Ever found yourself dreading the thought of going for a run, or entirely unable to find your zen during a yoga class? That’s because our ability to enjoy certain workout styles might have a lot to do with our personality types, new research shows.

A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology has linked people’s personality type to specific limitations and strengths when it comes to exercise, perhaps proving once and for all that marathon training isn’t for everyone.

So, instead of forcing yourself out of bed in the morning and dragging your feet across the pavement while you (slowly) track kilometres on your smart watch, perhaps it’s time to look within to find your perfect workout match.

The study began formulating its findings by having participants fill out a questionnaire. 132 adults aged between 25 and 51 were subject to a widely used questionnaire model that conceptualised their personality through five common traits: Extroversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, openness and conscientiousness.

Then, participants were tasked with several fitness tests and randomly split into two groups. One group was delivered an 8-week strength and cycling workout plan, and the other was tasked with just 10 minutes of stretching per week.

After 8 weeks, 86 of the original 132 participants completed both pre- and post-testing.

Across the board, participants of all personality types demonstrated an improvement in their fitness level, but only some demonstrated noticeable levels of enjoyment. In general, higher-intensity lab fitness tests were most enjoyed by people whose personality test deemed them more extroverted, while those with more neurotic personalities gravitated towards the home-based light-intensity sessions.

While exercise is generally considered to be an effective way to channel and relieve stress, the researchers concluded that some personality types may experience increased stress as a result of certain exercise types. Participants with ‘neurotic’ personalities reported experiencing the greatest reduction in self-reported stress, indicating that regular exercise is essential for their mental health management more than any other personality type. 

The findings are more than just interesting: they could help us tackle the rising rates of sedentary lifestyles, and chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and cancer.

“Personality determines which intensities and forms of exercises we’re attracted to. … If we can understand that, then we can make that first step in engagement and exercise in sedentary individuals,” Flaminia Ronca, an associate professor in exercise science at University College London and the study’s co-lead author, tells CNN.

Despite the World Health Organisation recommending that adults strive for 150 minutes of physical activity per week, only 22.5 per cent of adults and 19 per cent of adolescents are achieving this, indicating a growing global deficit of physical activity.

By understanding how people’s personality types may be impacting their ability to participate in and enjoy certain exercise styles, health care providers will be better equipped to recommend more personalised approaches to exercise, ideally encouraging people to increase their participation.

Rather than blanket statements such as ‘HIIT is good for anaerobic fitness, so everyone should give it a go’, experts will be able to suggest more curated workouts and exercise plans to individuals who may benefit more from a lower-intensity alternative. 

“There’s a danger, perhaps, that the focus becomes … competitive sports and serious engagement at a time when young people are starting to have lots more demands on them,” Paul Burgess, a professor of neuroscience at UCL who co-led the study, tells CNN.

“There are a lot of personalities that don’t respond well to that kind of situation, that find it quite stressful.”

Your perfect workout, according to your personality type

According to the study findings, people who scored highest for extroverted tendencies were more likely to enjoy and engage with team sports and high-intensity activities, such as group fitness classes and run clubs.

Neurotic personality types, who tend to struggle with emotional stability, preferred more intimate workout settings, such as private classes, and responded well to plenty of short breaks. These people also reported the highest reduction in self-reported stress as a result of the study’s training programs.

Participants who scored highly on conscientiousness were found to be the most likely to employ a well-rounded approach to fitness, driven by the knowledge that exercise is beneficial for their health. 

Those with greater openness were found to have greater body awareness, leading researchers to conclude that these individuals were most likely to focus on their sensations, potentially leading to perceiving high levels of exertion as a threat, especially if combined with neurotic traits