Don't Want To Work Out? This Study May Explain Why You Struggle To Get Motivated

Using data from a set of larger studies, researchers found that for women, personality can influence how active you are, along with how active you perceive yourself to be—and the two don't always align. They specifically mention two personality traits: extroversion and neuroticism.

Using data from 314 men and women ages 70 to 85 years, and from 1,098 people ages 47 to 55 years, they found that women who had higher extroversion scores often self-reported more exercise than their activity monitor actually recorded.

The discrepancy can be accounted for, according to the researchers: "Activity monitors are better at capturing all daily stepping activities," explained Tiia Kekäläinen, a postgraduate researcher who worked on the report, "whereas self-reporting better accounts for all types of physical activities. Therefore, it is natural that results are partly different between different physical activity measures."

Overall, however, those extroverted women were more active than women who scored higher for neuroticism. The women in the latter subgroup were less active by their own reporting and also based on their activity tracker data.

Just because you may not be predisposed to loving your morning (or midday, or evening) workout due to a certain personality trait doesn't mean you should throw in the towel.

For those who are more neurotic, working out may actually help break through negative feelings. Working out can boost those feel-good hormones. One workout in particular that's been shown to boost mood? Hiking. If you're not able to get to a hiking trail, a long (or longish) walk in a wooded park is a good option too.