Ryan Montgomery is one of country music's fastest rising - and fittest - stars

Unless you're a music star who performs in front of thousands of people, or perhaps a competitive athlete, you've probably never dealt with Ryan Montgomery's dilemma when it comes to leg.

“Because I wear jeans on stage and the upward angle makes my legs look bigger than they really are,” says the 23-year-old country musician, who is gracing more stages than ever these days. “You get these big fucking legs in your jeans, and that does it your upper body looks terrible on stage. So I always try to achieve a balanced look.”

Whatever Montgomery does in the gym translates well to his music career. As young as he is, he has been around for over a decade. The South Florida native began writing and performing music at age 12 after first picking up a guitar at age 5. At 18 he was playing live in bars. The next year, “he had the crazy idea of ​​driving my truck into the middle of a tailgate before a Brad Paisley concert,” which made him something of an overnight sensation.

Since then, he's been recording songs, headlining small regional shows, and even hitting the main stage at larger country music festivals. To date, Montgomery has over 9 million combined online streams, with both singles and EPs charting in the iTunes Top 100 charts.

As Montgomery says in his single “Sundown Saturday Night,” he is undoubtedly “living the dream.” Young, good-looking, successful, his future is growing day by day - and fitness is the focus.

Dan Solomon, president of the legendary Mr. Olympia World Bodybuilding Championships, recently caught up with the rising country star. "I was impressed by his energy, focus and desire to promote a fit lifestyle to his fans. This young man has a bright future."

Star in training

At 6 feet 3 inches and a skinny 180 pounds, Montgomery looks like a leading man in country music. (Never mind that one of his idols, Kenny Chesney, is only 5'10" tall, but is still pretty chiseled himself.) As a child, he took sports as seriously as music, competing at high levels in water skiing and ice hockey. He started playing basketball in high school, which eventually led him to the weight room.

Now in his early 20s, it's pretty much all about music and fitness, and he excels at both for the same reason: consistency. Montgomery is a creature of habit. He takes at least a few hours off every morning to work on music in his home studio in West Palm Beach - writing songs, playing guitar or piano, creating new tunes, etc. Every afternoon he dedicates himself to the business side of his music, as his career is still 100% managed by himself, his family and his friends. No major management company and no record label (yet). He trains six days a week around 4 p.m. without exception.

“Fitness is my sanctuary,” says Montgomery. "Just like the sport I grew up with, I found that in the gym, and that's still what I do every day in the gym. I turn off my phone, start every workout with five minutes of meditation, and I'm just super Zen-ed and I crush it."

This sanctuary is actually located right in his house. Montgomery curated a pretty decorated home gym complete with a power rack, a complete dumbbell rack and a cable pull system. When he's traveling, he finds a commercial gym or uses whatever his hotel has available.

“I never miss training,” he says. "It's like an identity thing for me. I don't think I've ever missed a workout on the road. I've had times where I'll land in Nashville at 8:00 at night, go to the studio and then go to dinner with people and then workout at 10:30 before I go to bed. When we're on the road, sometimes I'll workout in the morning before sound check or in the afternoon. I don't even think about it after. I’ll just bring it in.”

Fitness is clearly not just a hobby for Montgomery. He sees it as a professional requirement. When he performs, he's all over the stage, running around, jumping. His crew knows to always have towels on hand because he sweats so much during performances. He has to be fit for all of this. And of course, looks matter when you're the center of the stage.

“I have to look good, be in good cardio shape and feel good,” he says.

"You always want to accept yourself no matter what you look like. But for me personally, when I don't look good, I don't feel good. It shows in my energy and everything I do. If I don't take care of my fitness, I don't stand the same way, I don't perform the same way, I don't sing the same way, I don't treat people the same way. If I feel good about my fitness, that carries over everywhere in my life – on stage, in interviews, with my self-confidence and self-assurance. It’s like the cornerstone of my life.”

The year that changed his life

2020 was a bad year for pretty much everyone, but it was particularly challenging for Montgomery's career. In June 2018, he released his first single ("Drop a Tailgate") along with a self-titled six-song EP (Extended Play). In January 2020, he released another EP (“Buzzed at First Sight”) and was ready to have a big year touring across the country. And then Covid-19 came and the music died (at least temporarily). He couldn't tour, he couldn't play live events, the momentum he had built over the last two years was all but gone.

