When you see how fit some actors get for their starring roles, you might find yourself thinking that you'd do anything to be able to get in shape like them.

Anything? Like, sell your soul to the devil anything?

Hopefully, you'd never go that far—unless you'd count taking on this workout that Lucifer actor Tom Ellis used to get ripped for his turn as the devil on the surprisingly resilient Netflix series (the show started on FOX, then went to the streaming service for the fourth season after a fan campaign to save it). The show was recently renewed for a fifth season, which will be its last.

The Welsh actor, 40, embodies the Adversary as a suave playboy, caught up in human affairs in Los Angeles as a special consultant to the LAPD. After the first three seasons, Ellis was ready to take his devil to another level, so he started working with L.A.-based celebrity trainer Paulo Mascitti. The cancellation-renewal made his training and transformation even more dramatic—check out more details about the backstory here.

"When we were getting into shape for Lucifer Season 4, I really wanted to gain some muscle mass," Ellis told the Men's Health crew when we visited his L.A. gym He consulted his coach, and they came up with a plan. "We were going to train six days a week. We would do four days of it as an upper-lower body split using big compound movements to get the big muscles going."

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That type of training helped Ellis turn his Lucifer into a ripped-up fallen angel—and it's the type of routine he showed off when he walked us through a typical upper body workout day.

If you plan on taking on the workout, Ellis has some final words of wisdom to help you stay on the straight and narrow—out of character, we know, but the guy only plays the role of a tempter in his day job. "Stay hydrated, eat clean, and you'll see the difference," he advises. You won't go wrong following those commandments.

Warmup

Treadmill

20 minutes consisting of:

5 minute jog

45 second sprint, 15 second walk intervals

The Lucifer Upper Body Workout

1. Bench Press

4 sets of 8 to 10 reps

2. Pullup

4 sets of 6 to 10 reps

Superset

Perform sets of each exercise back-to-back

3A. Seated Overhead Press

4 sets of 8 to 12 reps

3B. Cable Lateral Raise

4 sets of 12 reps per side

Wall Curl

4 sets of 10 reps per side

Stretch for 10 to 15 minutes to cool down

Want other celebrity workout plans? Check out our entire Train Like series.



Brett Williams, NASM Brett Williams, an associate fitness editor at Men's Health, is a NASM-CPT certified trainer and former pro football player and tech reporter who splits his workout time between strength and conditioning training, martial arts, and running.

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