STRONG MAN

Pectacular! Joe Manganiello gets his True Blood pumping in shirtless workout

Joe Manganiello made his name in Hollywood as a werewolf in the TV series True Blood - the kind that doesn't mind taking his shirt off.

And fans of the hunky 35-year-old are about get plenty more topless time with the actor in his latest Hollywood role - as a male stripper in the upcoming movie Magic Mike.

'There are guys who are going to divorce their wives after they see what [these women] did as extras in this movie,' says Manganiello in an interview for Men's Health magazine.

Hard-bodied road to success: Joe Manganiello expounds on his difficult path to fame in an interview to appear in Men's Health magazine, which hits the stands on June 4

 'We were ... manhandling groups of 200 female extras every day.'

The interview with the buff actor, who plays Big Dick Richie in the new Steven Soderbergh-directed movie, appears in the Men's Health July issue.

And judging by the accompanying photographs of the Pittsburgh-born star, it's not just men who are going to be snapping up copies of the magazine when it hits the stands next week.

Glistening in sweat, the True Blood hottie is photographed hitting the gym for a strenuous workout, first doing push-ups on a leather medicine ball. 

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Wearing Converse sneakers and sweat pants, the popular star then moves to lift an enormous tractor tyre from the floor.

In a third photo, a sweat-drenched Manganiello, wearing just shorts and a pair of lace-up boxing boots, sits ringside with his hands bandaged after a round of boxing.

Displaying his spectacularly buff upper body and now famous tree-trunk arms, the actor leaves no doubt as to why he was chosen by Magic Mike director Steven Soderbergh to join Magic Mike's star-studded cast in a movie about male strippers.

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