Health club as meat market was a pop culture theme in the 1980s. Now, people go to work out -- quite often, to ward off cardio-vascular problems common to middle-aged boomers like themselves.

An excerpt from the NYT story:

When men and women first began working out together in the late 70's and early 80's, the atmosphere at many gyms was as sexually charged as a John Travolta-era disco: beefy men and lithe women pumped iron, Jazzercised and gave each other the eye.

Rolling Stone magazine picked up on the trend in 1983 with "Looking for Mr. Goodbody," a cover story which proclaimed health clubs to be "The New Singles' Bars."

The article served as the springboard for the cheesy 1985 movie "Perfect," in which the still-gyrating Mr. Travolta was cast as a muscle-bound investigative reporter wooing a buff aerobics instructor played by Jamie Lee Curtis. For many people who joined gyms in those days, getting healthy was an afterthought. But now, trainers, gymgoers and fitness industry experts say, expectations have reversed. Health is often the key motivator, and, with a few exceptions, the idea of the gym as a pick-up spot is about as passé as neon pink leg warmers.

"The first time people came into a club, they were coming to meet people," Mr. Atencio said. "Today it's more about getting fit."

Molly Fox, an early gymgoer who started one of New York's first aerobics studios and who is now group fitness manager for the Equinox club in San Mateo, Calif., witnessed the change. On a gym floor, "you could just feel the come-on," she said. "Now, certainly somebody might look at somebody, but it doesn't have that vibe."

That gyms have evolved into a more professional, largely flirt-free zone has as much to do with demographics, time management and the advent of the iPod as it does with spandex and sexual politics.

In the early days, the confident and the taut frequented gyms, not the saggy masses. "It was 6 or 8 percent of the population who went, people who were comfortable with their bodies, not grossly out of shape," said Rick Caro, who co-owned a handful of gyms in the Northeast in the 70's and 80's.

"It was all about looking sexually attractive," said Sandy Coffman, a fitness consultant in Bradenton, Fla.

And gym bunnies, both male and female, dressed to accentuate their appeal (or so they thought).

"Jane Fonda made it O.K. for us to exercise almost naked in public," Ms. Fox said. "There was a whole sexual revealment — a thong leotard with a flesh-colored tight. It was like, butt cheek, hello! When I look back on it now, it looks like an exotic dancer outfit."

Men liked to flaunt their assets, too. In "Perfect," Mr. Travolta wears crotch-hugging short shorts, and he's not afraid of the hip thrust.

By and large, gym members today aren't the sleek 20-somethings of a generation ago. People aged 35 to 54 account for a third of all health club members, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, a trade group. The over-55 crowd makes up another quarter and is the fastest growing segment of gymgoers.

"You take the 50-, 55-, 60-year-old person, they're not going to be checking out the scene the same way they did in the 1970's," Ms. Coffman, who is 64, said.