So a friend and I were having an argument the other day. I am a gym rat and have worked out religiously for a couple years now at a couple different gyms. He is less obsessed with working out but is planning to join a gym class next month. One of the benefits, he said to me, is that it would be a good place to meet women.

Now, I know people meet each other at the gym. And this guy probably can too. But I just had to wonder aloud to him why any woman would find it appealing to be hit on at a gym. It's a place where you're wearing less clothes around a bunch of big hulking dudes, so I have to imagine you feel a bit more vulnerable there as a woman. I'd think you'd want a gym to be a safe place where you can just go, wear clothes that are comfortable to you, and work out, without feeling self-conscious or having to worry about prying eyes. In fact I know of women who have changed gyms because they've found the male clientele to be "creepy."

Yet still people meet each other at gyms. Why is this? Do all women actually like to be hit on at gyms? And if so, is there a tactful way of going about it that wouldn't seem like an invasion of privacy? I just feel like when a woman is out at a bar or club, she is asking to be hit on, but when she's at a gym, she would have her guard way up.