How to get in Magic Mike XXL shape like Joe Manganiello and Channing Tatum

There's no doubting that the stars of Magic Mike XXL are guys who take care of their physiques, but in order to appear shirtless on screen for large parts of the movie, the cast decided that they needed to look their absolute best.

Both Channing Tatum and Joe Manganiello are the stars who have been getting the most attention, and while there's no secret magic formula to how they went about getting ripped (apart from hard work), there are a few things that can be taken away from the adjustments that the guys made to their workouts and their diets for the movie.

Tatum is happy to admit that eating healthily is not something that comes naturally to him, as he loves pizza and burgers like the rest of us, as well as the odd beer, but in order to reach his goals, he had to switch to a strict and repetitive diet. Speaking to Men's Journal, trainer to the stars Arin Babaian (the man who got him into such incredible shape) dished on what Channing ate on a daily basis to get lean and provide enough fuel for his intense workouts.

Breakfast: 6 eggs (scrambled) and a green smoothie

Lunch: Chicken, vegetables, sweet potato and a green smoothie

Dinner: Grilled chicken and vegetables

Like many of us, Babaian admits that Tatum is not the biggest fan of green veg, but a quick smoothie was a way around that problem - the green smoothie: "It's a bit of a cocktail, with kale, spinach, romaine, and then some fruit like strawberries and blueberries to help it go down".

Tatum's workouts involved plenty of cardio with a cycle in the morning, as well as some swimming, and a run in the evening, while there was an afternoon gym session that focused on weight training. However, when it comes the man in the cast that they turned to when they needed inspiration in the gym, Joe Manganiello was the king, saying "that man is a specimen".

In Manganiello's book Evolution released late in 2013, he gives a great insight into not only what he does to stay in shape, but the ideas behind it. For him, failures are as important as the successes, and that you need to dig deep to use them as fuel. He outlines how he made a big break in 2002 when he played Flash in Spider-Man, but he let that go to his head and started drinking every day. After nearly hitting rock bottom, Manganiello realised he'd need to make some changes, and started getting serious about his fitness.

Manganiello's abs look like they were sculpted by a Greek god, but in order to burn enough fat to let that hard work show through, his sessions in the gym are based less around lifting heavy, and more about keeping his heart rate up and getting the right amount of cardio in: "I focus less on increasing weight and raise the intensity by doing more reps and resting less. In other words, the philosophy is constant motion".

For getting his chest and arms into that type of shape, his upper body workout is a high-intensity one that will push you to your limits. Speaking to Men's Fitness, he outlined the high-rep routine based around super sets that he uses to make sure every session in the gym is demanding.

For the workout, he starts out with a bench press, and then moves on to supersets, where you move from one exercise to the next without taking a break. This might seem impossible, but it focuses on different musle groups so that while your chest recovers, you can hit your arms.

Bench Press

Sets: 8 Reps: 15, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 5, 10

The key here is to start light, adding weight until you get to a heavy lift for 2 reps, then start taking weight off again to go back up to 10.

Superset 1:

Incline Dumbbell Fly

Sets: 4 Reps: 10

Dumbbell Overhead Press

Sets: 4 Reps: 10

Superset 2

Plyo pushup

Sets: 4 Reps: 8-12

These can be particularly tough after you've hit your chest hard at the start of the workout, so don't worry if you don't think you can do a plyo pushup here. Start with a regular pushup and build up your strength to hit these with the correct form.