Australia's "bloke whisperer" Tom Harkin has thrown down the challenge to Australian men to take a hard look at themselves and the "rules that say what guys should be".

Mr Harkin describes himself as an "expert facilitator" and runs personal development workshops with everyone from schoolkids to CEOs that examine masculinity.

Tom Harkin guides a group of teenage boys through an exercise. ( Supplied: Man Up )

"We grow up so early on and it is all about being tough, being strong, being invulnerable," he said.

"That is one-dimensional. It's not realistic for a life that goes up and down."

Mr Harkin said men often act in a way that fits a stereotype of what a man should be, and his workshops aim to shift that perception.

"It isn't going in there saying we've got it all wrong, we need to throw the baby out with the bathwater," he said.

"It is going there and saying: 'It is great to be a bloke, but let's look at how it is going for us. Did we decide all of these rules or were they decided for us?'"

The issue is masculinity and male mental health is explored in a new documentary, Man Up, which follows radio presenter Gus Worland on his mission to answer the question: what does it mean to be a man?

Mr Harkin takes part in the show and works with a group of teenage boys to address the question.

"Gus is ideal, because he does appeal to the mainstream bloke," Mr Harkin said.

"He is on Triple M, one of the blokiest shows out there, but he also has this ability to express his emotions.

"He is really comfortable wearing a tear on his sleeve."

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'We need to talk about suicide'

The Man Up documentary begins by addressing the suicide of Worland's friend Angus in 2006, and the reasons that might have led to it.

"His journey takes him to understand where does this type masculinity come from, what are the solutions and what are we going to try to do about it," Mr Harkin said.

"It's not an easy issue to tackle. It is a societal issue. We all play a part."

Suicide is the leading cause of death in Australia for men aged 15 to 44, and of the 2,864 Australians who took their own lives in 2014, three-quarters were men.

Mr Harkin and Worland want to explore why.

In particular, they want to know how notions of masculinity could be feeding into the problem and how a better level of conversation could change it.

"At the moment we have realised that men need to talk," Mr Harkin said.

"But one of the things that makes it uncomfortable for men to talk is that their family isn't necessarily ready, their friends aren't necessarily ready, society's not necessarily ready for them to be expressing this vulnerability."

"We all have a job to do with getting comfortable with a new version of what it means to be the Australian male."

The first episode of Man Up airs on October 11 at 8:30pm on ABC TV and iview.