Gym Psychology Archetypes

Why Do People Workout?

We all have seen that person.

The one who seems to love exercise and is constantly working out.

A lot of people are left with questions when they see this person.

Mainly…WHY?

Here I’ll breakdown some of the common psychological archetypes of why someone works out or exercises frequently. There’s one thing in common, they are all seeking something.

Maybe you yourself will identify with one of them or think that mental framework suits you.

The 12 most common types are:

• The Alpha

• The Philosopher

• The Philosophers Stone (health + Longevity)

• The Athlete

• The Escape Artist/Stress Manager

• The Warrior

• The Masochist/Addict

• The Scientist

• The Sculptor

• The Redeemer

• The Provider

• The Connector

The Alpha

There is a classic stereotype of the “gym bro” out there who calls himself and alpha, is loud and obnoxious, rude, and not the sharpest tool in the shed.

To be fair this reputation wasn’t gained without reason and you likely don’t want to embrace this image BUT is there some redeeming aspects of working out that will bring out “Alpha” characteristics in you in the best way possible?

I argue that there is.

Working out has profound effects on your body and mind and can transform your energy into something that commands attention.

These people seek more energy, intensity, respect, aura, progress, dominance, confidence, excellence in all areas of life, social credit, strength, and challenge.

They are often type “A” personalities or want to be transformed into one and already are hard workers running a successful business.

The gym provides them with what they are looking for.

It confronts them with a challenge they can win against daily leading to a snowball effect of progress leading to confidence and strength

It has them looking more physically strong and dominant which immediately changes people’s first impressions. Fit people have undeniable hard work and consistency built into their character because that the only way you can achieve it.

I have seen unconfident people embrace their alpha side and break out of their shell and I’ve seen already successful people absolutely steamroll into a beast of a human that everyone respects, admires, and wants to be lead by.

The Philosopher

These people seek something deeper than just physical benefits and transformations. There is a deeply mental and spiritual element to why they exercise. It is a form of self love, self exploration, connection, and self development. It is done for themselves and not for others.

The Philosopher will view exercise as the combination of mental, physical, and spiritual elements. Similar to Plato they recognize that the human condition is reliant on all factors mental, spiritual, and also physical. To develop themselves as much as possible they seek excellence in all areas. They view exercise as an essential part of experiencing human life and development. To not exercise would pull them back from their highest version of self.

Treating their body to exercise becomes an act of self love, the positive wide reaching feelings that come from the benefits of exercise are a must to operate at their best.

When exercising they are excited by the confrontation with their own thoughts and physical or mental limitations. They learn deeply about themselves and who they are when confronted with stress. Then they seek to improve upon their weaknesses and break through the self-imposed habitual limitations.

They connect deeply to their own body.  Our consciousness is tied to this earth through the vessel that is our body and they want to explore the capabilities of their body to their own limits. What can they do, how far can they push their body, what does it teach them, how much more do they enjoy life?

Self development comes from continually week after week going through the process of working out, challenging their body and mind, connecting to and overcoming their own personal battles.

The Philosophers Stone (Health and Wellness)

They crave the philosophers stone but not for turning lead into gold. Instead they crave the fountain of youth and longevity.

This often stems for a love of life and freedom and the fear that comes from having this taken away from them.

Often they have been through something that shook them. They were injured or saw someone who was injured or weak and left unable to do the things they love.

To be proactive or reactive they take a problem focused approach instead of a passive/avoidant one to get ahead of the curb or reverse their issues.

These people often do not even enjoy working out but they enjoy what it gives them and know they must do the hard work to live the life they desire.

Heart health, physical strength, mobility, aging well, physical freedom, enjoying activities with friends and family, and the relief of having no pain.

There is nothing better than seeing the joy that comes when someone is finally pain free again or the energy that comes with aging gracefully while others around you have physically and mentally deteriorated from a sedentary life.

The Athlete

This is the natural in the gym. Someone who loves a physical challenge and competition.

They want to be stronger, faster, more explosive, and have better conditioning. They find it fun, meaningful, and worth the struggle. They push themselves to continue to improve and be better, even if its meaningless to others. Often getting into the nitty-gritty of details in technique to be as good as they can be.

The gym is the perfect place for this self-competition. Every time they step up to heavy weight on the bar they are in a mental and physical battle with themselves. This is incredibly addicting and comes with a lot of other benefits that they don’t mind. It’s a fun hobby or can be an intensely competitive sport if you want to make it that.

They may be an athlete who goes to the gym because they know it will give them the physical qualities that will allow them to dominate their sport. To be the best of the best and get paid millions of dollars to play the sport they love and excel at they put hours into the gym to gain the weight, strength, power, speed, explosiveness, mobility, durability, and technique to dominate their competition.

Alternatively they are ex athletes in other sports who fell in love with the gym and the benefits it gave them when competing and now don’t want to lose their previous levels of performance and strength/fitness. It’s frustrating to feel your body’s capabilities and appearance start to regress and it gets a ton of people to get back into the gym.

