Speediance Gym Monster 3 & Ultra: Why I'm Keeping My 2S

Hello, this is Toby from Toby on Fitness Tech. I wanted to talk to you today about some Speediance updates. So, I, of course, have the 2S and I have the original Speediance. And they have just launched new devices and I wanted to talk about them. Now, the reason why I'm not showing you on the Speediance this is because I don't have any of these devices. And I actually don't plan on buying any of them. Even though, based upon what I'm seeing, these are not bad devices. It's just the one that I would want in particular. One, I'm going to wait for there to be a...

So, the one that, spoiler alert, the one that I would want would be the Gym Monster Ultra. Just because then I wouldn't have to switch the cable positions quite as often because it has fixed cable positions for some of these... For several positions. So, this will make it a little bit faster to connect and unconnect things from the device. But, it's still capped at 260 pounds. So, I have the Gym Monster 2S. Which, by the way, is not listed on their website at all anymore. It is, however, available through Amazon.

So, if I go over to Amazon, here's the Gym Monster 3. So, the Gym Monster 2S is still there. It's listed at $4,000 and it's still available. But, realize that I would guess that this may or may not always be available. Considering on their website, it's not even in the... Or, the other speculation is it's not in the list of things to pick from here. Because, if you compare it to the 3S, there isn't as substantial of a change. Although, there is.

But, under the hood there is at least. But, yes. These are the new devices. So, they rolled out... They rolled out a whole bunch of new devices. So, they rolled out the Gym Monster 3. The Gym Monster Ultra. Their VOLTRA competitor called the Nano. And a wearable is coming out really soon. So, Speediance has really been on the ball creating new devices. And it was one of the things that I talked about when people were buying the Gym Monster 2 a year ago after the 2S came out. So, realize there was a period in time where the 2S was only available in America.

And the 2 was their flagship worldwide. And people were buying the 2 saying that they were future-proofing themselves. And the writing was already on the wall then. And I told all those people, this is a bad idea to buy the 2 thinking you're future-proofing. Because you're flat out not. And I was proved right. I had no insider information. I just knew they had already rolled out a 2S partially. Meaning that they are rapidly iterating on devices in a way that they weren't in the past. And also, the Gym Monster 2 was, in my opinion, wildly underwhelming. Because what happened is the Gym Monster 2 came out.

And then the Tonal 2 came out shortly after. And Speediance immediately launched a Gym Monster 2S to combat the Tonal 2. Because the Tonal 2 offered 250 pounds of resistance. And so, they were now... And I would argue that they're 220 that these things offer. So, their base models all offer 220 pounds of resistance. And the original Tonal was 200 pounds. These are virtually identical. It's not... It was apples and oranges when you compared the two. And it was not... I don't believe their 220 was sufficiently...

It wasn't 20 pounds heavier than the Tonal. In real feel. Because this is all digital calibrated weight. However, the 250 or 260 of the 2S. Right? So, these guys. So, the Ultra, the 2S, and the 3S all do 260 pounds. Also, that was very confusing. And I kind of wanted to hold back and see how this all played out. See what the pricing on these devices would be. And see how it all played out. Because when they originally showed off the Ultra. I watched the videos of it. And they were saying it was only 220 pounds. Which was wildly confusing that they would release a device.

But the manual for the Ultra actually said 260 pounds. So, my theory is the one that they actually had at the convention. Did only do 220 pounds. But that was because it was still a testing prototype. And the final version is 260 pounds. Which is what was in the manual. Because they were printing that for the actual released version of it. So, the person wasn't lying at whatever expo it was. Saying that it was only 220 pounds. I believe that device at that expo floor was only 220 pounds. Because realize that as they're going through prototype after prototype. They're adjusting these weights. And honestly, the truth of the matter is the original Speediance can do 260 pounds.

All of these devices can do 260 pounds. And I believe this Ultra, by the way, has the capability to do over 400 pounds. With the enhancements they've done to the frame. And the cord system. However, they're locking it to what they think is the safest effective weight. To give you the most longevity of the device. Both longevity of the motors. Both longevity of the cabling systems. And of the frame. Which the frames can handle. But even the Speediance 2S.

The frame does bow a little bit. When I have the weight really jacked up. So, you know, I'm lifting at the 200 pound. Even with pull downs now. I'm close to 200 pounds. With, you know, it's like 120. And then it adds an additional 80 of eccentric. So, it's going pretty high on getting close to the weight limit of one of these devices. And on a whole bunch of things. Just the way I work out. And I can tell you that it does have a little bit of a bend to it.

