Yoga, Zumba or HIIT? The best way to exercise, based on your personality type
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:
Here are the workouts that each personality type found the most exciting.
People who scored high in extraversion seemed to enjoy high-intensity workouts (HIIT) and team sports.
Some exercises that extroverts should try are:
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:
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.
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:
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:
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