Understanding the Link Between Personality and Exercise
Finding it challenging to meet your summer fitness goals? Your personality might be playing a role in your success or failure. A recent study conducted by researchers at University College London has revealed that aligning your exercise routine with your personality traits can significantly enhance both enjoyment and results.
The research, which spanned eight weeks, focused on how different personality traits influence the type of physical activity individuals prefer and how these activities impact their overall well-being. The scientists measured strength levels and assessed the prominence of various personality traits throughout the study. Their findings highlighted distinct preferences among participants based on their personalities.
Extroverts, for instance, were found to favor high-intensity workouts, while individuals who tend to worry often preferred short bursts of activity, experiencing greater stress reduction from such exercises. The study emphasized the importance of engaging in physical activities that bring joy, as this can lead to more consistent participation.
Dr. Flaminia Ronca, the study author from the UCL Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, stated: “We found clear links between personality traits and the type of exercise participants enjoyed most. This knowledge could help tailor physical activity recommendations to individual needs, potentially encouraging long-term engagement.”
She further explained that our brains are wired differently, influencing behaviors and interactions with the environment. Therefore, it is not surprising that personality traits also affect how individuals respond to different intensities of exercise.
Recommendations for Physical Activity
The American Heart Association recommends adults engage in moderate-intensity aerobic activity for about 150 minutes per week, including 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity or a combination of both. These activities should ideally be spread throughout the week.
For this particular study, 86 volunteers with varying fitness levels and backgrounds were divided into two groups. The first group, consisting of 25 people, followed an eight-week home-based fitness plan involving cycling and strength training. The second group of 51 people continued their usual lifestyle and were only asked to stretch twice a week.
Throughout the program, all participants rated their enjoyment of each exercise session. Additionally, variations in their strength before and after the experiment were measured through push-ups, plank holds, and jumping tests. This was followed by a low-intensity cycling session and a cycling test to measure oxygen capacity.
Personality Traits and Exercise Preferences
Scientists also studied participants’ personality traits, including sociability, diligence, agreeableness, openness, and negative emotions like fear of failure, anxiety, and self-doubt. They used questionnaires to assess these traits and evaluated perceived stress levels on a scale from one to ten.
Results indicated that those who scored high on diligence and openness were more likely to engage in exercise regardless of enjoyment, driven by curiosity or a desire to try new workouts. Diligent participants tended to have well-rounded fitness levels, scoring higher in both aerobic fitness and core strength, and were generally more physically active.
Conversely, individuals with higher anxiety and self-doubt preferred private workouts and required short breaks during sessions. Notably, the study found that stress levels in those experiencing negative emotions significantly decreased after starting independent or private workout sessions.
Dr. Ronca noted, “It’s fantastic news, as it highlights that those who benefit the most from a reduction in stress respond very well to exercise.”
Professor Paul Burgess, a senior author from the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, added, “We found that people who scored highly in neuroticism showed a particularly strong reduction in stress when they undertook the fitness training recommended in the study. This suggests potential benefits in stress reduction for those with this trait.”
Social and High-Intensity Preferences
Previous research indicates that individuals with anxiety and stress may find private exercise more enjoyable than group settings, as it reduces feelings of self-consciousness and the worry of being judged or compared. This allows them to feel more in control and focus on personal needs, leading to reduced stress levels.
Social and outgoing individuals, on the other hand, tended to enjoy high-intensity sessions such as HIIT, team sports, and intense cycling. All 86 participants ended the study noticeably stronger and fitter after the eight weeks.
Professor Burgess concluded, “We hope that if people can find physical activities they enjoy, they will more readily choose to do them. After all, we don’t have to nag dogs to go for a walk: being so physically inactive that we start to feel miserable might be a peculiarly human thing to do. In effect, our body punishes us by making us miserable. But for some reason, many of us humans seem poor at picking up on these messages our body is sending to our brain.”
The study was published in Frontiers in Psychology on July 7.
