Study Finds Different Personality Types Enjoy Different Types Of Exercise
It's no secret that the hardest part of working out is often getting started. If a workout simply isn't enjoyable for you, for instance, it's difficult to get motivated to do it, right?
The answer, then, might just be finding a workout that you do enjoy—and according to new research published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology1, your personality type can help you figure that out. Here's what they found.
Studying how personality impacts exercise enjoyment
We all have unique personalities, so it only makes sense that we'd have unique exercise preferences too. For this study, researchers wanted to dig deeper into how personality impacts not just exercise enjoyment, but also how likely we are to stick with certain workouts.
To do so, they had one group of participants complete an eight-week cycling and strength training fitness plan, while a control group stuck with their usual lifestyle. Participants filled out questionnaires on how much they liked the workouts, and were also assessed for five personality traits: extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness.
Based on the findings following the eight weeks, it was observed that personality traits can not only predict which exercises people enjoy most, but also how much stress reduction one experiences from certain workouts.
For example, more extroverted participants tended to enjoy more high-intensity sessions with other people (i.e. team sports). Meanwhile, those scoring higher in neuroticism preferred solo workouts. Interestingly enough, participants who scored high in neuroticism showed the strongest reduction in stress, highlighting the value of physical activity for de-stressing.
Making your workout work for you
If you've struggled to get into a solid fitness routine, these findings suggest that it might be a matter of finding a better workout routine for you and your personality.
As study's senior author Paul Burgess Ph.D. explains in a news release, "Understanding personality factors in designing and recommending physical activity programs is likely to be very important in determining how successful a program is—and whether people will stick with it and become fitter."
As the study's first author Flaminia Ronca Ph.D. adds, "It's OK if we don't enjoy a particular session. We can try something else."
The takeaway
From team sports to solo runs, high-intensity workouts to leisurely strolls, there is absolutely no shortage of ways to keep moving—no matter your personality type. Understanding your own personality can help you make fitness decisions that make sense for you, so you're not working against your own nature.