Are gym crushes bad?

Hello I(20F) have been going to the gym for about a year now. I really like it there and I know some people say “you shouldn’t be looking for a partner in the gym” but is it bad to say I want to find my partner in the gym since I only find guys that are active attractive?

ANYWAYS to my crush. Basically it’s been a couple months with this guy at the gym we kind of play eye tag a lot. I check him out when he’s not looking but sometimes he’ll turn around and i’ll just immediately look away or sometimes I catch him looking and he immediately looks away.Sometimes we hold the eye contact but then I get this weird feeling since some guys say they feel uncomfortable when unattractive girls look at them and tbh I don’t know if I am attractive or not, I get a lot of compliments and some guys do ask me out but very little. It’s just really weird because actually i’ve never seen him before until a couple months ago when he appeared out of nowhere at the same time I go everyday with his friend. We made really long eye contact that day and now ever since it feels like he’s there all the time when i’m there, sometimes with his friend but most of the time not.

Now every time we have really prolonged eye contact or he catches me staring at him I decide to skip days I usually go to the gym because I don’t want to make him uncomfortable. Though sometimes I just want to keep eye contact and smile at him. Though most of the time my initial reaction is to immediately look away and hope he didn’t notice.Should I just give him a smile next time?