Science Says Introverts Like Me Should Hate The Gym. Here's How I Learned To Love It Anyway

Yahoo

a day ago

I'm pretty obsessive about fitness – I write so much about its longevity-boosting, anti-ageing benefits, after all, that I can't help but buy into the hype.
I love running, or at least I'm learning to fall back in love with it.
I've started lifting weights and trying fitness trends like 'Japanese walking' and 'Jeffing', partly because they improve vital metrics like my VO2 max, but mostly because of the mood-boosting benefits.
But I was not always this barbell-lifting, creatine-guzzling person – and a new study from scientists at the University College London may reveal why.
I'm an anxious introvert, and I didn't get into fitness until about 23. So it makes sense that the paper found that, in very simplistic terms, exercise is more appealing to extroverts.
In particular, outgoing people seemed to love high-intensity workouts like weightlifting and spin (both of which I only finally managed to try this year).
More neurotic, private types like myself were likelier to find the whole thing mortifying, the paper said.
I definitely felt that way, too, at the start. Here's how I built activity into my life anyway.
I skipped every PE class throughout secondary school because I found the whole process of exercising so chillingly embarrassing.
The Frontiers paper found that neurotic people who weren't extroverts preferred 'being given space for independence and privacy when engaging in exercise', too.
But, like me, these people saw the most significant stress reduction when they did stick to a programme.
I began running in a low mental health dip, but I took it slow (with a Couch to 5k app) and ran away from people, at off-peak park hours.
I also began doing home workouts, which were easy to achieve in the comfort of my own home. This is a great option for people who fear judgment.
You can also, as the study noted, use your personality traits to your advantage.
For instance, those described as being more 'conscientious' (who are not necessarily extroverts) are more likely to stick to a plan when they know its health benefits.
As someone who falls into that camp, I've found that this tendency is big enough to outweigh my panic.
That's not just because I felt too attached to my new health plan to let crying mid-fitness class and leaving the gym in shame (which has happened twice), stop me forever.
I am simply too convinced by the masses of research outlining exercise's benefits to ignore them – my likely neurotic preoccupation with doing 'the right thing' has proven a cheat code to sticking with at-first embarrassing attempts to lift.
Your traits may require different motives. Perhaps extroverts will be drawn in by adrenaline-packed spin classes, while less outgoing people might enjoy short bursts of activity and a well-rounded mixture of aerobic and strength training, the paper found.
And those who hated being perceived in the gym also didn't respond well to devices tracking things like their heart rate and pace (for what it's worth, I would never have finished my first 5k if I'd started off tracking my pace).
Study author Dr Flaminia Ronca said 'we could potentially use this knowledge to tailor physical activity recommendations to the individual – and hopefully help them to become and remain more active'.
Due to the endless benefits of staying active, that's the most important result, the authors add.
If that means nabbing some resistance bands and doing some strengthening moves in the privacy of your living room, so be it. If you hate long, arduous workouts like lengthy runs, opt for shorter bursts of exercise instead.
The key, this paper shows, is mercy, patience, and self-compassion; and having once been terrified of gyms, I can honestly say I'd never have set foot in my new favourite spot without those.
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