One person loves the thrill of fast downhill skiing. Another prefers to lift weights alone in the gym. Still another craves the competition of organized sports. It's important to figure out what type of exercise fits best with your personality or you may be doomed to failure, reports Reuters of research from Concordia University in Quebec, Canada.

If you're considering a new exercise program, lead researcher Dr. James Gavin says it's important to figure out if that exercise fits with who you are as a person. Will it challenge your long-standing habits? If so, the new regimen will likely fail.

Conversely, matching your individual traits and personality to a specific exercise may be the key to increasing your physical activity level. "You might think of it this way: People have personalities...and so do sports and fitness activities," Gavin explained to Reuters. "People generally feel better when they do activities within their comfort zones, i.e., that match their styles."

To match your personality to a sport or exercise, first answer these seven questions:

• Do you prefer exercising alone or in a group?
• What degree of control or spontaneity do you prefer?
• What is your motivation for exercising?
• What level of aggression is required for the exercise or sport?
• How competitive is the activity?
• What mental focus is required?
• Does the activity involve taking risks?

• Thrill-seekers will probably enjoy high-risk sports. Think extreme!
• Highly social? Look for a team sport or join an aerobic dance class.
• If you enjoy being spontaneous, do not sign up for a highly-structured fitness class.
• If you crave solitude, install a treadmill in your basement.
• If you like to get away from it all when you exercise, consider trail running.
• If you're naturally aggressive, competitive, and enjoy taking risks, consider karate.
• People who are mentally focused will likely enjoy yoga.

To determine which activity best suits your personality, Gavin recommends completing a personality profile and then using your physician's fitness personality chart to see where a sport fits along a continuum, from the low end of a psychosocial style to the high end.

The study findings were published in the journal The Physician and Sportsmedicine.