The Escape Artist/Stress Manager

Full of stress, frustration, energy, trauma, and social situations that they need a break from, the escape artist flocks to the gym to get away from it all. Time for themselves where the physical exertion makes them forget all of their worries and things that are going on. Physical exercise can make you feel more present and in the moment (like a flow state) and these people LOVE that. Often very hard working people, people going through some tough social situation, or people with constant high levels of stress. Usually lovers of high intensity, high volume, or constant conditioning training, and occasionally lovers of easier stress free feel good movement. The positive feelings and chemicals released after exercise usually is an additional motivating factor for them to keep coming back. They often feel so much more calm and composed after a workout and are able to tackle the challenges that present themselves the rest of the day with a much more tempered condition.

The Warrior/Protector

Well aware of the dangers that present themselves in life these people strive to be as prepared for whatever life throws at them. They want to be able to protect the people they care about and make others feel safe around them. This level of readiness for things like fights, accidents, illness, and injury provoking positions often requires hard work done in advance. You don’t want to be caught off guard in a survival situation and be left incapable of helping yourself. Wanting power, control, and safety in their own hands they hit the gym hard to maintain their independence. Often lovers of hard work and pushing themselves to their limits and beyond.

The Scientist

Often obsessed with deep understanding and maximizing systems. They view their own body like a lab experiment and seek to understand and push all of their performance to the maximum. They will usually be obsessed with the details, mastering technique and optimizing programming. Motivated by objective and traceable data points when shown improvement they get addicted to seeing more. You will often find them going out of their way to study and do research on the human body in their spare time. Will have lots of supporting technology and have routines that they love to follow. These people are often highly intelligent, consistent, and hard working. Often they will make tremendous progress if they learn how to push themselves to an appropriate level.

The Sculptor

Viewing the human body and movement as a form of art they seek to maximize the aesthetics of their own body. Wanting to improve the combination of both form (aesthetics) and function (movement) into a living breathing work of art. Seeking to lose fat and gain muscle in the right amounts and areas to maximize the specific vision they have for their own body. They often are concerned with their posture and moving perfectly in a way that that is optimized for health. Often seeking and appreciating the benefits that come from resonating good health and looking amazing. They often will spend a lot of time working on nutritional habits outside of the gym, watching what they eat and taking care of their body in all realms. Embracing and striving for the best version of their body keeps them feeling good and motivated. Often interpreted as slightly vain you may see them posting photos of their body often but this can stem from a form of deep self love, spirituality and connection to their best version of self.

The Redeemer

Depressed, Heartbroken, or often at a lack of direction or confidence in the strength of their character these people step into the gym to rewrite that narrative. Beat down by life or their own self-beliefs these people fight back against that with their heart and soul. The cycle of improved performance levels, self-pride, confidence, and consistent positive actions helps smash them through these barriers. Looking better than ever and being stronger than ever is such an empowering feeling that can rewrite their own self beliefs and help them to take actions they never though possible before. Learning to love the gym, the results that come from it, and showing hard work and consistency rewrites their entire self-narrative and turns them into a productive, capable, and confident person. These people often have a hard time getting started but once they do they often become the ones who love it the most and have the greatest transformations personally and physically. You barely recognize these people if you get the chance to see the before and after. They often carry this improved strength of character into other areas of their life and find the direction they were looking for.

The Provider

These people are incredibly selfless and have a much bigger goal in mind than themself. They want to be capable and present for others. Knowing that to care for others they need to take care of themself and be in good health they start hitting the gym. They may want to be present and physically involved with their children’s lives or maybe need to physically support someone in their life that is undergoing physical challenges of their own. Nothing scares them more than someone relying on them and them not being able to assist because they are injured or weak. Often not pushing the limits of their capabilities and risking injury they are more concerned with maintaining and obtaining a reasonable level of health and resilience.

The Connector

The connector is there out of love for socializing, to meet people with similar values as them. Lovers of people just as much as they are of exercise. They are often part of clubs or communities, talking to people just as much as they workout. The connections they obtain helps them with their own workout consistency as well as growing their connections beyond the gym bleeding into personal lives and business relationships. Many business deals have gone down over a workout and many relationships have formed there. If you want to meet people who are in good shape, live a healthy lifestyles, strive for self improvement, have consistency and dedication built into them the gym is a phenomenal place to meet them. Developing a good physique and accomplishing strength/conditioning feats may help open connections, friendships, and doors that you didn’t even know were open to you.

The Masochist/Addict

They are crazy and just love the pain that comes from pushing themselves to their limits. The positive feelings of the rush of endorphins after exercise is secondary to their love of the work itself. This love of the self punishment often stems from something deeper but it powers them to impressive levels of performance in both conditioning and strength. They are most likely to go overboard and hurt themselves in the gym not knowing when it’s safe to stop. You’ll often find them smiling and laughing at the pain in the gym and hear about them doing insane sounding amounts of work. Often possessing a never ending motor/energy levels they can just keep going.

Seekers of the “High” that comes from exercise. That dopamine and endorphin release that comes with aerobic exertion or with hitting new strength personal records is so good that these people keep coming back for more. Often pushing their limits in one way or another they are always achieving more and more because more and more is needed to get the high they are looking for. You often see these people running long distances, doing intense conditioning circuits such as in cross fit, and pushing for new strength levels in something like powerlifting or Olympic lifting. Often the sense of community they find themselves in and the support they get with it becomes another addicting factor for them and they will talk about it a lot or wind up undergoing extremely into one type of exercise and nutritional routine