Physical confidence comes partly from knowing your body can answer ordinary demands.

Some of what people call self-assurance is simply not worrying about the physical world. Knowing you can lift the suitcase, walk the extra mile, carry the child, or stand for an afternoon removes a whole class of small anxieties from your day. When the body can meet ordinary demands, you stop rehearsing them in advance. That quiet has a way of showing up as confidence in rooms that have nothing to do with fitness.

Make a short list of ordinary demands you have started to avoid or dread. Train toward one of them specifically rather than toward an abstract number. Regaining an everyday capacity gives back more than the exercise itself.