Discover Your Exercise Personality

“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it”. – Bruce Lee.

It is no secret; personality traits directly affect your health and fitness. Numerous studies have proven that people that are prone to stress and anxiety often experience more health issues than individuals that have a positive outlook on life. Often our negativity comes from self-consciousness, feeling a lack of control and feeling over-whelmed by the challenges we face. So many people join gyms with good intentions of reaching their fitness goals but then give up almost as soon as they have signed up! We blame time, finances, and family commitments however, these things affected our lives before the paperwork was signed! I see it all the time; people who are new to gyms running out of clubs because they were confused by an unfamiliar piece of equipment, or they felt completely self-conscious by a class or they were pushed to the max by a trainer and were scarred for life by the brutal physical exertion they felt! Sometimes “the stress of engaging in exercise that is not of our choosing can outweigh its health benefits” (“The Owner’s Manual for the Brain” – Dr Pierce Howard). In 2004 the University of Florida conducted tests on approximately 860 students to see if personality was a factor when it came to individuals sticking to exercise routines (“Personality May Be Key to ‘Psyching’ Oneself Up for Exercise - University of Florida News May 3 2004). According to the research conducted, specific training styles and exercise environments suited different personality types and because the training suited individual emotional needs, it reduced stress levels in different individuals and encouraged them not only to stick to an exercise routine but to enjoy the activity.

Amy Hagan of the University of Florida hypothesized for her doctoral dissertation that “if people’s personalities can predict what conditions are most favourable for them to exercise, then an exercise program can be tailored to fit their personal needs, making it more likely they will stick with a routine” (“Personality May Be Key to ‘Psyching’ Oneself Up for Exercise - University of Florida News May 3 2004). Hagen surveyed undergraduate students in sports and fitness classes at UF’s College of Health and Human Performance about personality, exercise preference and exercise behaviour. Questionnaires were given to approximately 860 students and the researchers used five major personality traits; extraversion, which measures sociability; neuroticism, which gauges emotional stability and refers to the tendency to feel fear, embarrassment, sadness and guilt; openness, one’s receptiveness to new experiences; agreeableness, the inclination to be agreeable and helpful; and conscientiousness, the tendency to be strong-willed and determined. It was discovered not only that different types of activities were suited to different personality types, but that the exercise environment played a significant role.  Also, particular personalities are more willing to adapt to an active lifestyle than others.

Extroverts: According to the research extroverted people tended to crave “active and high-intensity workout sessions” (“What’s Your Exercise Personality’ – Eatbetteramerica.com). It was also discovered that these people preferred listening to music while exercising and were more motivated when in a social environment. The Group Fitness arena is ideal for these thrill-seekers! Classes such as Spin, Body Attack, Body Step, Jam, Sh’bam and so on are music driven programs that offer high intensity moves in a highly social environment. In these programs, the social/fun-factor is as equally important to the workout as the physical exertion. It was also found that these individuals are prone to exercising fairly often. According to Hagan “These excitement-craving people love lots of activity and want to go, go, go” (“Personality May Be Key to ‘Psyching’ Oneself Up for Exercise - University of Florida News May 3 2004).

Neurotics: These people are least likely to exercise and, ironically, they’re most in need of it because exercise reduces anxiety and depression. Neurotic people tend to prefer exercising indoors or in a private environment. Neurotics who tend to be anxiety-provoked and stressed-out people responded better to low-intensity/endurance training such as distance running. Repetitive, rhythmic exercises such as running, swimming or cycling tended to suit these individuals possibly because the rhythm exerts a “tranquillizing effect on the brain stem and nervous system in a manner similar to rocking a baby” ("Scientists have a Good Feeling about Exercise” – Carol Krucoff). These individuals become stressed by crowds and are more suited to private training studios or training at non-peak times. Many of these individuals enjoy a home gym set up or, when training with a trainer, will do so in an un-populated studio or space.

Open Minded/Introverts: These people were found to like a variety of activities and like exercising to music. However, this group was found to consider training “me” time and, therefore, was often not suited to the group fitness arena. These individuals are often found in the cardio area of a gym most likely listening to their ipods and partaking in activities such as running, cycling or walking which are activities they can do on their own. This group of individuals find groups of people draining and prefer to consider exercise their “time-out” for the day. Despite the group environment, programs such as yoga and pilates have been proven to have an appeal to these individuals as they offer the benefit of rejuvenation and relaxation.

