A woman who felt "intimidated" walking into a public gym has since won a national body building title and is now urging other females to reach for their dreams.
Sarah Rowley, of Halewood, decided to give herself a challenge and complete something she "never thought was possible" and so embarked on a fitness challenge back in 2017.
However, she said she felt "intimidated" when going into commercial gyms and felt like "people were watching and judging".
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But she overcame this and in 2019 came fourth in the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness Junior Bikini.
Now, she said she is seeing more and more women going through what she went through and is urging them to achieve their fitness dreams.
Sarah has set up a private fitness studio for women after recently moving to Halewood, which she says will benefit locals increasing confidence and empowerment.
She told the ECHO : "Personal space to me is a really big thing in the gym and I see it first hand women feeling intimidated in the weights section by men in that setting and it makes them feel uncomfortable.
"They want to lose weight and feel good but may leave due to that feeling of being uncomfortable.
"I've experienced it myself. With everything that's gone on in the media lately, I also feel there's safety in numbers with women staying together."
Sarah said she has found a lot of women "don't have the confidence" to walk into a gym and she wanted to provide that "safe environment" to allow them to train, adding that more should be done to focus on increasing confidence.
She added: "When I moved to Halewood there wasn't much here. There's the big commercial gyms but it was missing something.
"Many women don't have the confidence to walk into a gym."
Sarah, who also works as a teacher full-time, said the pandemic massively affected her fitness endeavour.
She said: "Everything just went online and people were inundated. So many were doing the same thing or similar and it really affected everything. Plus moving online wasn't always for everyone.
"But you just had to keep going.
"Halewood is changing. There's a lot going on with new housing estates and planning applications for restaurants and I'd like to play my part and add to that, providing a service for local women.
"In 2017 I personally started training myself and when I competed in the IFBFF Junior Bikini, I came fourth in Britain, but from that moment something was missing.
"I wanted to be a person to help others. When I started I'd never weight trained, didn't know what anything was. I was that person one time that wanted that service but didn't want to go into a gym.
"I didn't want people to think I didn't have clue and now, I go into a gym and see the same from other women.
"I experienced comments about how I didn't know what I was doing, my form was wrong and before I walked in I would Google what the exercises were. I really didn't feel confident going.
"The weights section is traditionally very male oriented and I want women to feel just as confident going in there and doing what they want to do without feeling pressured or uncomfortable."
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