But nothing's ever gone wrong with that. I did take a little break, by the way, from doing some of the lifting with these devices. Because there was a bug in the software. That basically made it really frustrating to use. And I showed it in one of my videos. And I think they've finally gotten it to where it's not quite fixed yet. Which drives me nuts. Because I had to do it one more time. Post them saying it's fixed. But it at least doesn't show up as often. Because it was showing up almost every other workout where I'm using the bar. And I guess the solution would be to not use the bar as much.

But I really wanted to do bar-based workouts. And it goes into bar tilt mode over aggressively. And then resets all of your weights for the rest of the workout. Which makes the whole workout undoable. Because it resets them to the bare minimum weight. And that bug has been in there for months and months and months. I shot up a message twice about it. The last time they adjusted the bar tilt mode to be less aggressive. And that seemed to really take care of it for the most part. But that's not the real solution. The real solution is have it not reset the weights permanently for your entire workout.

After bar tilt mode has been activated. Like that's for sure a bug in their software. But it must be a very deep rooted bug that they were not able to fix. But in conclusion the ultra. So what was happening to these people. They said they future-proofed themselves with the 2. The 2S was already here. And now they've launched all of these devices. And by the way the Facebook community was furious. Of all of those people who bought the 2 after I said hey. It's not a good idea to buy the 2 for future-proofing. If you want the device. If you think it's the best device.

If it's the device you can afford right. And instead of the 2S. If it's the device you want. Buy it. But realize you're not getting much over the original Gym Monster. And there was a reason why they launched the 2S. Very shortly after launching this device. Because and now this space is. So competitive with AEKE. And all of the other competitors coming in. There is a new competitor every month coming out basically. With phenomenal devices that now they have to rapidly iterate. So I would imagine we're going to get a Gym Monster Ultra.

Within a couple years that can actually do 400 pounds. Unfortunately we are getting more and more premium pricing on these devices. I mean these devices have gotten pretty steep. I mean this is a $7,000 device. This is tonal territory in terms of total cost of ownership now. If you were to buy this Gym Monster Ultra. Which is why it will be several years. And I'm waiting for a 400 pound weight limit. In order to upgrade to this device. And also a lot more wear and tear on my current 2S. Because I haven't been using it as much as I should. So I do plan on doing a lot more lifting with it.

But these devices are for sure way more capable than the 2S. And I feel bad for all of those people who bought the 2. But I kind of told you so whenever it comes to that. That there were going to be rapidly iterating devices coming out within the next. I thought it would be a couple years to be honest with you. I wasn't expecting it to be within one year. But the fact that it's been less than two years. And we have these new devices.

And I imagine we will see a 4 and an Ultra 2. And a year cadence at this point in time. Just based upon the amount of competitors they're getting. And based upon the amount of enhancements they could still do to these devices. And especially because this Gym Monster Ultra right now is completely sold out. It's not available on Amazon at all. Which is an indicator that this did sell at least enough for their initial run. That they had built of these. I think it's very much like the 2S. Where they're doing small runs. Small manufacturing runs of this device.

And so they sell out. You know the 2S also sold out like that. And then they finally started rolling it out worldwide. But yeah. Long story short. You know those poor users of the 2. That thought they were future proofing themselves. Didn't do anything. In fact they even now list that these things have new control modules. That have enhanced performance. They now have the ability to do voice detection. For stopping and starting workouts. This is something that Speediance has been asked for. For a long time. And the community has built solutions for this. I don't know if I've talked about it in any of my videos.

But there's a whole bunch of. So one of them is called GM Voice. So one of them is called GM Voice. And let's see it. Here it is. So this is one of them. And there's a couple of these. And then. So voice remote for your gym monster. And there's a couple of these different. There's two solutions that I know of. That offer this. You know that offer this kind of solution. For the Speediance.

For the feature that should have been baked into the device. With the 3 and the 3S they are baking it in. The other cautionary tale with these is. They're now putting overlays and stuff like that. And installing software alongside. The actual software on the device. Which is. Like you can't update your device. Without GM Voice. I think GM Voice was one of them. Where their. Their. Their software also needs to be updated on your device. So it's kind of like hand in. Like.

Like hand in glove. Where they both have to be installed. Which is problematic. Right. That this came. As a third party solution. But. You know. These things are working great for people. And. You know. I'm. There was one person who posted. Like Speediance should be shutting this down. And. Because it's insecure. Because you're giving these people your credentials. To be able to do that. And they're not wrong. I mean. My own ARIA system for building workouts and everything. Does the same thing. But it does it with my credentials. And my permission. People do not realize that they are doing that.

Where they're storing it on other people's servers. It does say. In the fine print. Hey. We're storing this encrypted on our server. We're storing your actual username password. So they're not doing it maliciously. And they have to. To be able to build this. It was one of the reasons why I decided. To open source. The full system for what I was building. Instead of going this route. And trying to sell something. One. Because all of these solutions are built on other people's work. Including mine. Like you can tell some of it actually. Is built off of something that I built. Which is totally okay with me. It was at first a little jarring.

