Former Hollyoaks actress Sarah Jayne Dunn, 44, has revealed her fitness regime, urging women to focus on building strength rather than making bodies smaller.
The television star explained that consistency has helped her maintain her figure and insisted she does not take her health for granted. She regularly shares glimpses of her exercise routine on social media, including her pole fitness training and heavy weight sessions.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Dunn said she has become obsessed with pole fitness and uses weight training to complement her work on the pole. "Obviously you'll know that I'm obsessed with pole fitness, so that has become my personality really," Dunn said. "Because I have that and I love it and I want to get better at it and I'm competing with no one but me, everything feeds into that."
She added that lifting heavy weights is essential for women as they age. "So I weight train, because that's so important for women, especially women as we age. It's important that we lift heavy weights," she said. "But also for me, that complements pole training really well because I want to be strong so that I can lift myself up on the pole and do new tricks."
Dunn explained that physical fitness gives her confidence and connects her to her body. "It makes me feel good, It makes me feel confident. It makes me feel connected to my body and makes me feel really, really proud of my body and what it can do," she said. "It never ceases to amaze me that I've managed to grow a human and then I can still, like I can do these things. Like your body is, it is what you put in."
She noted that she prioritizes nutrition and proper fueling. "So I think it's just that. It's not taking for granted my health and fitness and really working alongside that. I fuel myself. I'm conscious that my body needs nutrients and important things and I don't neglect that," Dunn said.
Dunn, who shares 10-year-old son Stanley with her husband Jonathan Smith, criticized societal pressures regarding female body size. "I think society has told women that we need to be smaller and I think there's a real influx of this at the moment that you see all over social media and press and I think that's another way of controlling women," she said.
Role models and physical strength
The actress stated she wants to serve as a role model by demonstrating that women can be strong, healthy, and properly nourished. "I think actually I want to be that role model where other women see me and see I'm strong and I'm healthy and I eat well," she explained.
"Your body needs fuel. You're doing so much activity. It's like not putting petrol in your car. It's not going to work if it doesn't have the fuel," Dunn added. "So I try to be a real advocate for that as well. We want to be strong. We want to see strong women. I think that's sexy as hell. Women that can, especially pollers, I have so many poll accounts that I follow, women and men, but the women are just incredible. They're athletes and it's really inspiring."
In addition to weightlifting and pole fitness, Dunn disclosed that she is training to become a Reformer Pilates teacher. Reformer Pilates is an exercise system performed on a specialized bed-like frame equipped with springs and pulleys to provide variable resistance during strength and flexibility workouts.
OnlyFans platform and streaming projects
Dunn frequently shares lingerie-clad photographs with her followers on Instagram and the subscription platform OnlyFans. OnlyFans is an internet subscription service where content creators post exclusive photos and videos for paying subscribers.
Dunn has also reunited with her former Hollyoaks co-star James Sutton to compete in Race of Wits, an eight-episode series broadcast on OnlyFans' free-to-view platform OFTV. OFTV is a video streaming application launched by OnlyFans to offer non-explicit entertainment programs free of charge.
Hosted by British internet personality Emily Black, Race of Wits features teams of two OnlyFans creators competing in three fast-paced challenges across London. The contestants compete to win a cash prize and claim bragging rights by outwitting rival teams in tasks testing speed, creativity, and problem-solving skills.
The competition includes missions at iconic London locations alongside clue-solving tasks in the Puzzle Room. The first episode of Race of Wits is currently available to stream on OFTV, while the episode featuring Dunn and Sutton will be released on Tuesday, September 1.
Background on Hollyoaks career
Hollyoaks is a long-running British television soap opera that first broadcast in 1995, set in a fictional suburb of Chester. Dunn portrayed the character Mandy Richardson on the series across multiple stints over two decades, while Sutton gained prominence on the soap playing John Paul McQueen.
