This suggests that the way many of us think about our exercise regimes may not actually be the most useful – and realising that all movement counts could be a great way to start improving your health. In fact, the idea that we just need to do more is “not only not motivational, it also creates a mindset that makes people worse off than they were without knowing about the guidelines,” explains Dr Crum.

“I’m not saying that mindset is everything. Certainly, exercise is good for us. That’s one of the things we have the best data on. What I am saying is that we need to be more mindful about how we motivate people to exercise, but [also] how do we help people to actually reap the benefits of the exercise they are already doing?”

To add to that, another study from 2017 analysed how much exercise people reported doing, how much they actually did and how long their lifespan was. “A couple of interesting things revealed themselves. One was that the perceptions of exercise and people’s actual exercise as measured through data did not correlate much at all,” she said, explaining that how much we think we do often does not align with how much we actually do.

A psychologist explains why a mindset of ‘enoughness’ is so crucial for improving physical health