It’s an interesting thought experiment. For some reason, phone use in the gym just doesn’t bother me as much as it does some other people.

The trouble with an anything device is that it’s often hard to tell from across the room what the device is being used for. And there are certainly legitimate use cases in a gym.

Thinking through mine, the hardest ones to give up would be:

- Workout tracking: eventually this has to happen in an app because my trainer reviews the data async. I could carry pen and paper and transfer later, but I would lose the benefit of 1) easily browsing my history and 2) having handy weight conversions of my history when I travel.

- Communicating with my trainer when one of us is late. I realize this wouldn’t be necessary in an ideal world, but in reality it’s pretty important.