight mode bugs where it would try to increase your weight too much or not increase it at all or yada yada yada. But it seems like they've kind of ironed that out with the newer software. But more importantly, someone was arguing with me that so I have both of my rings. You notice this is the one downstairs and this is the one for the upstairs. And both of these rings are normally affixed to the barbell permanently. Uh unless I'm using the rope. Every now and then I'll pull it off and put it on the rope. But like it's affixed to the barbell permanently and I'm using the ring clip permanently. Uh and believe it or not, I got the ring clip with the 2S when I bought it. I did not have a ring clip before that. And I tried to use the ring on its own and I found it to be awful in my opinion. And that's where this person on Reddit said the ring is awful outside of the bugs that the thing has. It's actually um in their words making the lifts harder to do. In my words, it's degrading your grip. And I have proof of it now. So that was the other thing. It's not just my anecdote. I'm actually watching the trainer on the screen and I will show you exactly why this ring without the ring clip degrades your grip. And there's irrefutable evidence of it, not just in me. And someone was saying they can lift heavy. Also, they no one who said they can lift heavy with the ring not in a ring clip ever gave me the weights they're lifting. So realize I couldn't get a single person online who says they can lift heavy. In fact, not only do I not have a single person online who says they can lift heavy with the ring, not in the ring clip, and they can lift equal amounts of weight off the speeds. Right? That's an important distinction because you should actually be able to lift more weight off the speeds than you can on the speediance because you can use acceleration a little easier, right? So, I can lift more off speeds, like way more off speeds than I can on the speed dance because because it's slowing down with the resistance, like with the way it's doing resistance the whole way through your motion. And you can't use you can't kind of bounce the weight up and down, right? Um, you can't even really bounce it off your chest like you could a regular weight, which I don't advise, but like you can do that with weights. You can't do it with with the speeds and you can't do it with the tonal, which makes them great. like it it requires stricter form in my opinion. Hence me switching over to these things, right? I do think they are superior. But what I wanted to show you is this trainer in particular when they are gripping, I wanted to show you their grips. And let me pull this thing out of the ring clip. So this is the first time this thing has been pulled out of the ring clip. The trainer is showing it on her index finger. This finger. So the trainer is showing it on the index finger, right? and they are showing it in particular with it pointing. Sorry, it's been a while since I've tried to put these things on my finger. So, I'm making sure I'm going to put it on the exact same way she has it on her finger. So, she is showing it pointed this direction with it at the edge of her finger. Okay. So, here's how she's showing is the way that you're supposed to use this. And what you're supposed to be able to do is press the button here. Okay? Right? So, you're supposed to be able to press the button here. Here's the key. When she is lifting, and I want to make this very apparent to you. When she is lifting, there is zero chance that she is getting the same amount of grip. Because I saw someone online, by the way, this is another thing that was awesome that I saw in the speed community cuz this guy can lift heavy. And you know how I know he can lift heavy? He put this thing on his finger and then had blood coming from his coming from his thumb from how hard he was pressing. Because what he ended up doing, by the way, is if you watch her grips on these two bars, if if you end up getting one of these things, and I'll show you I'll actually pull my bar off and show you exactly what she's doing. She has different grips on each hand. So, in this instance, she's this way, okay, with her hands, right? And on her one hand, it's closed and the thumb hoot. I'm gonna have to do it this way, unfortunately. So, I'll I'll show it this way even though she's this way just so that you can see where my thumbs are. So, what ends up happening is we're here and my when I'm gripping, I'm gripping like this. Okay? This is how I grip when I lift. Notice my thumb is on this finger. It's on my index finger. And I'm gripped heavy like this is actually pressing up against the index finger. This is the appropriate grip. This is the grip that she is using with her left hand. Okay, she is using this grip with this on her finger. She actually has to grip like this. Okay. On her other hand, if she grips like this, she's actually going to press it into her finger and and press press it either to where you'll cut this finger or like I I saw both examples online. One person who ripped into this finger and one person who pressed down into their finger and actually ripped their ripped their index finger itself and and and like they had they had a massive indent on their thumb itself, right? Because when you're pressing into this thing, you cannot press with the kind of power you could have before. You're losing a lot. Even if you do press into it, which she's not, she's leaving her thumb. Let me show you actually with the bar because it's just not practical, right? So, and I am so glad I actually, this is the first time I've actually watched her lift. Um, and so what ends up happening is she ends up So her hand on this side is Sorry, got to move over here. So her hand on this side, see this finger? Boom. Locked in. Right now, this finger, by the way, has to sit out here and float. It can't lock in. It's actually the position where it would normally be is not available. And to be able to hit this ring, her thumb has to be way out here. Okay? Or down here, right? Both of which will not give you the same grip strength. It