To realize hey. Like I was looking at some of the screens. Of some of these third party softwares. I'm like whoa. This looks a lot like what I built. And then I realized. Oh it's probably just using my github repo. And then advancing it to the next step forward. Into a commercially viable product. And at first I was a little taken back by it. You know what I mean. Because there's no attribution or anything. To any of the people who build any of this stuff. Because I'm not the only one. But on the other hand. It's pretty cool to see what people have built with it. Right. That they've taken it to a whole nother level. And added all of these features.

And really advanced. You know. Especially the workout. I don't think it was this one. But there's another one where. Maybe it is a GM manager. Yeah. It's this guy. The GM manager. So yeah. He had built it. To where it can actually. You know. Create. Create plans. Sync them to your device. Which is pretty cool. You know. I'm not. I guess I'm not a hater on. On. You know. That was the whole idea of open sourcing. Is so that people could build something. And it's amazing that he was able to actually build something. Fully commercial. Based on that.

So. I think it's really cool that these things exist. I don't want Speediance to shut them down. I do. Wish that Speediance had. Like before. It's very clear that they don't. Work with the community on these things. Right. So they complete. Compete it. They put out their own competing voice technology. to GM Voice. Right. With. With the 3. And the ultra. That's now baked into the device. I do wish there was a little bit more integration. With the people that are out there hacking on these devices. To make them better.

That's just a personal. Like. Thing that I wish they did. But I'm so glad that they didn't lock it down. And they haven't. They were originally. Going to. I think. But then there was enough of an outcry from people like me. That would be very very upset. And it actually breaks a few. I pointed out that locking it down without giving an alternative actually breaks laws in 20 different states in the U.S. So there is a. There's a bunch of laws. Pass in a bunch of different states that require you to be able to export your data. It's why Facebook all of them they have an export option. None of these companies.

Tonal. Speediance. None of them offer exports. However people have built their own solutions and wrappers to make that happen. To export your full data from the device. Like that's actually illegal to not offer that in 20 different states. And I think they can get around it because. Like that wall. If someone even were to try to class action laws. Because it's completely possible. Right. A whole bunch of us with both Tonal and Speediance have built export tools that work. So you could just say hey right here's an export tool that someone's built. It's clearly possible.

Like we're not in violation of this law. Right. However if they shut that down intentionally and give us no way of doing it. Which is what this person wanted in their Facebook group. Then all of a sudden they're clearly violating the law. You know. So I was like hey by the way there's laws against shutting this down in the United States. Without offering. They are offering an API coming next year. I believe it keeps getting pushed back. It was originally supposed to be Q3 of this year. And we're in Q3. So it sounds like it got pushed to the whole way to next year.

I wouldn't be hopeful about it. I would guess it's going to have less features than what we currently have. Some people want an MCP server so that we can actually get like full autonomy out of these devices. I doubt you're going to get that. But you know what we have now is great to be honest with you. I don't really have any complaints. And people have clearly been able to build commercially viable products off of this. By the way their VOLTRA competitor. I feel so bad for Speediance.

So the Gym Nano. This device right here. I feel so bad for them. Because they went to Reddit. And decided to have one of their higher ups answer questions about the Gym Nano. And unfortunately instead of asking a bunch of questions about the device. It was basically just slamming them for cloning the VOLTRA. And then a couple people coming to their rescue saying hey this is cheaper than the VOLTRA. You know and that kind of thing. And so it was like this cat and mouse game. But it basically got completely derailed with the fact that these things are VOLTRA clones.

That was another thing that I saw in the Speediance community that kind of upset me. And I did post a response to this person. Because Speediance sued over the Gym Monster. Sued AEKE. Over the intellectual property around the Gym Monster in Germany. And actually what was great about it though is one person in the community posted. Like they're a lawyer. And they explained why they sued in Germany. Because I didn't understand it either. Like why would you sue in a very specific country. And only sue in that country. And you know it's not even like it's weird to pick a single country.

Well the back story of it is Germany is you are guilty till proven innocent on these IP claims. And so they can stop import of AEKE's devices altogether until the court date. So it was a way of freezing their competitor out of the market because they have all of these patents in Germany. Realized that like Tonal tried to do this to them. And the court case is completely sealed. You can't even find the results of what happened because they settled. And you know I alluded to.

Anyways what the person had said that really upset me was they were like good for Speediance. Way to stick up for your intellectual property. Meanwhile Speediance just built this. Which is a direct clone of a competitor's device. Like this is there's no question this is a clone. No one in their right mind can say this isn't an exact clone of the VOLTRA. You know a kind of cheaper more plasticky clone of the VOLTRA. Right. It's just amazing to me and someone in there and I just lambasted them. I'm like I can't stand company shills. Like this person was saying you know thank you Speediance for sticking up for your intellectual property.

