Rio Ferdinand, 47, shows off his ripped six-pack while working up a sweat in the Dubai desert as he reveals his strict exercise regime

Rio Ferdinand has showed off his ripped physique while working out in the Dubai desert as he revealed his strict exercise regime.

The former footballer, 47, displayed his impressive six-pack in a shoot for Men's Health as he performed upper body workouts.

Rio showed off his agility and stamina in the new snaps as he wore just a pair of purple gym shorts.

Instead of a typical gym background, the dad-of-five swapped it for the sandy Arabian desert.

While working out was important for Rio during his professional athlete days, he now says the gym has become a place for him to focus on his mental health.

He explained: 'Now I concentrate more on going in a gym for my mental peace of mind and for my mental state of mind really, but also then to look aesthetically the way I want to look and try and be in as good a condition as I can be, within reason, within keeping it in a normal lifestyle.'

Sharing an insight into his typical week when it comes to working out, Rio dedicates different days to different areas of his core, such as physio and heavy lifting.

He continued by saying how keeping fit allows him to stay feeling young and be able to play with his children.

'It enables me to run around after my kids and play and mess around without having to feel the little pains or areas that "oh I can't go down on that knee or I can't go that far in that position because of my back or whatever".

'Doing functional training just allows you to stay and feel as young as you possibly can, do you what mean? For as long as possible. And I think that before I started doing the functional training, yeah, I was training, but I was really feeling a lot of aches and pains based on wear and tear and just getting older.'

Rio had his eldest children Lorenz, 19, and Tate, 17, and Tia, 14 with his late wife Rebecca Ellison, who tragically passed away with cancer in 2015.

He shares his younger kids, five-year-old Cree and two-year-old Shae with current wife Kate, 34.

Rio added: 'It's made me definitely think about longevity. I want to be here when my kids are having kids and I want to be here to enjoy that and I want to be mobile.

'I don't want to be one of them old granddads who’s just like, "oh granddad can't do nothing. Like, don't bring the kids near him". I don't want to be one of those granddads.'

Meanwhile, earlier this week Kate admitted she 'butts heads' with her step-daughter Tia and said she is 'so scared to get it wrong' with her blended family. 

Appearing on the latest episode of the Blended podcast, she opened up about how it can sometimes be challenging to remind yourself that you're the adult who can emotionally regulate, admitting she can be 'emotional and erratic'. 

Kate said: 'It's hard when you've got young kids because they take up a lot of your time, so you've got to make sure you've got that time [for the older ones].

'Kids go through phases. It's okay to have one or two weeks where you're at each other, you're butting heads a bit.'

She continued: 'Like me and Tia, she won't mind me saying, but we have these moments where we just butt heads for three or four days and we both don't know what's going on.

'Then it's like "We're alright now aren't we" and we're fine. But it's just like emotions, different times of the month. There's so much going on.'

Opening up about her own feelings, Kate said: 'Even though you say you're an emotionally regulated adult, it's hard, you have to practice that as an adult as well. Because hormones are flying all over the place, you can't always get it right.

'Like I know I don't always get it right. I'm not going to sit here and say "I'm always really emotionally regulated". I am not. Sometimes they come to me and I'm A1 and I think "God I'm bloody good".

'And sometimes I'm emotional I'm erratic, and I think that is sometimes being a woman, but also I do acknowledge it if I've been a bit wild.'

She continued: 'I am so scared to get it wrong, because I really have tried so hard, like you have, for so many years, and you don't want to ruin anything.