When Women's Fitness last interviewed Sarah Jayne Dunn back in 2019, it was to catch up on the results of her strength training journey with Ultimate Performance (UP; ultimateperformance.com). Using UP's LiveUP online coaching platform, she'd just completed one of the personal training specialist's famous 12-week Transformation Programmes - a second for Dunn, since she had also finished one of the programmes in 2018 to get in shape for her nuptials after the birth of her son Stanley 18 months earlier - and she was feeling stronger, healthier and happier than ever.

Much has changed for the actress in the five years since we last spoke, including a well-publicised career shift that sparked a media frenzy after her Hollyoaks bosses issued her an ultimatum in 2021: to delete her newly launched OnlyFans account or leave the TV soap she had appeared on since the age of 14. The rest is history, but if there's one thing that has remained a constant for Dunn throughout this turbulent time, it's her dedication to her fitness and strength training, which she credits with helping her to survive, thrive, and become the strong, powerful, multi-faceted woman she is today.

Now, at the age of 43, the recently qualified pole fitness instructor and Intuitive Psychology coach has finished a new 16-week strength training programme under the guidance of PT Adam Newton at Ultimate Performance Cheshire, which she says she took on to futureproof her body and mind against the onset of perimenopause and gain the upper body strength she so desperately craved to further her pole fitness ability. With this in mind, and with International Women's Day around the corner, we asked Dunn to tell us about her incredible gains, the value of strength training for women and why she's never felt more empowered.

'I was never the sporty kid at school.