I’m sharing this because I learned the hard way how careless most of us are with our phones at the gym.

For years, every time I worked out, I carried the same things with me—my phone, keys, wallet, headphones, and water bottle. Like everyone else, I would just drop everything on the gym floor next to a bench or squat rack and start my workout. I never really thought much about it. It just felt normal.

That changed one day.

While I was in the middle of my workout, someone nearby accidentally dropped a heavy dumbbell. It hit my phone directly, the impact was enough to destroy my phone’s camera. Just like that, my expensive phone was damaged. Fixing it meant replacing the entire camera module, which cost me a painful amount of money.