can't. It won't. It's not possible. So for all of those people who say, "I have the same grip strength with this thing on my finger." There is just no way. You know, it's just not possible. Like, I'm sorry. They are wrong. These Redditors cannot lift heavy. If you're trying to do a like I can do up to I can do the the max on this thing a 265 lb deadlift and I broke this right wrist and I can tell you with the wrist broken I can't do 265 lbs and with this ring clip I might not be able to do 265 lbs. It makes that much of a difference. Um, now realize one of the users says, "I lift, you know, I lift and I also leave their um they also leave their their uh their uh ring on." Notice this is this is a rubber ring, by the way. You could lift with this on, but uh they have a regular metal ring on and they lift with that and have no complaints. And I'm like, "Okay, you're just out to lunch. Like, you can't lift that heavy." That's what that means. because I've never heard of a person who can lift heavy with with their marriage ring on that is metal or titanium, anything like that. It will pinch. Um, everyone I've ever known either uses one of these silicone rings or takes them off. I mean, that's just in general of all of the people I've ever known who lift. So, so the same person who can use this ring without the ring club, they're not The worst part about this is the thing that bothers me the most about this isn't that they're making an argument that is wrong, right? It's that they're not living up to their maximum potential by doing this, right? And there's a simple fix for this. You know, they literally make a ring clip that So, if I were ranking these things, by the way, the ring in the ring clip, I would give um I would give a B2. You know what I mean? In terms of Sorry, my my barbell actually just slid down, but right in front of me. So, um and I didn't want it to fall. But the ring in the ring clip, I would give it a B. Like, it is not bad. Um, you know, I could see the use case, especially if you're in freelift mode. Like, if you're in freelift mode, the ability to change the weights is awesome. If you use this machine differently than I do, then this ring in the ring clip is an awesome idea, right? So, that's it's not a terrible idea in of of itself. It's just for my use case, I it's not, you know, it's not. So, that's why I'm giving it a B tier. Right. The speediance one I would actually give it uh an A tier except there's a caveat to that which I talk about in my speed videos like way back when there's a massive massive caveat and that is they actually broke this thing in a software with a software bug and then tried to charge me to replace it when it was a software bug that stopped it from working. So, they had a software bug where the ring didn't work properly and it took two, three button presses to make it work. And then they were trying to and even worse, when I contacted them about it, they tried to sell me a new one at $80, which is way more than these Speedian rings cost full retail. It's way more than, you know, it's just like gouging is what I felt. you know, I was being gouged and punished for paying for their device and paying for their monthly software updates that broke the thing. Like I felt and by the way, I didn't realize that it was their software until I got a software update that fixed it. Right? So I went with a month they never notified me that hey, it was their software. I got no apology and I was so angry about the whole thing. Right? Like with Speedians, I expect buggy software because you're not paying monthly, you know, like and let's be clear, they do release buggy software. I mean, the the the UX bug that I was complaining about that was fixed in the last version of the software is now rebroken in this version of the software. So, I can show it to you real quick actually by just doing this lift. So, they have a hilarious bug that it's like, how do you guys get this wrong? and and then they fix it and then they get it wrong again. So, um it's definitely one of those things where their software updates are just, you know, littered with bugs, but this one's one that is not I mean, if you're going to have a bug in software, the I've never had a software update. Other people have complained about it online, but I've never had a software update where any of the core essential pieces didn't work. Meaning the tilt mode on the bar, the button press on the ring itself, the button presses on the handles, other than when they disconnect. Um, so they do discon. I get like and it seems like it's the ones up here. One of mine disconnects a lot more than it should. Um, but the good news is it makes a sound when it disconnects. So, it's not a so it's not um not that big of a deal. Like I can hear it, right? Like right now I think it's disconnected. And let me see if I have the right one. Hopefully I have the right one on this. Maybe. Let me see if I have the right one. Bluetooth ring. The Is that the right one or the wrong one? Hold on. Let me go out here. Grab the other one. So, I'm grabbing the other ring. Just making sure I have the correct ring. Okay, now they both show as connectable. So, I will just connect to the first one, which is Okay. connected. Really? Now it's not going to work. There it goes. That is weird. So, now it's connected. Now they're both connected. Bizarre. There we go. So, every now and then you get weird Bluetooth connection things on this and it just connected both of them for me. So, no idea why that's happening, but >> [snorts] >> Okay. So now what you'll see behind me is the barbell. So, I know this is probably this might not be even visible to you, but the required accessory barbell is like outside of the box that it's supposed to be contained in. So, just weird UX. And I'll try to see if you can Yeah, you can see that actually on your screen. So, it's the it's right out here and it's just outside and it's just one of those weird UX bugs that it was fixed in the last release or two releases ago and now it's back. It's like they have scoping and bounding issues with their their text and