How to choose a workout for your personality type
If your training program isn’t producing results, it’s not laziness or bad genetics. The problem is that your chosen workouts don’t match your personality type.
Hard training and total concentration are the rules of success in any sport. However, you will not be able to keep your attention on something that is not interesting to you for a long time. That is why the same training program can work great for some people and bring only disappointment to others.
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If the workout suits your personality type, it will keep you interested in the sport and ensure continued progress. A well-chosen program will motivate you for regular and hard work.
How to determine the type of personality
To determine the personality type, use the test Menteora. As a bonus, artificial intelligence will list the most suitable professions for you. The accuracy of the test is 70-80% (read about Menteora's unique career guidance methodology).
Type 1. Seekers of novelty
Novelty seekers have low levels of dopamine. They do everything to improve it. Such people often become dopamine addicts, constantly looking for thrills with an adrenaline rush.
They are very curious and get bored quickly. These persons are driven into depression by the same strength training or endurance sports. They are strong but tire quickly.
Novelty seekers are extroverts. They feel good around people and love to compete. They like to challenge themselves and learn new things.
Sports Preferences
They prefer extreme sports and contact sports: football or martial arts. Also, individual sports with short, intense loads are suitable for seekers of novelty: sprints, jumps and throws.
In power sports, they like demonstration sports like bodybuilding. They also make great CrossFit athletes. A variety of exercises and the opportunity to compete do not let them get bored.
Food
A high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet is best, most of which is consumed before or after exercise. Every 3-4 days, it is worth refeed — carbohydrate loading.
Rules for effective training
1. Prepare your body for the workout
You need to raise your dopamine levels at the beginning of a workout. After warming up, activate explosive movements, for example, three sets of five vertical jumps.
During the warm-up sets before the strength exercise, try to go through the concentric phase (lift the projectile) as quickly as possible. It will strengthen the nervous system, providing the release of dopamine.
2. Change exercises often
Change the program every two weeks, supplement your workouts with different types of activities, or arrange different workouts within the same week.
If you are a powerlifter, try the Westside system. It includes different workouts: for strength and speed, unusual strength exercises instead of basic ones, and a change of program every week.
3. Train often, but not for long
You should arrange short but frequent workouts. Hard training can deplete your dopamine levels, so the next day, you will need a recovery load — short sessions of explosive exercises that will help replenish your dopamine stores.
Alternate daily between high intensity, recovery, and medium intensity. Train six times a week, rest one day. You should not rest two days in a row because this will reduce your performance and make the first workout after rest ineffective.
4. The small volume of training
You have good strength indicators, but you tire quickly. Intense workouts of 45-60 minutes are suitable for you. You will have time to give everything, not get tired, and not get bored.
For multi-joint basic exercises, 4-6 repetitions for muscle growth and 1-3 for strength will be enough. For isolated ones — 8-10 for hypertrophy and 6-8 for strength.
5. Change methods and strategies
If you can’t change the exercises, change how you do them. For example, you can replace the regular neck with a trap bar and try the regular exercises with dumbbells or kettlebells on one leg.
Vary your reps. Try isometric and explosive sets, and drop sets. Your main task is maintaining interest in training by constantly adding something new. There will be a novelty. There will be progress.
Type 2: Reward addicts
These people have low levels of norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter associated with self-confidence and a sense of well-being. The self-esteem of such people directly depends on what others think of them. They must be respected, supported, and admired by them.
They are very social, sympathetic, and caring and can help others even to their detriment. There is nothing worse than disappointing someone. Their primary motivation is to look good and to please others.
Sports Preferences
Reward addicts perform poorly in individual sports but excel in team sports. They rarely become superstars but do everything to make their team win.
They also love bodybuilding and other strength sports because it allows them to look great, be admired by others, and become more confident.
Food
They tend to be good at dieting when they feel responsible, such as when they want to please their nutritionist or trainer.
Since the food can become a reward, they risk becoming food addicted. Therefore, they need to eliminate junk food from their diet and consume only what is on the main menu in refeeding.
Rules for effective training
1. Learn the exercise technique well
You must perform the exercises correctly, so carefully work out the technique. During the preparation, do activating movements that will help to include the correct muscles in work.
2. Don’t change exercises until you’ve mastered them.
Your motivation is to perform the exercises correctly. Do not change the program. It is enough to change the main exercises every 4-6 weeks. Simple isolated exercises can be changed more often.
3. Practice often
Frequent training raises the level of norepinephrine so that you can work out 5-6 times a week without problems. Focus on one movement pattern (pulling or pushing exercises) or muscle group within one workout.
4. Don’t overload yourself
To impress others, you can take on too much. It can lead to injury or increase cortisol levels, stopping muscle growth. Therefore, try to avoid competition and do not drive yourself.
Do 6-12 reps for muscle hypertrophy and 3-5 reps for strength gains. Please stay away from the 1-rep max: it raises your cortisol levels.
5. Break up strenuous exercises with simple ones.
You can get frustrated with strenuous exercises from weightlifting and gymnastics if you can’t master them in any way. Simple exercises that do not require special skills and techniques will help maintain motivation at such moments.
Type 3 Harm Avoiders
People with this personality type have low serotonin levels. They have low energy levels, tire quickly, and like to be in familiar, controlled environments. As a rule, avoiders of harm are introverts. They are shy, vulnerable to criticism, and try to avoid conflicts. Their anxiety causes an increased level of cortisol, which negatively affects muscle growth.
Unexpected changes upset them and cause stress. They like to plan everything and are very organized and careful, but under the pressure of stress, they can begin to procrastinate.
The main driving force behind this personality type is to stay away from stress and trauma. They love repetitive workouts, are entirely focused during training, and strive to perform exercises with perfect technique.
Sports Preferences
Such people do not like contact sports or sports where unexpected factors can make a big difference.
They are best suited for a stable training program where exercises, methods, and rest intervals change infrequently.
Food
Do not severely limit the number of carbohydrates — they should be present in every main dish. It is worth consuming some carbohydrates before training to lower cortisol and at night to increase serotonin.
Rules for effective training
1. Warm up well
You are afraid of injury, so pay special attention to the warm-up. Roll out on a massage roller, do a dynamic warm-up, and do exercises to increase mobility. In warm-up sets with light weights, contract your muscles as if you were going to work with a one-rep maximum (1RM). It will warm up the muscles well and reduce the risk of injury and your anxiety about it.
2. Try not to change exercises
Changing exercises raise your cortisol levels. Try to change them as little as possible — once every 12 weeks.
If changes are still necessary, change only the exercises and leave the number of sets and repetitions, the training scheme, and the order of exercises unchanged. Any changes to the training program should be gradual.
3. Train four times a week
Your type is most sensitive to cortisol production during stress, and strength training is stress. It would help if you did not exercise too often to reduce cortisol levels and the catabolic effect that stops muscle growth.
Work out four times a week, alternating upper and lower body workouts with rest days.
4. Choose an average number of repetitions
For muscle hypertrophy, do 8-15 reps. For strength development, sets of 4-6 repetitions are suitable. When working with heavy weights, do 2-3 reps with 75-85% of 1RM and 4-6 reps with the highest possible weight and perfect technique.
5. Keep everything under control
You are demotivated by danger and loss of control, so work on your technique and choose a weight you are confident in. Working on a straightforward program with a gradual increase in load is suitable for you. It will give you a sense of confidence so you can train harder.
Have you found your personality type? If not yet, then take the Menteora career guidance test; artificial intelligence will name your most suitable professions. The accuracy of the test is 70-80% because we use a mathematical-statistical algorithm (read about Menteora's unique career guidance methodology).