Agreeable People: These individuals seem to prefer to exercise in the morning to get it over with. Agreeable people are compliant and friendly and have a tendency to help others and acquiesce to requests. These individuals exercise because they have to and train better with a work out buddy or trainer who can offer direction to keep them on track.

Conscientious People: These people are highly motivated and disciplined and will often schedule their fitness plan. According to Hagan, conscientious people “want to take charge of their own exercise routine to make sure it will get done” (“Exercise Tips for Extroverted, Introverted and Neurotic Personality Traits” – Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen). Conscientious People like high-intensity training but prefer to take charge of their own workouts rather than follow an instructor. If these individuals choose to train with a trainer they need to find a like-minded individual to train them or will opt to consult with a trainer to develop a structured routine that can be executed when it is convenient, and then check-in every month so the trainer can re-evaluate progress (“What’s Your Exercise Personality?” – Eatbetteramerica.com).  If they were to enter the Group Fitness arena, no frills programs such as Pump, cycle or Tabata would appeal as they are strong powerful programs all about getting in, doing the hard work and going!

We develop our emotional brain from a very early age; as babies we learn to laugh and cry. As we grow up we become subjected to a variety of experiences that shape us into who we are. Emotions hold strong with us when we are in certain environments due to our memories, and if an environment provokes negative associations, we become distressed and unhappy. However, the benefits of exercise are far too great to let environment or emotions stop us. Many fitness professionals and partakers give advice on what we should be doing. If this has failed for you in the past, perhaps ask yourself if the activity you participated in suited your needs? This is not just in terms of your fitness goals but what you required emotionally and environmentally. Often the best choices in life come from self-reflection on who we are and what is important to us. Perhaps if we stayed true to ourselves and our emotional needs, our training would not only assist our physical fitness, it would become a pleasurable thing that is a necessity for our wellbeing.

The New Year’s Resolution Achieved

“All wishes can be fulfilled by pledging” – The Manu Smriti

The end of the year is a busy time when we frantically try and cram in as much as possible; we tie up loose ends at work, try and catch up with as many family and friends as possible, we shop, eat and run around as though December 31st is the deadline to wind up all aspects of our life for the year!  Then January 1st chimes in… and suddenly, we breathe!  We finally have a moment to reflect on our year and what we want to change in this new ‘fresh start’ year.  Many people make New Year’s resolutions and most of these are geared toward self-improvement.  With this in mind, it is no surprise that fitness is often high on the priority list of when it comes to New Year’s resolutions.  However, studies have shown that approximately 20% of people are successful at seeing their resolutions through and some of the biggest failures are found in fitness resolutions (“Make Your New Year Fitness Plan Stick” - Lynn Bode CFT).  We often choose resolutions that we think we should adhere to rather than something realistic and achievable, so we make an empty promise to ourselves that we know we won’t see through.  What a waste of an opportunity!  New Year’s resolutions offer hope and prove that people have a belief in their ability to create positive changes for themselves.  The difference between our resolutions and other decisions we make to bring about changes in our life is that other goals we set for ourselves and achieve have taken concise planning, an action plan for when we get off track and landmarks so we can measure our progress.  If the New Year inspires a resolution and brings about optimism and motivation, why not create an action plan to guarantee success???

 

The practice of making resolutions can be tracked back to 4,000 years ago with the Babylonians.  Their New Year commenced in March to coincide with the “spring planting of crops” (“Personal Growth—New Year Resolutions: A Matter of Resolve” - Anupama Bhattacharya).  The Babylonians believed that “what a person does on the first day of the New Year will affect him or her throughout the year” (“Personal Growth—New Year Resolutions: A Matter of Resolve” - Anupama Bhattacharya).  Today’s take on resolutions doesn’t quite have the same superstitious connotations as the Babylonians, however, most resolutions are inspired from a reflection on the year before and a belief that the mere pledge to change will wipe clean a magical slate as the new year chimes in so we can start  over again.  If only life were that easy!  Unfortunately for most of us, unless you really did go about tying up loose ends and creating closure for certain life scenarios during the festive/catch-up/wrap up season, the problems we may have had with fitness, or work, or family often stay with us moving into the new year.  The lack of success some people have with resolutions often comes from the fact that they think uttering the resolution aloud will have the same effect as a magic wand!  However, when we look at other achievements in our lives, these have often come about due to actions, hard work and planning.

