As a twenty year old dealing with the stress of college, socializing and beginning adulthood, the last place I expect to find stress is the gym. Exercising is a great way to blow off steam, work up a sweat and leave high on endorphins. However, I have found that the gym has become a hot, new 'pick-up' spot, where every gym-goer is a participant whether they want to or not.

The formula is easy: girls increase their heart rate on the cardio equipment while guys increase their heart rates by watching them. There is nothing more masculine to me than watching Mr. Free-Weights (who will represent the genre of guy I'm discussing) lift a five pound free weight once and grunt loudly to accentuate how heavy the weight is and how strong and manly he is to be lifting weights. Mr. Free-Weights will then take a ten-minute walk around the gym checking out the inventory of girls, flexing his biceps at anyone who happens to make eye contact with him. After his ten-minute scan, he returns to his free weight to grunt and inventory some more.