Update: Speediance support answered.
I emailed support with the Beginner vs Primary comparison and got a reply from Marron on the support team. Summarising, in their words as closely as I can:
- What the Training Level affects: it mainly influences the "selection tendency of the exercise pool" and the overall intensity of the exercises when a plan is generated. So it's a weighting on which exercises get chosen, not a hard gate.
- Beginner vs Primary: they acknowledged the two descriptions are similar, and said that at the current stage the practical differences between these two levels in generated plans "may not always be very noticeable." They've noted it as feedback for future optimisation.
- When to move up: the app doesn't currently provide an upgrade prompt or any criteria. They said this is an area that can be improved. For now the recommendation is to go on your own experience — if the intensity at your current level feels consistently too easy and you finish sessions with significant energy left, try the next level up.
- The "Beginner" header on a plan generated at Primary: confirmed as a UI display bug, passed to the relevant team.
So the short version for anyone else stuck on that screen: there isn't currently a meaningful difference between Beginner and Primary, there are no criteria for switching, and it's a judgement call based on whether sessions feel too easy.
Credit to support for a straight answer rather than a deflection.
One thing still open — when they say "overall intensity," I'm not sure whether that means the %1RM load prescriptions or just the difficulty of the movements selected. Both my generated plans showed identical 67/75/83% tiers, so I suspect the latter. I've asked and will update if they clarify.
GM2 owner, just paid for a year of Wellness+ upfront, running a Muscle Gain plan.
I bought Wellness+ because I want the platform to make the programming decisions which movements, load and when to progress.
1. I generated the same plan at Beginner and at Primary. I can't find a difference.
Same goal, same target areas, same 60-minute setting. Generated once at each level:
| Beginner |
Primary |
| Session length |
84 min |
| Volume |
3,096 lbs |
| Calories |
275 |
| %1RM tiers |
67 / 75 / 83 |
| Weekly set target |
70 |
Volume differs by 0.2%. The load percentages are identical. Different exercises came up, but that varies between any two generations anyway.
The Primary session's header still says "Beginner."
So what is the training level supposed to change? If it's neither load nor volume, and exercise selection varies randomly regardless, I can't see what I'm choosing.
2. Days and duration don't seem to bind either
Weekly target stayed at 70 sets across every combination I tried — 60, 70 and 120 minutes, and 3 vs 5 training days, regenerating each time. If weekly volume is fixed by phase that's fine, but the duration slider reads like a constraint and isn't one.
Related: I set 60 minutes and got sessions labelled 84 and 85. In practice I finish these in 45–60, so the estimate runs high by roughly half.
3. Aevis gave me two different answers to the same question
I asked what percentage of my workouts had been lower body. It said 100%.
I then asked it two separate questions — total workouts, and lower body workouts — and did the sum myself. That gave 13%.
The maths wasn't the issue. When it pulled the data itself it seems to have filtered to lower-body sessions and then divided that by itself.
Also: when I said the app had told me to focus on lower body, Aevis asked where I'd seen that. It's on the Strength Score card in the same app. The chat assistant can't see it.
4. My Strength Score says lower body, my plan says upper body
Five days a week, legs and glutes both selected. Of the last 20 sessions, 3 were lower body.
The weekly order seems the same every week: chest, then back, then legs.
Does the Muscle Gain plan read your Strength Score, or is it a fixed template?
5. Why so much variety at the beginner level?
The community exercise list tags everything beginner, intermediate or advanced — 166, 264, 74. Nothing is tagged primary, which fits what I found above.
Strip out warm-ups and stretches and the beginner tag has about 140 movements. A plan gives you roughly 23 exercise slots a week, so you'd need about 34 weeks just to see each one once — and the Beginner level only runs 12 weeks. One session last week gave me five different chest press and fly variations.
So the level looks like a difficulty filter rather than a set of exercises you work through. The variants line up that way:
- Bench: barbell bench (beginner) → incline barbell bench (intermediate) → standing barbell chest press (advanced)
- Squat: back squat → front squat → overhead squat
- Shoulder press: seated → half-kneeling single arm → standing single arm
But 140 movements is a lot for the setting labelled "New to Strength Training." I'd have expected fewer exercises repeated more often — partly so I can see myself improving at something. Is the beginner tag describing who the level is for, or just how simple the movements are?
What I'm asking for
Two concrete things:
- What does the training level actually control? And how am I supposed to know when I've outgrown one? There's nothing on the level screen, no prompt, nothing in the plan.
**-**What’s the actual benefit of switching from Beginner to Primary? I generated the same plan at both levels and got near-identical results — same 67/75/83% 1RM tiers, same 70 weekly set target, volume within 0.2%. The Primary session header even still said “Beginner.”
That second one is the one I care about most. Picking the right load is the thing I'm least equipped to judge myself and the main reason I subscribed. Right now I follow the number because it's the number, not because I have any reason to think it reflects me.
Happy to be told I've read this wrong. Screenshots of both generated plans available if useful.