it's like how does this make it to the release though, you know? Just weird like UX inconsistencies. Like they just completely redid the home screen and it looks beautiful. Like it's absolutely beautiful. But it's like you redid the home screen, but you brought back the bounding issues on the actual workout screens when you did that. Just uh you know what I mean? It's just like you know you fix one thing and break another. I mean, it's standard software development, but it's it's just funny whenever you see it some that they've already fixed this once before and now it's back to broken. But you can see with her fingers, like the thing that I really wanted to highlight is you can see it in the models on the speeds that their thumb is not engaged. Her thumb is not even engaged in any of these lifts. And you can see she wobbles a little bit and that's with 8 lbs. So she's and I'm guessing she's wobbling a little bit because this is the first time she's done some of these. Seven pounds. Sorry. So it's uh is it set to? So it's the old style of the screen, but yeah, it's set to seven pounds. I wonder how she has it set to seven. I thought the minimum was eight. But anyways, um but yes, so you can see she wobbles a little bit. And I'm wondering if that's because she's not used to lifting in the way she has to lift on these devices because she's lifting with one thumb completely engaged. Right? So here and one thumb not engaged, right? A thumbless. They're called thumbless grips. We do use them in jiu-jitsu sometimes, but they're very specific things, you know, and typically our thumb even in a thumbless grip is wrapped somewhere. It's not sitting here floating like this, you know, and that's what you have to do to be able to use these rings without the uh the ring clip. So, I'm a big proponent of this ring clip. I think it takes the ring from I'll be blunt. The ring without the ring clip, in my opinion, is an F. Like, it's an absolute F. If you use it, you're not maximizing your potential on these devices in my opinion. And someone, if you want to prove me wrong, send me a video of you doing the max weight on these machines with that thumbless grip and then send me a video that you can't do much more than that max weight. Meaning like yes, uh my cousin, by the way, who who had power I don't I think they've been beaten now, but he had powerlifting uh world records. By the way, unfortunately, he's a cousin by like in in name, not in blood. [laughter] So, he's he's genetically very very strong. Like, he's genetically gifted. Unfortunately, our genetics don't match in any way. Like, there's no actual blood relation between the two of us. I wish there was because he's, like I said, he's set world records. Um, so, um, but anyways, uh, more importantly, he would be able to do this with a thumbless grip. You could take both of his thumbs off and he would easily be able to max out these machines, right? I'm not talking if you can dead like on here, I deadlift 265 and I don't know if I could do it thumbless, right? Um, but outside of here, I can deadlift over 300 lb. So, in theory, I should be able to do that. way over 300. Like 385 I think was the top I ever did. So almost 400 lb. And I'm not going to ever attempt that again unless I really have to for something. Um but in general I should be able to do it thumbless on here and I might be able to. Uh it's not something I want to try because I want my grip to be secure when I'm lifting. Uh but you know if your numbers like I I can tell you benching there is no way I could bench thumbnailless anywhere. Well I can't I I don't bench I I've never benched the max weight on this machine to begin with and I know that I could not bench the max I've ever benched off speeds was 245 and I can guarantee you with a thumbless grip like that I would not be able to do 245. So, it's just not going to be possible. Um, maybe I could get 185. I mean, that's the kind of difference we're talking about. We're not talking about a a difference of inches. We're talking about a significant strength difference. And and you're applying that to every lift you do. That's the crazy thing. You're not applying it to one lift. You're applying it to all of your lifts by using that thing without the ring clip. And she highlights it like you can see it. And I just never really noticed. I was always looking at her form and never the fact that her grips were different on her two hands. The fact that she's gripping differently on each hand indicates that there's no way functionally that it's the same thing. So, people arguing online with me that it's the same. It's just not right. Uh that's the video I had for today. It's not something I was expecting to make, but I'm a big proponent of the ring clip. Uh I'm a big proponent of the way it was done. And there's also a third party who's made like a step pedal for it. So, uh using the step pedal was was a pretty cool design, right? Where instead of having something affixed to your finger in any way, you're clicking a pedal. Uh that's the cool thing about the Spedience. There's been thirdparty devices built for the thing because the cost of entry is lower than tonal. There's not a monthly fee. There isn't a company that's going to, you know, sue you. [laughter] Uh, from what I've seen with Spedians, they're really good about maybe not supporting the community, but not turning things off. Like my Arya connection, even though there was real fear that they were going to turn off our ability to do that, they haven't done that. I think they might have rethought it. But, uh, my personal opinion, and I know the Anky in particular, people have massive complaints around their button because I I believe it's a fixed to the actual barbell itself, which means you can't put its position differently. So, it's a lot easier to press. Um, and and so each of these devices come with like a different set of nuance problems. But I will tell you that I I think if you're using Freelift where you're adjusting the weights, the ring clip is amazing, right? I mean, it's it's just the way this thing should have always been. But