Speediance Gym Monster 2

Introduction

If you want to run through the full gamut of key weightlifting exercises from home but without having to clutter your space with multiple machines, the Speediance Gym Monster 2 has been made with you in mind.

Ever since the pandemic, the allure of having a home gym has never felt more compelling. Anyone who has had to endure the post-work peak hours of their local gym will know exactly what I’m talking about – the idea of getting to use the machines you want, when you want, sounds like bliss.

The problem is, having a bike or a treadmill to cover your cardiovascular exercises is fine but when it comes to weightlifting, you need far more equipment to ensure that each muscle group is being given its due. Unless you’re blessed with space, having multiple machines just isn’t feasible.

I’m always wary of any fitness equipment that presents itself as an ‘all-in-one’ alternative, but after having spent some time supplementing a few of my usual workouts for stints with the Gym Monster 2, I think that Speediance has cracked it.

Design

• Sleek frame
• Easy to move through a doorway
• Not the best design for bench press

The biggest appeal of the Gym Monster 2 isn’t just that it can offer up the functionality of several muscle group workouts in one device, it’s that it also does all of this in a frame that doesn’t feel overly cumbersome and is designed for home gyms that don’t have a ton of available space.

At just 27.16-inches in width, the machine outrageously compact despite its functionality, although it’s been structured that way so that, in tandem with the wheels at the bottom of the frame, it can be moved easily through a doorway (although you’ll definitely want a hand if you plan on moving it up or down any flight of stairs).

Once you’ve decided on the best place to put the Gym Monster 2, just roll it up to the wall, pull down the inner section, secure the two locks at the bottom and plug it into a power outlet. As far as the main set-up goes, that’s it.

You do have the two strings on either side that attach to the various accessories included, but even that’s a simple push button job to clip them in, and when you want to adjust where the strings are placed, you can just unhook them and dock them back into where you want them to be. When in the upright position, the height of those cables can be adjusted too.

It’s all brilliantly engineered, and I’ve genuinely never come across another piece of fitness equipment quite like it, but I did find some room for error when bringing the bench into the mix.

Because of its limited space, the bench is smaller than any average one that you’ll find down the gym, but it’s the placement that hampers it a fair bit. There’s a massive block at the convergence point on the Gym Monster 2, housing all of its motors. The problem is that this block is exactly where you’d want the head of the bench to go so that you can easily store the barbell above you in-between sets.

Instead, I found myself having to awkwardly move my arms behind my head in order to stowaway the barbell, which could end up being dangerous if you’re not careful.

Display

• 21.5-inch touchscreen
• Vibrant colours and responsive
• Text is crisp and easy to read

While the positioning of the bench definitely hurts the Gym Monster 2’s mission, the same cannot be said for the incredible 21.5-inch vertical touchscreen that sits in the middle of the frame.

This display acts as your main portal into everything the device has to offer, including workouts, weight settings, song playlists and more.

It’s beautifully bright and the text is crisp, so I never found myself squinting for information onscreen. That touchscreen is also responsive, so you won’t have to worry too much if your hands end up getting a little sweaty in the middle of a workout.

You can tilt the display but it can’t be moved from its axis, which might be irritating to some but I didn’t have a problem with it. What I did love is that there’s an ‘invert’ button, accessible at almost all times, that flips the screen so you can still read it if you’re lying back on the bench and looking upwards.

Software

• Tons of guided workouts
• Feels like having a personal trainer on hand at all times
• No Spotify integration, but there is Apple Music

As with any piece of fitness equipment nowadays, having solid hardware is just one part of the equation – it also needs to be backed up with great software that can really show off what it’s capable of. Garmin knows this, as does Apple and thankfully, so does Speediance.

Right on the homescreen, there’s nothing about Speediance’s UI that could be considered boring – it’s all very colourful, which just makes each workout feel more inviting as you want to tap on each tab to find out what they’re all about. If you don’t fancy diving into a guided workout then there is a free lift mode that simply lets you enjoy the weightlifting exercises you want to focus on. This is great if, for example, you’ve fallen behind a bit in muscle gain for your triceps, so you can put all your energy into remedying that for a session.

I found the guided workouts to be far more engaging, and this is where the Gym Monster 2 shines as being the next best thing to having a personal trainer visit your home several times a week. The software gives you ample time to change the apparatus from one configuration to the next (although you can always add more time if needed), and the onscreen videos help to lessen the risk of injury as they show you the correct form that you need to be following at all times. 

Even smaller features like the announcer letting you know that you only have three reps left, is perfect for keeping motivation going, just as if you had someone in the room with you to monitor your progress. If you do feel that you can take on more weight as you’re lifting then the Bluetooth ring that’s included with the apparatus can be used to move up or down the weight scale, saving you from needing to disengage and interact with the display.

If you want a bit more motivation, then there is a built-in playlist that plays songs at random from a genre of your choosing, although you can connect your Apple Music account to bring a more tailor-made workout playlist into the mix.

Strangely, there’s no support whatsoever for Spotify, which makes it feel as if Speediance just assumes everyone using the Gym Monster 2 has an iPhone. I can’t imagine that there are too many Android users out there who use Apple Music as their main audio streaming service.

Thankfully, the Speediance app is available on both iOS and Android, so there is some consideration given to the latter crowd here. You can add workouts to your routine from the app, so if you’re heading home then you have the ability to structure your workout ahead of time. You can also connect compatible smartwatches to the Gym Monster 2 so that you can see your heart rate in real time on the display.

It’s worth mentioning that unlike a lot of the competition in this arena, you don’t need to pay on top of the initial price tag for continued access to these workouts, they’re freely available without any type of subscription. This just further adds to the value of the Gym Monster 2 over time, particularly against the cost of a personal trainer over a few years.

There is an optional subscription available for Speediance’s Wellness Plus software which provides AI insights based on your workout performance, but I’d argue that it’s not a necessary purchase given just how much the Gym Monster 2 provides without it. Plus, if you are that concerned about AI insights then you can get exactly that from the best smartwatches.

Performance

• Brilliantly recreates the feeling of physical weights
• Can go up to 100kg
• The design impedes performance on chest exercises

What absolutely blows my mind about the Gym Monster 2 is that it can offer genuine resistance despite its relatively sleek frame. Instead of having actual weights like a traditional machine,

Speediance uses a motorised system that works against your movement, effectively recreating the feeling of lifting weights. It works surprisingly well, and not just at the lower levels either – those who are used to working with heavier weights can get on just fine here as it caps out at 100kg. 

When it came to training my biceps, triceps and leg muscles, it honestly felt just like it would down at the gym, and it’s here that Speediance’s machine has its biggest selling point. If you live in a remote area where there’s no convenient access to a gym or weightlifting equipment then this is the perfect alternative.

The one area where I think the performance doesn’t quite stack up is in chest exercises. Because of the aforementioned issues with being unable to comfortably rest the barbell in the supplied hooks, I ended up having to just rest it on my lap, or on the seat when I needed to stand up. This meant that trying to lie back down on the bench ended up becoming something of a contortionist routine if the bench was at a 45-degree angle, as it required lifting the barbell, holding it above my head and moving underneath it as I tried to get back into position.

That process was just as convoluted as it sounds, and whilst it’s not impossible to overcome, it did make chest exercises a bit more time consuming than they needed to be.

Should you buy it?

FAQs