[MtL]

You make a valid point, that the use of this fancy-schmancy technology is optional. The reason I am still worried, and the reason why I hold on tight to my old-fashioned principles, is that most gyms nowadays are very poor for serious training;

There is a ton of machines that are of no use to people that want to use the gym to actually make progress, to stay healthy and get strong/fast/lean/whatever-floats-your-boat. All these machines take up the space of the barbells, dumbbells and racks, and they steal the attention away from those things as well. The end result is that the average people in a gym in 2010 are in worse shape than the average people in a gym in 1970. I hope this trend is not allowed to continue.

PS: Let me tell you a fun, competitive game that require little modern technology (just some creativity and a barbell and a rack); bring your friends to spot you in the gym, and have a competition in the squat rack ("who does the most reps with 225lb in one set?").

[eru]

You can also just track your progress in a journal. That's motivation enough for me. (And be sure to take a photograph of yourself every once in a while.)