September 12, 2025 • 6 mins
Ever wondered why you can’t stick to an exercise routine or why you hate the gym when everyone else seems to love it? You could be doing the wrong type of exercise for your personality type.
A recent UK study looked at how personality types could predict how enjoyable people find different exercise routines and who can stick to them.
Dr Dougal Sutherland joined Jack Tame to discuss the research.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks that.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be, it's and and when when. When you read it,
it does kind of make some pretty good sense. But
but I thought quick sidebar useful to explain the personality
traits that we're talking about, because you know, every every
sort of seemingly every few months, there's new kind of
you know, you'll see something new, particularly on social media
(00:32):
feeds around this. You know, have you discovered your personality type?
It's you know, we're all apples and those people are oranges,
and it's like, I don't think that's a personality type.
So it is an area that's a bit prone to
sort of pop psychology, you know, trend. So, but there
are five five what we'd call personality traits that are
(00:54):
pretty accepted and have been accepted for a long time.
They're called the Big Five and they're known by the
acronym ocean. And so that's that's there's five of those.
So that the first the is openness. So how willing
am I to try new things? And remembering that these
are all kind of continuum, so you could be high
in this or low in this, So how how how
(01:17):
open am I willing to try new things. Conscientiousness, and
I wonder whether you and I are quite high in this.
So this is organized, dependable, reliable. We're like routines and
structures and the same thing roughly at the same time
every day, which which I definitely kind of class myself
as the extraversion. And I think people are pretty familiar
(01:39):
with the extrovert introvert continuum. So extraversion extraversion is how outgoing,
how sociable we are. Where do we get our energy from?
Is it from interacting with other people? Or is it
from sort of downtime which is much downtime by ourselves,
which is much more introverted. The fourth one is agreeableness.
So that's how kind and pathic cooperative I am? How
(02:02):
how you know how agreeable in a sense am I
with other people? How? How how how can I see
their point of view or you know, get alongside them?
And then lastly, neuroticism or that that's a little bit
of an old fashioned urn. You could easily replace that
with just how nervous are you? How how much do
you tend to worry or experience negative emotions? And I,
(02:23):
you know, hand up pot myself.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Technology love a better technology when it goes, well.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yes, here I am back again. I could hear you,
but you couldn't hear me. That's weird.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
It's very strange.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
So the so the old acronym ocean describes the different
personality traits, But how do you then apply those to
different exercises?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, and look, I think people will have you know,
when you think about those sort of those big five,
I think most people kind of have a will have
sort of summnate sense of where they are on that.
So look, three things, three takeaway points. Those people who
are highly conscientious. Look, so remember those are the sort
of the organized, dependable relival. They're more likely to be
(03:05):
a bit fitter to start, probably because people like us
are you know, we get into our routine and we
kick that routine even when we might not want to,
and more likely to log more exercise hours per week.
So and that makes some sense. So if you are
higher and that sort of your sorry, in that conscient
(03:25):
conscientiousness scale, you tend to be able to stick get
to a plan and stick to it. So that's you know,
that's an advantage. If you know that that's sort of
the personality style you are, then the best thing you
can probably do is get into a good habit, make
some habits around your fitness and and and you'll probably
stick to them quite easily. So that's one takeaway. People
(03:47):
who are the second takeaway, people who are more extroverted
tend to enjoy kind of more high intensity workouts, you know,
the spin classes and the command everybody, let's go. And
again that makes some sort of sense. So if you
feel like you're high in that, then maybe that's the
type of workout that you should be looking for. There's
lots of energy, lots of pumping up, lots of enthusiasm.
(04:10):
You might not quite get the same. You might not
find it so easy to stick to something if it's
sort of solitary or walking around, you know, the streets
of Wellington by yourself at six o'clock in the morning,
that might not be your thing so much. So again
thinking about can I find something that really fits that
sense of extraversion for me? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Right?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
And then the last one neuroticism. So that's all the nervousness,
tendency to worry. Interesting finding that those people that were
a bit neurotic tended to report lower enjoyment of things
that took a lot of effort. They did them, but
they didn't really like doing them, but they did them anyway,
and I'll moan about it and I'll complain about it
(04:50):
while I'm doing it. But interestingly, they were the group
that reported the highest level of reduction in mental stress
when they were exercising, and so maybe they were higher
in mental and that sort of stress to start with.
But you know, again, if you tend to worry, you
tend to be a bit of a warrior, a bit
of a bit of an overthinker about things. Maybe you know,
(05:13):
just stick with it and actually, you know, get into
that pattern and you'll probably find that physically as well
as mentally, you really benefit from it. So I think great.
The overall tip would be to think about how that
ocean though Big five apply to you and see if
you can sort of match that to the type of
workout that you're going to try and do well, the
type of activity that you're going to try and do.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Yeah, right, okay, that makes a lot of sense actually,
And it's funny because they almost feel intuitive. Those outcomes
almost feel intuitive. Is it a great surprise that the
people who are the most extroverted love the will you know?
Rah rah big workouts and they come on dig deep.
It's not at all, it's not remotely surprising. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, so it's good to think, you know, as you
started off at the top saying, you know that our
minds and our bodies we're all surprisingly enough up into
the we're a single entity. So you know, think about
all parts of you, your brain and your body when
you're trying to figure out what's sort of the best
activity or exercise for you to get into and stick to.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, no, that's great. Tips. Hey, thank you so much,
really appreciate it. Google appreciate you sticking with us too.
Once the technology drops out there for a moment. Google.
