According to psychological research, human nature boils down to the five major personality traits namely, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. These are known as the Big-5 personality traits and can influence the type of exercises that best fits you.
So without further ado, let’s start:
Conscientiousness
People who identify as conscientious are generally more motivated to take up physical activities and exercises. These people like to have a regular and consistence workout routine and as a result, they may often do solo activities that are not dependent on other people, like sprinting on treadmill or weightlifting.
These activities do not require coordination from others and hence give conscientious people more control of what they want to do.
On the other hand, less conscientious people are more impulsive and may require extra measures so that they can stick to an exercise routine. They also may want to aim for activities that give them an adrenaline rush, like sprinting, bungee jumping, and contact sports.
Extraversion
People who have a high degree of extraversion tend to be social animals, love to be the center of the crowd and are very energetic. They feel positive emotions intensely. However, those who rate low on extraversion (but high on introversion) may be more serious, reserved, and like to workout alone. They are slow when it comes to showing positive experiences.
People who have high extraversion tendencies, like to join running clubs or participate in group fitness classes, CrossFit, Zumba, and competitive team sport. They also like to do exhilarating activities with friends like rock climbing.
However, regular fitness regimen may sound boring to them.
On the other hand, people who are low on the extraversion scale may enjoy solo workouts.
Agreeableness
If you have a highly agreeableness personality, you are friendly, trusting, cooperative, sympathetic and altruistic. If you have a less agreeable personality, you may be cynical, self-protective, tough-minded, and competitive.
If you are high on agreeableness, you may like to workout in teams. Such people do well in dancing, boot camps, CrossFit, double tennis and other recreational sport.
Those who are low on the agreeable scale may like competitive sports better like boxing, MMA fighting, weightlifting, bodybuilding, singles tennis, and triathlons.
Neuroticism
People who are prone to anxiety and mood swings and find it high to relax are high on the neuroticism scale. People who are more “neurotic” may aim to exercise for weight loss and improving their physical appearance. They may also exercise in order to relieve stress.
People who have higher neuroticism may prefer to run alone, work out at a home gym or wear headphones while working out so they are not interrupted. They may also benefit from yoga.
Openness to Experience
A person who rates high on the openness to experience may require constant change in their workout regimen. These people are highly creative, imaginative, inquisitives, and willing to try new things. However, people who rate low on the openness to experience scale may be more focused, down-to-earth, traditional, and have strong beliefs about morality.
People who are more open to experience are more likely to add new exercises or tweak their workout regimen. They will also be open to try out the new workout trends.
These people like to take part in obstacle course races, ClassPass, fitness travel, or social media workouts.
If you are not very open though, you may like a repetitive and routine workout regimen that you caqn learn once and implement for a long time.
Bottom Line
You need to understand that rating high or low on any of these personality scales isn’t something negative. A person who rates low on an extravert scale can still be a highly agreeable and conscientious person. It is also important to note that it not necessary that the exercises we mentioned fit these personality types.
Since each personality dimension is independent from other dimension, you may have a unique combination of personality that may lead you to choose you an “unusual” style of exercise. However, that in no way means that exercise style is wrong for you.