Figure out what your exercise personality is before plunking money down on expensive gym memberships or equipment.

If you have a sports-focused personality, a gym membership may not do it for you.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Doctors, physical trainers, and other healthcare professionals all heard a collective groan last month when the Journal of the American Medical Association published exercise research implying that women need to work out 60 minutes a day, seven days a week, in order to prevent weight gain. Such a high number can deter a lot of people who have a hard enough time staying motivated to get 30 minutes of exercise five days a week, which is what the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and other health organizations recommend to maintain one's weight and get basic health benefits. (In fact, as we reported, that one study doesn't mean exercise is worthless if it doesn't last for an hour.)

Finding any time to exercise can seem challenging. But the key to sticking with a fitness plan may not be finding the time to fit exercise into a busy schedule, says Michael Bracko, EdD, an exercise physiologist in Canada who gave a presentation at the ACSM's recent Health & Fitness Summit in Austin, Texas. Instead, he says, it's finding out what you enjoy and what motivates you—an overlooked aspect of fitness. "Almost every fitness organization and every health organization has some type of guideline or statement or position on what they think would be the appropriate amount of exercise, but a lot of times, it's rather sterile," he says. "It doesn’t take into account fitness personalities." A lot of people associate "exercise" with a sweaty 30-minute run or a 45-minute weight-lifting session at the gym, he adds, but "exercise" can mean any sort of enjoyable physical activity that gets your heart rate up. You don't even have to cram it all into one session. He says that many studies have shown that you can burn the same—and sometimes more—calories if you break your activity into smaller 10- or 15-minute segments. "It all depends on how many calories you're burning, and you get the same benefits no matter how you burn them," he says.

Bracko says there are four basic types of fitness, and finding which one fits your personality and interests could be the key to staying fit, healthy, and a few pounds lighter:

• Functional fitness. Gardening, golfing, walking the dog, cleaning the house, raking leaves, and bowling are all examples of "functional fitness" exercise, and are great for people just starting an exercise plan or for older adults who want to stay active. "You don't go out into your garden for 15 minutes," he says. "You garden for 2 hours. That's a lot of activity—a lot of squats, a lot of standing up and down—it's a lot of movement." He adds that exercises like these are great for older people because they help with activities of daily living, such as getting into and out of the tub and reaching for items up high in a cabinet. Try to find some functional activity to do each day of the week, and you'll easily get the recommended 30 minutes per day, if not more.