i bought the journal with the intention to use at the gym, but when it arrived it was too good to be thrown around the gym! im sure it would survive the gym physically, but for it to smell like sweat and have sweaty, dirty smudges on the pages isn't what this journal really deserves. the pages are very smooth and it generally stays open at the page i am writing in. i am enjoy using this journal a lot, and when i am eating and i drop a saucy piece of green bean on the page, as long as i swipe it off quickly, there isn't much of a smudge left ^-^