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Expert tested: Speediance GYM MONSTER Review!
The Best Smart Home Gym in 2024?
by Alec Enkiri | 5/17/24
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Speediance Gym Monster!
Today I've got something pretty darn cool to review for you guys: the Speediance Gym Monster! I've been putting this bad boy to the test, and now it's time to see if it holds up to scrutiny!
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Now, let's jump into the review!
To see the machine in action check out this review video
Get Your Speediance Smart Home Gym here! Speediance Official website
What the heck is the Speediance Gym Monster?
I'm glad you asked because it's a pretty sweet little piece of home gym equipment! The Speediance Gym Monster is an all-in-one workout solution for those looking to bring the gym experience into the comfort of their homes.
With up to 220lbs of digital resistance, multiple resistance styles and settings, and nearly endless workout options, this thing is solid and it's versatile! You can do pretty much darn near any exercise you can think of on it, and it has some pretty cool little gadgets and features that come with it that I want to talk about today as well.
What exercises can you do with it?
Literally pretty much any exercise you can think of! During initial testing I did some triceps pushdowns, curls, front raises, upright rows, face pulls, bench presses, overhead presses, Romanian deadlifts, bent over rows, good mornings, front squats, hip thrusts, French presses, and Lu raises...and that's just scratching the surface!
The Speediance Gym Monster comes standard with some nice attachment handles: a rope handle, 2 single handles, a leg strap, and a barbell. The attachments are all high quality and allow you to transition seamlessly between a variety of bilateral, unilateral, compound, and isolation exercises.
The cables can be adjusted so that they are fixed on the floor and the resistance is moved up and down through a vertical orientation. This allows you to perform a variety of exercises that are typically reserved as free weight movements, so things like squats, overhead presses, bench presses, bent over rows, and hip thrusts.
Alternatively, the cables can be fixed on the uprights through multiple adustable positions, anywhere from just over top of the floor to all the way up overhead. This works well when you want to perform exercises like triceps pushdowns, face pulls, pulldowns, and other exercises you would typically perform on a cable station.
What about the resistance?
The resistance is all digital. There are no plates or anything to load onto it - it's just plug and play. And it can actually get pretty heavy! You can go all the way up to 220lbs when on the barbell setting or up to 110lbs per side when on the dumbbell setting, but in reality these resistance levels feel quite a bit higher than free weight resistances.
For example, I'm not ashamed to say that in my first workout with the Speediance Gym Monster I performed the behind neck press for a top set of 8 reps with 100lbs. Whereas with free weights my best set of 8 on this exercise is actually with 140lbs. So that's quite a substantial difference and the resistances available here are no joke. If you want to push hard on this thing you can, you just have to get used to the cable resistance which can be a little bit of an adjustment if you are used to mostly free weights like me.
What's really cool though is that resistance settings can be adjusted very easily on the fly. Just a quick tap on the heads up display and you can go up in weight or down in weight in the snap of a finger. This makes it a very seamless process to ramp up your training weights as you get in the groove of a particular exercise, and it also makes it very simple and effective to perform intensity boosting techniques like drop sets. Just set the bar down for a second, lower the resistance a little bit, then pick it back up and get right back to it.
There are also a few other style of resistance settings you can play around with. For example, the normal setting provides what feels like a pretty constant resistance throughout the range of motion. But there is also a "chains" setting that mimics accomodating resistance. With that you can set a regular resistance, and then an additional level of resistance that gradually kicks in as you move through the range of motion. So I thought that was a pretty cool little feature!
The Gym Monster even comes with its own little Bluetooth remote that you wear like a ring around your finger during your workouts. With the remote you can adjust the resistance up or down, as well as turn the resistance on and off. So that way if you ever got stuck you could just turn the weight off and then you'd be able to get unstuck without any fanfare. This remote is a nice feature for solo workouts as it makes it quite a bit easier to get yourself set up in and out of the bar.
Heads Up Display
The Gym Monster features a handy heads-up display that provides real-time feedback on workout metrics. This includes information such as calories burned, workout duration, resistance level, number of reps performed, and total volume of work completed. This enhances the overall user experience and provides some cool data for you in the process.
Through the HUD you can also find a variety of different workouts that you can perform, as well exercise suggestions, and even strength testing. The system will run you through a strength test progressively ramping up the load to find out your current strength level and then it will take that data and make suggestions on proper training weights for you based off of that information. As you pass each different stage of testing the system even shows you what percentile of users you are stronger than, which I found to be a cool and very motivating feature!
Setup & Footprint
It was actually really to get set up. I thought there was going to be a decent amount of assembly involved, but all I had to do was attach the legs of the bench to the bench itself and then stand the machine up, plug it in, and 10 minutes later I was up and running. So the set up was really quick and easy.
The overall footprint is really not bad either. The Speediance Gym Monster is a good bit smaller than most treadmills as well as smaller than a standard power rack. It sits about 6 feet tall, and then it's just under 4 feet long and 2 feet wide when the foot pad is laid out for use. However, the foot pad can also be stowed away in a vertical position which makes the Gym Monster pretty compact when it's not in use, allowing it to be stored up against any wall without taking up very much space.
This makes the Speediance Gym Monster an excellent space-saving solution for those with limited workout space at home.
Conclusion
The general feel of the Speediance Gym Monster is really smooth and solid. The build quality is impressive. The robust steel frame ensures stability during intense workouts, and provides a secure environment for various exercises. And the resistance feels really smooth, it's not herky jerky or janky at all like cheaper cable systems tend to be, and it makes the work feel good. Again, it does take some acclimating performing certain movements on a cable system, as opposed to with free weights, but I think that's most likely just a little speed bump. You can get in some really good and hard work on this machine if that's what you are set out to do.
Overall, the Speediance Gym Monster is a solid investment for those looking to bring the gym experience into their homes. The overall performance, versatility, and smooth operation make it a good choice as a compact but comprehensive home gym solution. So if you're looking to elevate your home workout experience check out the Speediance Gym Monster!
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