Can’t stick to exercise? Your personality may be to blame – the best workouts for 5 key types
EXERCISE that suits your personality type could help you stick to it, a study suggests.
Doing something that doesn’t match your personality, however, could see you fall off the wagon much quicker.
In research, scientists often use the Big 5 personality types.
They are:
- Conscientiousness: This describes someone who is responsible, careful, and goal- and detail-oriented. They have high impulse control and tend to be organised
- Agreeableness: This describes a person who is respectful, compassionate, trusting and tries to avoid problems. They tend to be more cooperative and are helpful
- Neuroticism: This describes someone who gravitates toward unsettling emotions, such as anxiety and depression. They get upset easily
- Openness: This describes a person who is open to new experiences and curious about the world. They are creative and happy to talk about abstract ideas
- Extraversion or Extroversion: This describes someone who seeks excitement and is active and highly sociable. They are talkative, have a lot of emotional expressiveness and are energised around others
University College London (UCL) recruited 132 volunteers, of which 86 people finished the study.
They were put on an exercise programme for eight weeks in which they did three weekly cycles of varying intensity, and one bodyweight strength workout.
Participants’ benchmark fitness levels and stress were assessed at the beginning of the programme.
During the exercise programme, participants were asked to rate their enjoyment of each exercise session, before having their fitness level tested again once the programme had been completed.
Researchers found extroverts tended to enjoy high intensity workouts – i.e short bursts of activity with short rests between, usually over a shorter workout.
Those with strong neuroticism, which measures emotional stability and the tendency for anxiety or mood swings, preferred bursts of activity rather than prolonged intensity.
They also preferred not being monitored or recording their heart rate, which suggests they prefer to exercise alone or with independence.
Professor Paul Burgess, an author of the study from the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, said: “We found that people who scored more highly in the neuroticism personality trait showed a particularly strong reduction in stress when they undertook the fitness training recommended in the study.
“This suggests that there may be particular benefits in stress reduction for those with this trait.”
Conscientious people tend to have a well-rounded fitness level – scoring higher on tests.
They didn’t have more enjoyment for any form of exercise, which the researchers suggested meant that they are driven by the positive health outcomes, rather than enjoyment of exercise. They may have stuck to the programme because it was ‘good for them’.
People who were high in the agreeableness trait enjoyed the easy long rides in the exercise programme and openness predicted less enjoyment of HIIT rides and threshold rides (moderate intensity over a long period). But these effects were not strong.
Dr Flaminia Ronca, of UCL’s surgery and interventional science and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health (ISEH), said: “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.
“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.”
In the paper, published in Frontiers in Psychology, the researchers concluded that the most important thing people can do to improve their activity levels is to find something that they enjoy, which will make it more likely that they’ll stick with it.
How much exercise should you do and when?
There are guidelines issued by the NHS and the Government regarding how much exercise people should do each day.
People should be active daily, and avoid sitting for long periods.
The NHS recommends an adults – those aged 19 to 64 – should aim for 150 minutes of “moderate intensity activity” a week.
This works out to 21 minutes a day, or 30 minutes five days a week.
Or, they could do 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week, which could be less than 11 minutes per day or 25 minutes three days a week.
Adults should also aim to do strength exercises twice a week, at least.
Examples of moderate-intensity activities include brisk walking, water aerobics, riding a bike, dancing, doubles tennis, pushing a lawn mower, hiking or rollerblading.
Examples of vigorous activities include running, swimming, riding a bike fast or on hills, walking up the stairs, sports, like football, rugby, netball and hockey, skipping, aerobics, gymnastics or martial arts.
Things like lifting heavy weights, sprinting up hills, spin classes or circuit training are considered very vigorous.
What time should you exercise?
Getting exercise into your day, no matter what time is a good idea.
But you may want to be more selective depending on your goal.
A 2023 US study on 5,285 middle-aged adults showed exercising between 7 and 9 am was the best time if you’re looking to lose weight.
Researchers found that early-bird gym goers had a lower body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference than those working out later.
A 2022 study led by Prof Paul J Arciero, Skidmore College, New York, found that the optimal time of day to get your kit on might differ according to your gender.
Prof Arciero said women wanting to lose fat around their belly and hips would do better to hit the gym in the morning, but those seeking to gain upper body strength or simply improve their mood might see more results from evening exercise.
The results were the opposite for men.
If you struggle to get to sleep, it’s been found that exercise in the morning may help, but exercise in the evening may help you to stay asleep.
Exercise, generally, can improve sleep quality.
