Before your next workout – take a personality test!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Exercise is great for the mind and body. But does personality determine which workouts you enjoy?
Enter Flaminia Ronca and team from University College London!
They surveyed nearly one hundred participants with the “Big Five” personality test. This ranked openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Then, participants completed a cycling and strength training program and rated their experience.
So who liked what? Neurotic or anxious participants enjoyed short, low-intensity workouts at home! It even lowered their stress! Extroverted participants got an energy boost from high-intensity workouts!
Disliking your workout can rob you of the benefits of exercise. So don’t fight your personality, work-out with it!
Reference: Ronca F, Tari B, Xu C and Burgess PW (2025) Personality traits can predict which exercise intensities we enjoy most, and the magnitude of stress reduction experienced following a training program. Front. Psychol. 16:1587472. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1587472