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Staying young

Pop stars now go to the gym, not the bar

Bruce Springsteen in 1984. Richard E Aaron/Redferns

Life on tour isn’t as rock’n’roll as we think, says Tanner Garrity in InsideHook. Musicians often spend months in the gym to prepare. In 2015 Eminem described running like “a f***ing hamster”: the rapper would do 17 miles a day on a treadmill. In the mid-1980s, Bruce Springsteen did endless weight training before his Born in the USA tour, “in an effort to channel a working man’s masculinity”. These days it’s even tougher. Heart-throb pop star Shawn Mendes, 23, recently revealed that he sleeps for just three hours of sleep so he can wake up early and work out. Why? “If you don’t work out, you’re going to lose fans.”

Not everyone is so regimented. Ariana Grande and Diddy swear by holistic treatments rather than cardio workouts. Both are fans of lymphatic drainage – a hardcore 90-minute massage during which specific parts of the body are squeezed, pushed and prodded to boost the metabolism (supposedly). It sounds woo-woo, but some salons in Beverly Hills have such long waiting lists that they’ve stopped accepting clients altogether. Whatever works.

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