The Best Exercise for Your Personality Type

Establishing new habits is hard (to say the least). It takes mindset work and consistent practice to make any new habit stick. But there are a few tricks that can be employed to help make the process easier—like working out according to your personality type. 

Researchers from the United Kingdom sought to determine whether certain personality types were more drawn to or enjoyed specific intensities of exercise. They published their findings in Frontiers in Psychology. Let’s break down what they found. 

How Was This Study Conducted?

Researchers initially recruited 132 participants from the general public for this study; 86 of the 132 completed the entire protocol. Participants first completed an online questionnaire that included demographic information, the Perceived Stress Scale 10 items (PSS-10), and a modified version of the Big Five Inventory 10 items (BFI-10). The PSS-10 is designed to assess people’s perceived stress levels, and the BFI-10 is a shortened version of a longer assessment for determining personality traits. 

The big five personality traits assessed with the BFI-10 include extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness. Emotional stability relates to neuroticism. For example, people who score high in emotional stability are considered low in neuroticism. They tend to be calm and resilient with more positive attitudes and moods. People who score low in emotional stability tend to have more neurotic traits, including anxiety, irritability and moodiness, and tend to have stronger reactions to stress.

Following the online assessments, participants were brought into an exercise lab for baseline fitness testing. This included body composition, which is a measured ratio of lean tissue to fat tissue, and strength tests that included push-ups, planks and jumping in place with hands on hips. Participants’ aerobic capacities were also tested on a stationary bike, first with a “lab low-intensity” ride, and then, after a 30-minute rest, a high-intensity ride on the same bike was used to measure VO2peak. VO2peak is the highest oxygen consumption measured during an exercise test. It basically measures how efficiently your body is at using oxygen during intense exercise. After each exercise session, participants were asked to rate their level of enjoyment from 1 to 7, 1 being not enjoyable and 7 being extremely enjoyable. 

Following the baseline tests, participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention or control group. The control group was instructed to maintain their normal lifestyle and was given a plan of weekly 10-minute stretching exercises. 

The intervention group was provided with a heart rate monitor and a home-based 8-week cycling and strength training program that included “rides” of three varying intensities—low, threshold and high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Each ride would be completed once per week for a total of three rides per week. The overall intensities gradually increased over the 8-week intervention. They were also instructed to do one strength training workout a week, which included 3 sets of 8 repetitions of squats, lunges, push-ups, sit-ups, calf raises and glute bridges. Participants were asked to rate their level of perceived enjoyment of each exercise session over the entire intervention period. 

What Did This Study Find?

Based on the pre-intervention testing: 

• Extraversion was predictive of having higher VO2peak, anaerobic threshold and peak power output. 
• Conscientiousness predicted completing push-ups, longer plank times, more weekly hours of physical activity and lower body fat percentage.
• Neuroticism predicted poorer heart rate recovery times (how quickly your heart rate comes back down to pre-exercise levels), regardless of fitness level.
• Those who were part of an endurance club (like a running club) were more extraverted and conscientious. 

Regarding exercise enjoyment:

• Those who scored higher in neuroticism reported less enjoyment of the low-intensity lab session and threshold ride.
• Extraversion predicted enjoyment of the VO2peak test and the HIIT sessions.
• Both openness and agreeableness predicted more enjoyment for the long, easy ride.

Regarding program adherence and participation:

• Intervention group participants who scored higher in neuroticism were less likely to record their heart rate data during the 8-week intervention.
• Extraverted participants were less likely to attend post-intervention testing.
• Those scoring high in openness were more likely to attend post-intervention testing.

The 8-week intervention revealed that:

• Those who scored high in neuroticism were the only ones who noted a decrease in stress from the intervention. 
• All participants in the intervention group, regardless of personality traits, exhibited a significant increase in weekly hours of exercise, VO2peak, peak power output, number of push-ups and duration of planks.
• Conscientious participants showed smaller improvements in peak power output. 
• Those with extraversion traits had a greater increase in RERpeak (respiratory exchange ratio, a measure of intensity and effort during an exercise test).

There were a few limitations to this study. First, 70% of the participants were found to be open-minded, conscientious and emotionally stable, presenting some bias in the sample of participants. While this study included the Big Five personality traits, it did not consider subtraits or other personality factors, like grit or anxiety. Lastly, this study only included cycling and body weight exercises. This limits participants’ responses to just those exercises. So if you already know you hate cycling, chances are you’re not going to enjoy any of the variations in intensity either. 

How Does This Apply to Real Life?

This study suggests that certain personalities may enjoy certain intensities of exercise more than others. “We found some clear links between personality traits and the type of exercise the participants enjoyed most,” says Flaminia Ronca, Ph.D., one of the study authors in a press release, “which I think is important because we could potentially use this knowledge to tailor physical activity recommendations to the individual—and hopefully help them to become and remain more active.”

People who scored high in either neuroticism or extraversion:

• Enjoyed the higher-intensity workouts more than the lower-intensity ones.
• Researchers note that those with neurotic tendencies may tolerate a HIIT workout better than a long, vigorous workout because the latter may allow for more anxiety, worry and negative self-talk to creep in and affect performance.

People who scored high in conscientiousness:

• Engage in physical activity for the health benefits.
• They’re also goal-oriented. So if they’ve set a goal to complete 6 months of training for a marathon, they’re likely to achieve it. 

While research offers a glimpse into the what and why of topics, you probably don’t need a personality test and a study to tell you what types of physical activity you find enjoyable. But these results do provide you with possible reasons why you might not enjoy certain types of physical activity. And you can now use your personality as the scapegoat if someone tries pushing you to do an activity you don’t like. 

There are a few other things to consider when finding activities that you’ll enjoy. For example, do you like doing things as a team or group, or are you more of an individual player? If you like doing things as a team, consider group fitness classes. Choose the type and intensity based on your personality and fitness level. Group personal training is another option. Or you can join a community sports team or running or cycling club.

If you’re more independent and aren’t into the group thing, consider activities you can do on your own or with a friend. You may also enjoy one-on-one personal training. 

Our Expert Take

This study suggests that personality traits may determine which types of physical activities will be most enjoyable. Ultimately, the best types of physical activity for you are ones you’ll enjoy and stick with. And while guidelines are important—like getting a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week—any amount of physical activity is better than none, and it all counts. Start where you’re at and what you’re comfortable with, and make intentional decisions to move more throughout the day, even if it’s in small spurts. Over time, as your body gets used to moving more, you may naturally increase the amount. And before you know it, you’ll be crushing those guidelines (in a good way).