It is often said that a great way to challenge yourself is to try something that you don’t enjoy, but when it comes to basic fitness, a new study has revealed that maintaining a consistent fitness plan, and making more gains, is often achieved by training in a way that you enjoy. Apparently, your personality type could be a predictor of the kind of exercise you might enjoy most, so here’s what you need to know.

The study, carried out by University College London, built on previous research indicating that different types of personalities enjoy different sports, exploring whether individual personality traits could influence our adherence to various forms of exercise. “We know that the global population is becoming increasingly sedentary. You often hear about people trying to become more active, but struggling to make lasting changes,” said Dr Flaminia Ronca, who was first author on the project published in Frontiers in Psychology. “In this study, we wanted to understand how personality can influence this to support the development of effective interventions for changes in health behaviour.”

How Was the Study Carried Out?

132 volunteers with a range of fitness levels were assigned different exercise protocols involving cycling and strength training, and had a number of measurements taken such as their VO2 max, and their enjoyment or stress levels following each exercise. These details were then matched against their personality traits, using the ‘Big 5’ model of those who are found to dominantly display either extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, or openness.

What Does Your Personality Say About Your Training?

Of the 132 volunteers taking part, 86 people completed the experiment and they all got fitter as a result, independent of their personality type. However, some clear connections between personality and enjoyment of a particular plan were made.

“We found some clear links between personality traits and the type of exercise the participants enjoyed most, 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,” said Dr Ronca. Here’s what they found:

• Extroverts tended to enjoy high intensity exercises such as HIIT or maximum intensity cycling
• Neuroticism (negative emotions like anxiety, worry, fear, frustration, and depression) preferred short bursts of intensity rather than prolonged sessions. They also found more enjoyment while being monitored less, suggesting that private training may work better for them.
• Conscientious types, as one might guess, had a more rounded interest in fitness, and enjoyed both the core strength and aerobic fitness activities. While they were less likely to have a favorite method of training, they tended to give their all to any task prescribed. This could make them the ideal match for a personal trainer or team coach.

Interestingly, those who had the dominant trait of neuroticism experienced a more significant drop in stress levels following exercise when compared with the other groups, once again lending support to the theory that workingout is great for our mental health.When it comes to choosing a fitness activity that is right for you, personality traits may be an indicator as to which training method could suit you best but there are still plenty of us that get a thrill out of pushing past our comfort zones. Of course, the study does not proport to offer a one-size-fits-all solution. The researchers concluded that the most important take home message is that we should find something that we enjoy doing, in order to make more gains and stick with the plan in the long term.