Here’s how personality could affect your running style
Are you a springy runner or long and flat?
If you’re a runner, you probably think how you move is all down to biomechanics – how your bones and muscles are put together.
However, a new study from France suggests there may be another factor at play.
Your personality.
Researchers at the Voloden SportLab studied 80 runners who all took the well-known, if not scientifically-backer, Myers-Brigg Type Indicator (MBTI) test.
The test assesses four distinct traits, then divides people into one of two groups, generating 16 different personality types. The traits are extroversion/introversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling and judging/perceiving.
So for example, a person may be ‘ISFP’ – introverted, sensing, thinking and perceiving.
Alongside taking the test, the runners ran three 50m running trials at different speeds to measure how they ran, including looking at how long their foot was in contact with the ground, how long they were in the air and leg stiffness.
When combining personality with running style, the team found an interesting connection.
Those who were classed as ‘sensing’ had a more grounded running style, spending longer in contact with the ground during each step and less time in the air.
Those who were deemed ‘intuitive’ had a more dynamic and elastic running style.
Writing in the journal PLOS One, the authors said: ‘These results suggest that runners with sensing and intuition personality traits differ in their ability to use their lower limb structures as springs.
‘Intuition runners appeared to rely more in the stretch-shortening cycle to energetically optimise their running style, while sensing runners seemed to optimise running economy by promoting more forward progression than vertical oscillations.’
In other words, intuition runners have a more springy step, while sensing runners have a longer, lower stride.
That doesn’t mean however that how you’re built has no effect on how you move – nor that you can’t change your stride to increase speed or reduce injury.
However, the authors added: ‘This study underscores the intriguing interplay between personality traits of individuals and their preferred movement patterns.’