if you're if you're like me, there I really wish there was a feature to turn off the accidental because you'll see it now, right? So if I turn this thing, luckily it makes a click sound and I know, oh crap, I just messed up, right? So that click sound meant it went up and it makes a different click sound when it goes down, which I know doesn't sound like it would matter, but I listen for the click sound and then I look at the screen and click it back to where it needed to be. Right? So it makes two different sounds. That's one of those little nuances that I'm very thankful they did because I accidentally hit the button a lot. And so I know if I went up or down based upon the sound it makes. And that's how frequently this happens though. It does happen like twice per workout. And I've done, you know, I think over a hundred workouts on here now. So, it's enough that I hear the noise and I make the correct adjustment usually, right? Every now and then I'm not listening for it, uh, because I'm focused on what I'm about to lift, especially during my working sets. But most of the time, whenever I accidentally hit it, it's actually during my warm-ups. [laughter] So, I'm usually because I'm being more sloppy, I'm being less careful, I'm not I'm not focused on my form as much. I'm just trying to get through them. uh because I do a lot of them and that that ends up having me sloppily hit this button. Usually when I'm focused and intense, I don't accidentally hit the button. So it's that that's why it's a B. I mean, it's not, you know, I'd love for them to have the setting, but I'm not clamoring for it because I'd much rather have partner freelift, which is missing, which I've complained about online to them in every form I can. I mean they need partner freelift or partner partner not just partner freelift right which was there and then they took it away but it was using a guest profile not a real profile but partner custom workouts. So both of those where you have real partner freelift where you both have logged in profiles and it tracks against them, right? Which they had something similar to that but it used a guest profile and then they took that away and then they created this dual mode which is not the same. Um which I talked about in a previous video which is just bizarre, right? Uh that they took away a feature like that. But a partner custom workout would be it's something Speedian has had for years. I don't know why they're working on all these things that Speediance or something that tonal had for years. I don't know why they're working on tonal features that are newer, like the Pilates stuff, which is kind of like their arrow mode on on tonal. Like why they're working on all of these new uh the guided form feedback with with the camera stuff that I thought sucked on tonal and I'm pretty sure it's going to be even worse on speedians. like they're working on all of these things that just don't aren't relevant to me and not working on the thing that actually was relevant to me that I used weekly uh with my wife and and even now we don't lift together and she's uh bemoning that she's not lifting as much as she would like and it's because we can't do it together, you know, it's because I don't like their workouts and uh she also doesn't like their workouts uh that they have on the device. So neither of us like their tempo, their cadence, how they've built the workouts. So, uh, we use custom workouts and we can't do the ones that I build together, right? Which just sucks, you know? I mean, there's no two ways about it, right? It's it's it's a missing feature that uh is not worth me paying the money for the tonal membership. Uh but also means that when the tonal goes back up on the wall, we'll probably just do partner workouts together on tonal. You know, to be honest with you, I will end up using the machine again uh once I get the cable replaced because she wouldn't use the tonal because the cable was broke. Well, it wasn't broken. It was heavily frayed to where it's going to snap any day. So, I've got it at my friends now. We've got the replacement cable. Uh we're actually going to get this thing back together. uh soonish and then I'll put that up on a wall somewhere and then we'll be able to do partner workouts wherever we put that up on a wall. But that's a huge discussion of what wall do we put it on because it's not going to go on this wall. You know, this is for me and my lifts and and it also doesn't make sense for it to be in my office. So, we've got to figure out a place for it. Um so, that that's that's where we're at with that. Yeah, we'll be able to do them once we get ironically the tonal will just be and then we'll have to manually adjust the weights between the two of us, but then we can do whatever exercise whenever because all we'll have is freelift mode, right? We'll have the dumbest freelift mode ever created, which is really disappointing. We won't be able to track anything. I'll have to write it all down and feed it into Arya to actually get my numbers out of it because I do want the numbers from it. Uh, so I'm analytical like that. It's going to really bug me if I don't get to track the numbers. So, I'm just going to write them all down and send them up to Arya um after we do the after we do the workouts or during the workouts. Uh but yeah, uh thank you for that. I I appreciate everyone's time. I'm um you know, really happy with the growth of the channel. I did want to make this video because it's an argument that I had online and I'm sorry everyone on the other side of the argument is wrong. The trainer on here shows that they're wrong. My anecdotal experience shows that they're wrong. Anyone who I've ever known who lifts any kind of weight talks about grip strength and how important it is and having all five of your fingers connected to the bar or connected, especially with the thumb grip connected to your other finger to be able to press against it to get more strength out of it. I just think is a fundamental essential piece of lifting. Thank you for your time today. I really appreciate it. I'll see you on the next one.