Overview

• Researchers at University College London ran an eight-week trial with 132 adults comparing a home strength-and-cycling program to a stretching control group while mapping participants’ Big Five traits to exercise preferences and outcomes.
• Extraverts gravitated toward high-intensity, socially oriented workouts like HIIT but were less likely to complete the program and did not record greater fitness improvements than other groups.
• Participants high in neuroticism favored private, low-intensity home sessions, avoided heart-rate tracking and were the only group to report significant stress reduction by the study’s end.
• Individuals scoring high in openness showed lower enjoyment of intense routines yet achieved the highest program completion rates and readily experimented with diverse activities such as dance and hiking.
• Authors recommend integrating personality-driven exercise customization into public health guidelines to improve long-term engagement and address widespread physical inactivity.