How Myers-Briggs Can Help You Understand the Way You Exercise
I first discovered the Myers-Briggs personality profile during one of my yoga teacher trainings, and I found it fascinating. It gave me another way of understanding myself — why I naturally enjoy certain things, why other approaches feel difficult, and why what motivates one person can be completely different from what motivates somebody else.
It has also helped me think differently about my clients. We often talk about health and fitness as though everybody should be motivated in the same way. Join a gym. Follow a programme. Record your weights. Set some goals. Stick to the plan. But human beings aren’t all wired in exactly the same way. Understanding someone’s personality can give us clues about the kind of exercise environment, coaching and routine they might actually enjoy.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was developed by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, drawing on ideas about psychological types developed by psychiatrist Carl Jung. It describes personality preferences across four pairs: Extraversion or Introversion (E/I), Sensing or Intuition (S/N), Thinking or Feeling (T/F), and Judging or Perceiving (J/P). The different combinations produce the familiar 16 personality types, such as ENFP, ISTJ or ENTJ.
It’s important not to turn these types into boxes. Myers-Briggs is best thought of as a framework for self-reflection rather than a scientific prescription for exactly how someone will behave. Personality is far more complicated than four letters, and your MBTI type certainly can’t tell you which exercise is medically or physiologically right for you. But it can prompt some really interesting questions about motivation, enjoyment and adherence.
Take Extraversion and Introversion. Someone with a preference for Extraversion may get enormous energy from exercising with other people. Group exercise, a busy gym, a running club, team sport or an enthusiastic personal trainer might make exercise much more enjoyable. Someone with an Introversion preference may love putting on their headphones and training quietly, going for a solitary walk, practising yoga at home or working one-to-one with a trainer in a calmer environment. Neither approach is better. The question is: Where do you feel comfortable enough to keep coming back?
Then there is Sensing and Intuition. Someone with a Sensing preference may appreciate practical, concrete instructions: Put your feet here. Do ten repetitions. Rest for sixty seconds. This exercise strengthens these muscles. They may enjoy seeing tangible improvements in strength, distance, speed or technique. Someone with an Intuition preference may be more motivated by the bigger picture. They may want to understand where their training is taking them, explore different ways of moving and connect exercise to a broader vision of how they want to feel and live.
Thinking and Feeling can also influence the coaching relationship. A person with a Thinking preference might respond well to logic, evidence, measurable outcomes and straightforward feedback. They may want to know why they’re doing an exercise and whether it’s working. Someone with a Feeling preference might be particularly motivated by personal meaning, encouragement and connection. Exercise may become much more important when it relates to something they value: having more energy for their family, feeling confident in their body or looking after themselves as they grow older.
And then we have Judging and Perceiving, which I think is particularly interesting when it comes to fitness. Someone with a Judging preference may really enjoy structure. Monday is strength training. Wednesday is swimming. Friday is personal training. They may enjoy having a twelve-week programme, recording their progress and knowing exactly what they’re doing.
Someone with a Perceiving preference may find that same programme restrictive. They may need variety, flexibility and play. Rather than knowing exactly what they’re going to do every Tuesday for the next three months, they might prefer having several options and deciding what appeals to them that day. One day it’s weights, another day cycling, another day yoga, another day a class.
That doesn’t mean one person is disciplined and the other isn’t. They may simply be motivated differently.
This is something I think the fitness industry sometimes misses. We can spend enormous amounts of time designing the theoretically perfect exercise programme without asking whether the person standing in front of us will actually enjoy doing it.
A programme can be scientifically beautifully designed, but if somebody hates it and gives up after three weeks, it hasn’t achieved very much. Sometimes adherence begins with personality.
The same idea can extend beyond exercise into our wider health habits. One person may love meal planning, schedules, fitness trackers and clearly defined goals. Another may do much better with broad principles, flexibility and choices. Some people are motivated by numbers. Others are motivated by how they feel. Some enjoy competition. Others hate it. Some want a trainer pushing them. Others need a trainer who creates a calm, supportive space and allows them to progress in their own time.
For me, this is where personal training becomes genuinely personal.
Instead of simply asking a new client, “What do you want to achieve?”, perhaps we should also be asking: “What have you enjoyed in the past? Do you like routine or variety? Do you prefer exercising alone or with people? Do you enjoy tracking numbers? Do you like knowing exactly what is coming, or do you prefer spontaneity? What makes exercise feel like fun rather than another obligation?”
You don’t even need to know someone’s Myers-Briggs letters to have that conversation. The framework simply reminds us that different people need different things.
There are basic principles of fitness that apply to everyone. Our bodies need appropriate challenge, recovery, movement and nourishment. If we want to become stronger, there needs to be some form of progression over time. Personality doesn’t change physiology.
But personality can change how we get there.
Perhaps your progression happens through a carefully recorded gym programme. Perhaps mine happens through yoga, cycling, weights, classes and trying different things while a trainer quietly makes sure I’m getting stronger.
Both can work.
Understanding your personality isn’t an excuse to avoid things that challenge you. It’s a way of designing those challenges so that they fit the human being who’s actually going to do them.
And perhaps that’s one of the most important lessons I’ve taken from Myers-Briggs: there isn’t one right way to become healthy and fit.
The best approach isn’t necessarily the one somebody tells you that you should enjoy.
It’s the one that works with your body, your goals, your life — and your personality.
