In terms of competence, finding your way back to fitness after a long break is particularly tough because of the comparisons you make with your former self, Dr Perry says. Here is where I struggle, as a real live version of the “Am I immediately good at this? No. Then I’ve lost interest” meme. When you’ve been formerly good at something that has such an obvious competence marker as fitness, the fall from grace is frustrating.

“There’s all of this ‘I should be able to do this’,” says Dr Perry. “I find if somebody is using the word ‘should’, that’s when there’s likely to be a problem, because we’re trying to lift ourselves up to a level that is physically impossible for us at that moment. Those comparisons can be really hard on our mental health.”

While it is generally accepted now that mental health is just as important as physical health, in practice it doesn’t always work. It’s often said if you exercise your body, you’ll feel better in the mind. To some extent it’s true, but rather than seeing mental health improvement as a side-effect of exercising, Nancy and Dr Perry both believe that considering mental health in training will help you stick at it. Both advise coming at it from another angle. While it’s important to accept that you might not be as strong or as fast as you have been in the past, you can start to find your way back through building up individual skills or having smaller goals.

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