Given how much more flesh we #swoldiers are flashing on Instagram, Snapchat and dating apps these days, it’s hardly surprising that body-sculpting creams, serums and gels are muscling their way into men’s grooming regimes.

These products – promising to nip and tuck those niggling bits of fat while enhancing muscular definition – seem a godsend for most of us feeling the heat from impossibly-ripped men on billboards and in Hollywood blockbusters, as well as those obligatory shirtless moments in BBC costume dramas.

“Fit, healthy, toned and tanned models set the mood for many fragrance and skincare campaigns,” says Teresa Fisher, Senior Account Manager of UK Beauty for research company The NPD Group. (Face of Paco Rabanne’s Invictus fragrance, Nick Youngquest, is just one man fomenting ab envy.) “Men begin by improving their physique and then continue to enhance their traditional grooming rituals with high-tech skincare products to smooth, refine and tone the skin,” she says. “Hence why we continue to see a strong increase in sales of body products.”

It’s little wonder then that there’s a Spartan army’s worth of skin-firming and body-toning products targeted specifically at men. “Great pecs and abs are what guys strive for in the gym and any product that can help them achieve an enviable, photogenic body is going to be in demand,” says James Green, founder of the FIT Skincare range, which includes a sculpting product in its line-up.

“I included Pec & Ab Sculpt in the FIT range due to my background in weight training: I used to train up to nine times a week in the gym and my obsession with working out was where the whole idea for FIT skincare came from,” he explains. “Any products that I could create that would enhance both my own and my customer’s training routines were a must-have.”