 

Many Personal Trainers use the SMART model when it comes to setting goals for clients; specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound goals.  A vague resolution like “I want to get fit” may inspire someone enough to join a gym, but with the word ‘fitness’ having so many variables and meanings associated with it, what’s the plan from here?  Most people who aspire to be fitter in the New Year do so because they indulge during the festive season, so their resolve to be ‘fitter’ is actually a wish to be leaner.  Setting a specific goal weight often helps people map out an action plan on how they can achieve this.  This goal must been realistic; if your goal is to lose 15kg and the average person loses 1-2 kilos per week, if you set yourself a 2 week time frame to achieve this in, you are dooming yourself to failure!  The main reason that so many of us give up on our New Year’s resolutions is that we set ourselves goals that are unobtainable.  A 12 week goal would be more reasonable and achievable in this scenario.

 

There should be some system to track and measure your progress; whether it is as old-fashioned as the scales, recording body measurements or a clothes size.  Measuring progress not only documents that everything is going in the right direction, it keeps you accountable and motivated when it comes to your goal.  Measuring progress of fitness doesn’t always have to be about aesthetics (as motivating as those changes are!), the measurement may be a progression with the training itself such as lifting heavier weights, the ability to do more repetitions at an exercise or increasing the distance or speed on your run.  A food diary is another measurement of progress; it documents improved habits and is an accountability tool if you stray from personal goals.

 

Goals should be attainable; a 4ft broadly-built female can’t strut up to a personal trainer, point to a photograph of Megan Gale and say “I want to look like this!” and someone who has never run to the letterbox in their life can’t expect to initiate their running training with a marathon and be amazing.  Reality tells us that, firstly, we must work with what we are born with and, secondly, we should set small achievable goals in order to draw us closer to bigger ones.  You may aspire to run a marathon; but why not start with 1-2km… gradually increase this distance to 10km… then build your speed and become more time efficient… then increase the distance to 15km… and so on…  It is good and optimistic to set your sights high, but perhaps breaking down these goals will offer a greater chance at success.

 

Goals should also be relevant to you and hold a certain resonance with your current lifestyle.  The trouble with New Year’s resolutions is that most changes we choose to make are based on what we think we should do and not what we really want for ourselves.  We may say that we want to give up drinking or smoking because we’ve heard they are ’bad for our health’ but then may be the biggest socialites on the planet who expose ourselves to these temptations 4-5 days  of the week.  Then we fall off the wagon within moments of pledging our resolution because we actually enjoy our current behaviour.  If we are going to commit to our resolution and want to bring about change, our goal should inspire us and come from an honest place.  I have had several personal training clients who have been inspired to work on their fitness due to a personal health scare or one involving a family member.   It is like an epiphany!  A loved one manages to turn their life around because the doctor prescribed them exercise and suddenly they are inspired to do right by themselves, or the pin finally dropped in regard to their own health and suddenly workout isn’t a luxury, it is a health necessity!

 

Time lines can create a sense of urgency; they keep us in line and make us strive harder for what we want when we want it.  Any student will tell you about sleepless nights spent just trying to finish an assignment by a deadline to ensure good results.  When we give ourselves a time-frame to achieve fitness goals we tend to see them through more successfully.  Successful Biggest Loser/Transformation Challenge contestants can vouch for this; the first 8 weeks are dedicated to lifestyle changes– training and physical exertion, diet changes and breaking bad habits... then suddenly the end date is in sight!  Training increases, the diet becomes even stricter and on that last weigh in day, the sauna sessions increase.  It is astounding the lengths we will go to when we have an end point in sight.

 

New Year’s resolutions have often been given a bad rap; a less than 20% success rate and many accounts of failure usually because we set ourselves goals we can’t achieve and don’t necessarily want to achieve.  But what is wrong with desiring a fresh start for ourselves?  The optimism and self-belief that we can make positive changes for ourselves should be encouraged!  The resolution itself may be broad and a little beyond our reach, but that isn’t to say we can’t take the idea, break it down into small achievable goals and see our resolutions through.