APTi Bulletin of Psychological Type, Vol. 30, No. 2 (2007) 

Which Holds Sway ... Job or Play? 

Steve, ISTP, likes the idea of being fit but will not make time for exercise unless it is in connection with a practical activity. “I park a mile from work. I save money and get exercise along the way. Repetitive exercise is hard to confront. I enjoy the woods - I’m never bored in the woods.”

Iris, ESFJ, goes to her nearby gym three times a week and says, “I hate every minute of it.” She runs through her cardio/weight routine quickly, getting in and out of the gym in under 40 minutes. “It means a lot to me to follow through on what I promise,” she says. “It makes me feel I am in control of my life - that I did what I said I was going to do.”

For Karen, INTP, fun is fundamental but intensity is on the other side of the hook. Karen describes her enjoyment of Kung Fu: “I like the intensity of it and the purpose of it, self-defense. I know what the options are, and I have a fantastic instructor who is knowledgeable and pushes me hard.”

Type plays a fascinating and pivotal role in how and why these people exercise. It is a connection I have been studying for six years, as I have interviewed hundreds of fit and physically active people across the sixteen types from all over the world, including Canada, England, Egypt, and New Zealand. Based on their responses, I have discovered a strong and predictable correlation between an individual’s type and his or her exercise preferences for motivation, perceived benefits, approach, interactions with others, barriers, and even favorite activities.

When I first conceived this project in 2001, I hypothesized that the full range of our preferences would affect our approach to exercise, some in subtle ways and others more obviously. Since then, I have talked to hundreds of people who make exercise an integral part of their lives and some fascinating patterns have emerged.

The result is the Color Me Fit system, an ever-growing and developing approach to physical fitness choices grounded in type, based on years of research and containing the elements of nuance one would expect from an examination of human behavior.

Not only did my research uncover hooks and roadblocks for all types, but it also revealed how our mental processes are engaged in exercise in an in-depth manner. I could see the full range of type functions, preferences, and orientations come into play in a recognizable and accessible fashion. The questions were being answered and a framework for understanding the dynamic of fitness personalities took shape.

Job or Play

As my research progressed, I found myself able to anticipate some of the ways preferences would be expressed by those I interviewed which was very handy when traveling thirty miles to meet someone who agreed to share his story of exercise success.

One bright summer day, I planned to drive out to a remote spot in the country to interview an ISFP. Better take my sunglasses, I thought, since the session will definitely take place outdoors. I was glad I brought the glasses, as Jim walked me through his house out to the rear deck for our talk. Jim was the third ISFP I had interviewed in a week - I had internalized their profound love of the outdoors and their preference for living outside as much as possible. 

However, one common theme I was slow to anticipate was INTP and INFP’s overriding desire to enjoy their exercise - it had to be fun! Consistently, I heard INPs say they had a tough time staying with an exercise regimen unless they actually enjoyed it. I even had an INTP call me up after I had returned from our interview to have me add this information to her comments.

I studied the interviews with other consistent exercisers and noted that some types – notably ENPs, ESPs, and ISPs, in particular – also tended to follow the pleasure principle. Perhaps they are not so single-minded and unequivocal as INPs, but unmistakably they are in the “gottahave- fun” category, too. As a student and practitioner of the MBTI®, I recognized the common denominator here, the feature these types shared. Each of them extraverted his or her perceiving process. In the parlance of the MBTI, they are Ps.

What about the Js, I wondered. Did they share an approach that mirrored this need for fun so much on the mind of Extraverted Perceiving Ps? 

I thought back to one of my early articles on exercise and type that pre-dated the creation of the Color Me Fit system (Brue, 2002). As I wrote then:

David is 40 years old, thin, handsome, and fit. He has preferences for ISTJ. Prior to being at work in the morning, David exercises at a fitness center convenient to his office. He exercises five mornings a week, systematically rotating between cardiovascular and weights. He runs through the same program every week. ‘Are you happy with your level of exercise?’ was my final question in our interview. David responded, ‘It gets the job done.’ 

In the Jungian tradition, people like David are Extraverted Judgers - in MBTI terminology, the Js. For them, making the commitment and following through to completion are higher motivators than enjoyment. In fact, one ISTJ told me, “I like exercise that can be measured, because I’m not doing it for pleasure.”

And so it followed consistently that not only ISTJs but also the ESJs, ENJs, and INJs did not have a fun hook. These types rarely even mentioned enjoyment or pleasure when talking about their routines. I do not mean to imply that they do not enjoy themselves, since quite often they find ways to exercise that are deeply satisfying, even
spiritual. But “fun” was not what got them to start exercising and stay with it.

I began to see this element of pleasure on a continuum; there is enjoyment, there is fun, and there is play. Js often find exercise pleasurable, but rarely do they use the word fun to describe what they do, whereas Ps use the word all the time.

The job aspect arose here. Js typically commit to exercise because they know they will be better for having done it. They accept it as necessary. Wherever else their decision to exercise might have taken them, that was the starting point.

Ps, on the other hand, find it more difficult to create a sustainable habit of exercise without some sort of fun connection. They want something closer to play from the outset, something with flow and connectivity - dance, perhaps. Taking a narrow view of what qualifies as exercise in our culture does them a particular disservice, and often adds a measure of guilt and discouragement when they reject gym memberships or structured routines. The Ps I interviewed had conquered this obstacle and were often happily engaged in physical activities - sports, competitions, dance, vigorous activities of daily living - that ably served their needs for both exercise and an element of fun or play.

As a matter of fact, this has been one of the more interesting patterns arising from my research. Ps who attend my presentations on the Color Me Fit system often experience an “Aha” moment when I mention that many J types never consider whether or not an exercise will be fun. Needing that element of fun to get them past their own resistance, they are amazed that Js can sustain exercise programs they do not enjoy.