Sutherland is of course a clinical psychologist with Umbrella Well Beeing.
We'll make sure that study and Google's outcomes are up
on the News Talks CB website for.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
More from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to
News Talks i'd Be from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks that.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be, it's and and when when. When you read it,
it does kind of make some pretty good sense. But
but I thought quick sidebar useful to explain the personality
traits that we're talking about, because you know, every every
sort of seemingly every few months, there's new kind of
you know, you'll see something new, particularly on social media
(00:32):
feeds around this. You know, have you discovered your personality type?
It's you know, we're all apples and those people are oranges,
and it's like, I don't think that's a personality type.
So it is an area that's a bit prone to
sort of pop psychology, you know, trend. So, but there
are five five what we'd call personality traits that are
(00:54):
pretty accepted and have been accepted for a long time.
They're called the Big Five and they're known by the
acronym ocean. And so that's that's there's five of those.
So that the first the is openness. So how willing
am I to try new things? And remembering that these
are all kind of continuum, so you could be high
in this or low in this, So how how how
(01:17):
open am I willing to try new things. Conscientiousness, and
I wonder whether you and I are quite high in this.
So this is organized, dependable, reliable. We're like routines and
structures and the same thing roughly at the same time
every day, which which I definitely kind of class myself
as the extraversion. And I think people are pretty familiar
(01:39):
with the extrovert introvert continuum. So extraversion extraversion is how outgoing,
how sociable we are. Where do we get our energy from?
Is it from interacting with other people? Or is it
from sort of downtime which is much downtime by ourselves,
which is much more introverted. The fourth one is agreeableness.
So that's how kind and pathic cooperative I am? How
(02:02):
how you know how agreeable in a sense am I
with other people? How? How how how can I see
their point of view or you know, get alongside them?
And then lastly, neuroticism or that that's a little bit
of an old fashioned urn. You could easily replace that
with just how nervous are you? How how much do
you tend to worry or experience negative emotions? And I,
(02:23):
you know, hand up pot myself.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Technology love a better technology when it goes, well.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yes, here I am back again. I could hear you,
but you couldn't hear me. That's weird.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
It's very strange.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
So the so the old acronym ocean describes the different
personality traits, But how do you then apply those to
different exercises?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, and look, I think people will have you know,
when you think about those sort of those big five,
I think most people kind of have a will have
sort of summnate sense of where they are on that.
So look, three things, three takeaway points. Those people who
are highly conscientious. Look, so remember those are the sort
of the organized, dependable relival. They're more likely to be
(03:05):
a bit fitter to start, probably because people like us
are you know, we get into our routine and we
kick that routine even when we might not want to,
and more likely to log more exercise hours per week.
So and that makes some sense. So if you are
higher and that sort of your sorry, in that conscient
(03:25):
conscientiousness scale, you tend to be able to stick get
to a plan and stick to it. So that's you know,
that's an advantage. If you know that that's sort of
the personality style you are, then the best thing you
can probably do is get into a good habit, make
some habits around your fitness and and and you'll probably
stick to them quite easily. So that's one takeaway. People
(03:47):
who are the second takeaway, people who are more extroverted
tend to enjoy kind of more high intensity workouts, you know,
the spin classes and the command everybody, let's go. And
again that makes some sort of sense. So if you
feel like you're high in that, then maybe that's the
type of workout that you should be looking for. There's
lots of energy, lots of pumping up, lots of enthusiasm.
(04:10):
You might not quite get the same. You might not
find it so easy to stick to something if it's
sort of solitary or walking around, you know, the streets
of Wellington by yourself at six o'clock in the morning,
that might not be your thing so much. So again
thinking about can I find something that really fits that
sense of extraversion for me? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Right?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
And then the last one neuroticism. So that's all the nervousness,
tendency to worry. Interesting finding that those people that were
a bit neurotic tended to report lower enjoyment of things
that took a lot of effort. They did them, but
they didn't really like doing them, but they did them anyway,
and I'll moan about it and I'll complain about it
(04:50):
while I'm doing it. But interestingly, they were the group
that reported the highest level of reduction in mental stress
when they were exercising, and so maybe they were higher
in mental and that sort of stress to start with.
But you know, again, if you tend to worry, you
tend to be a bit of a warrior, a bit
of a bit of an overthinker about things. Maybe you know,
(05:13):
just stick with it and actually, you know, get into
that pattern and you'll probably find that physically as well
as mentally, you really benefit from it. So I think great.
The overall tip would be to think about how that
ocean though Big five apply to you and see if
you can sort of match that to the type of
workout that you're going to try and do well, the
type of activity that you're going to try and do.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Yeah, right, okay, that makes a lot of sense actually,
And it's funny because they almost feel intuitive. Those outcomes
almost feel intuitive. Is it a great surprise that the
people who are the most extroverted love the will you know?
Rah rah big workouts and they come on dig deep.
It's not at all, it's not remotely surprising. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, so it's good to think, you know, as you
started off at the top saying, you know that our
minds and our bodies we're all surprisingly enough up into
the we're a single entity. So you know, think about
all parts of you, your brain and your body when
you're trying to figure out what's sort of the best
activity or exercise for you to get into and stick to.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, no, that's great. Tips. Hey, thank you so much,
really appreciate it. Google appreciate you sticking with us too.
Once the technology drops out there for a moment. Google.
Sutherland is of course a clinical psychologist with Umbrella Well Beeing.
We'll make sure that study and Google's outcomes are up
on the News Talks CB website for.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
More from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to
News Talks i'd Be from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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