Curating your fitness routine to better match your personality could help you get the most out of your workouts, a new study shows.
The paper, published last month in Frontiers in Psychology, shows that certain personality traits may indicate which type of exercises people enjoy and how likely they are to stick with them.
“We found that our personality can influence how we engage with exercise, and particularly which forms of exercise we enjoy the most,” Flaminia Ronca, one of the study’s co-authors and an associate professor at University College London, said in a press release.
“It’s OK if we don’t enjoy a particular session,” Ronca said. “We can try something else.”
Ronca and her fellow researchers recruited 132 adults, and placed them into two groups. One group was told to follow at-home workouts of cycling and strength training, and the other group was asked to follow their usual routines.
Participants were given a questionnaire to determine their personality type and stress levels. By the end of the study, a total of 86 participants completed their group’s assignment and surveys which asked which workouts they enjoyed the most before and after the experiment began.
The paper focused on the Big Five personality traits used in psychology:
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Conscientiousness
- Emotional stability (neuroticism)
- Openness
Here are the workouts that each personality type found the most exciting.
Exercises you should try based on your personality type
Extroverts like high-intensity workouts
People who scored high in extraversion seemed to enjoy high-intensity workouts (HIIT) and team sports.
Some exercises that extroverts should try are:
- HIIT classes
- Group cycling
- Team sports like soccer or volleyball
- Bootcamps like Barry’s Bootcamp
Conscientious people enjoy goal-focused exercises
Those who got high scores for conscientiousness tended to like goal-oriented exercises. They really enjoyed activities like training for a marathon or joining a run club.
Exercises that conscientious people should explore are:
- Weight training
- Marathon training
- Run clubs
Anxious people can benefit from private workouts
People that scored high in neuroticism, or those who often experienced mood swings and anxiety, preferred light, one-on-one workouts.
“This group might appreciate being given space for independence and privacy during an exercise program,” Ronca said.
Anxious people may benefit from having private sessions with a personal trainer or a Pilates instructor, and would likely avoid group classes.
Open and agreeable people prefer to have fun options
People who fall into the group of openness and agreeableness liked fun workouts and looked for variety.
Exercises for open-minded and agreeable people to consider are:
- Zumba
- Rock climbing
- Martial arts like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Introverts like solo exercises
It is not at all surprising that introverts preferred to work out on their own and in their homes.
Some exercises that introverts would likely gravitate towards are:
- Solo running
- Yoga
- Pilates
- Anything that can be done at home
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