And it's like Speediance has literally borrowed heavily from Tonal and VOLTRA. Right. It's no question that the Speediance Gym Monster is built off the a superior version in some ways of the Tonal's electronic digital resistance capabilities. Like there's no question. They took the Tonal and said what makes this thing very difficult to ship. What makes this thing very difficult to maintain. And how could we make this thing shippable worldwide and maintainable without a service technician coming out to your house.

And they built the Speediance. Right. They built a movable version of the Tonal that doesn't have a membership. So they made a very likable machine for a lot of us out there. But that was the core concept. Like take the Tonal. Reverse engineer it. Take out the things that make it absolutely unfeasible for a Chinese company. And then build it. Well the VOLTRA is perfect the way it was. So they just lifted the whole thing. Right. It's a direct clone. Everything to the way it connects to device. It connects to racks. Everything.

And that person was talking about how great it is. And I'm like do you have any idea what you're talking about? Like the also the coincidence of this whole thing is the VOLTRA and the Tonal are both manufactured in Shenzhen China. Right. And guess where Speediance's headquarters are? Shenzhen China. I'm sure it's a coincidence that these devices that Speediance has made very similar devices of are manufactured in the exact same city that their headquarters are.

You know. So it's crazy for someone to say about intellectual property rights with a company that just created a clone. And it turns out in Germany you're guilty till proven innocent. And so that's why it's only in that country. And it's kind of a rough business tactic. But you know it is what it is. That's not my area of expertise. I mean business is pretty ruthless across the world. You know now Speediance has enough money to do something like that. I don't think it was a good look to be honest with you at all. And I totally disagree with anyone on that forum who was talking about how this was a good idea for Speediance to do this.

I think it really is a negative look on your company to be suing a competitor when your own intellectual property is borrowed heavily from competitors out there. But I wanted to give you an update on what I think of these devices. I'll probably be getting a Gym Monster Ultra 2 or 3 whenever they come out with the kind of resistance I want. I just want something that has 400 pounds of resistance which means the cabling will be even more improved with thicker stronger cables. That's why I'm waiting. And I don't mind paying that price whenever it comes time.

And I've gotten enough usage off my 2S. But I'm still pretty happy with... Oh the other big thing is the Gym Monster. They haven't announced anything but the Gym Monster 1 is for sure retired. The original Gym Monster is definitely retired. And you can see that because they only offer them refurbished on Amazon. So when we go through the pricing, the refurbished Jim Monsters are in the 2,000 range. The Gym Monster 2s are in the 3,000-ish range.

With the 2S of course being in the 4,000 range. And then the GM3s are in the 4,000 to 5,000. And then this big guy is in the 7,000. So they have things at every price point. And I really wanted to balk at this price point of 3,000 to 4,000 for these devices. But the iPhone Duo is 3,000 if you get it fully spec'd out. So for just a phone that you're going to replace every couple years, every year, you're paying $3,000 now.

So the price of every device is just hyperinflated. And honestly, I'm really impressed that they could get these things at this price point. Other than the Ultra, which is at a very premium price point. But it will be the thing that I eventually upgrade to most likely. But it'll be two years down the road. And it'll be whenever they come out with one that has much, much heavier resistance. But it's very clear that they'll be able to do that at some point in time. And I think they will do it when more competitors come up with a higher number in terms of resistance. It's just they'll wait for competitors to start to reach the 300 mark in terms of pounds of resistance.

And then they'll put out a new line of devices that go there. And it's very clear that they'll eventually go to where all of these devices are 260, I would imagine. And the new high-end devices are something in the 300-pound range. But it might be a couple years down the road. But you're no longer safe to buy a Gym Monster 3 or a Gym Monster Ultra. I would especially be cautious of buying an Ultra if you think you would ever want a higher than 260-pound weight in the future.

Because that probably is going to come a Gym Monster Ultra 2 or a Gym Monster Ultra 3 that has that kind of weight. So that was kind of my wrap-up on Speediance, where they're going. They have a new wearable coming out. I've been going through. I'll do another video on discussions around wearables. I submitted to see if I could get one of them just to test it. Because my wife's been testing the new Google wearable that is screenless. I, of course, have a Whoop.

I have a Garmin. My daughter now has my Apple Watch because I despise the thing. I still didn't like it. So she was really excited to get the thing because it was past the 30 days. And I just realized I'm never going to use it. I still prefer my Garmin. I don't like people being able to reach me on my wrist. Siri's still pretty terrible, in my opinion. Even with 27, it didn't seem to be what I wanted in terms of technology that integrates with my AI systems and everything that I've been building.