“My whole life changed,” says Montgomery now two years later. "I remember vividly, I was sitting on my bed and it was like a moment of consciousness. I was like, 'Okay, I can either get depressed and have a pity party for myself, or I can focus on controlling the things that I can control so that I can be my best when the world recovers.'"

Montgomery, along with two friends/training partners (Zahra Fayad and David Anderson), worked out at his house almost every day while public gyms were closed. Montgomery also made it a point to read a book every week, ultimately reading 52 books in 2020.

“I was in the best shape of my life this year, both physically and mentally,” he says. "That was the biggest blessing for me. I wouldn't have been ready for this next step in my career if I hadn't had this time."

Montgomery's career has since taken off with new releases in both January 2021 and January 2022, the latter featuring his hit single "Chasing Sunsets." Because training played such a big role for him during Covid, he now sells two different training programs on his website - one for men, one for women and with Fayad. (Visit RyanMontgomeryMusic.net/fitness)

“When I was learning about fitness, there were so many different programs, but what seemed to be missing was something for the average person,” Montgomery says. "There's CrossFit, there's bodybuilding and all these different things. But what about someone like me who likes country music and still wants to drink beer and not cut corners? That's what my programs are for. I made it very simple. It's basically the workout structure and diet that I follow. There's a gym version and a bodyweight-only version. I wanted something for my fans create and for everyone who only has abs and still wants to live a great life and have muscles [laughs].”

Bright lights, bright future

“Youth is wasted on the youth,” they say, but Montgomery doesn’t seem to be wasting time, talent or resources. His touring schedule extends beyond the region and his iTunes library continues to grow. At 23, he's still a baby in the world of country music. Kenny Chesney didn't release his first album until he was 26. The same goes for Tim McGraw. Garth Brooks and Brad Paisley were both 27 years old. Montgomery still has a long way to go to catch these guys, but he's on the right track.

“The goals I have now were never my goals when I started,” Montgomery says. "Before, I would have been happy to just play my local amphitheater one day and do a club tour, you know? Now my goals are as big as they can be. I want to be a stadium headliner. I want to have number one songs. I want to play to a hundred thousand people every night. That's the next step."

But it's not just about the hundred thousand people in the stadium. And it's not just about fame and hit singles and reaching Chesney's stratosphere. Anything would be nice, but Montgomery aims to influence people with more than just music.

“I want to make sure my life means something to other people, and that's why I love music so much - it connects people on a spiritual level like nothing else,” he says. "When you're in the gym, you throw on a certain type of music and your workout is a hundred times better. Music, to me, is that legacy. Anything I can do to give back is what I want to do. That's why I wrote this fitness program, just to say, 'Hey, this is what I did in 2020 to get through a tough year. I hope it helps you.' Those are my two big goals: life as big as." as possible and hopefully help everyone else do the same and live the great life they want to live.”

Ryan Montgomery's videos, fitness programs, merchandise, links to his music and more can be found at RyanMontgomeryMusic.net.

Training Notes

• Montgomery beendet jedes Training mit einem Lauf über eine halbe Meile für Cardio/Konditionierung, wobei er so schnell wie möglich geht.
• Er trainiert die Bauchmuskeln am Ende jeder Trainingseinheit. „Und ich habe gerade angefangen, jeden Tag ein bisschen Waffen zu machen“, sagt Montgomery.
• Seine Workouts am Montag und Dienstag (Brust/Trizeps bzw. Rücken/Bizeps) sind schwerer als seine Workouts am Freitag und Samstag, die dieselben Muskelgruppen treffen, mit Wiederholungen von nur 6 Wiederholungen. Die Workouts am Freitag und Samstag haben in der Regel ein höheres Volumen, mit Wiederholungen im Bereich von 12 bis 20.
• Sein Beintraining besteht hauptsächlich aus Sätzen mit hohen Wiederholungszahlen (bis zu 25 Wiederholungen) bei zusammengesetzten Übungen wie Kniebeugen und Ausfallschritten; explosive Plyometrie und Springen; und Isolationsbewegungen wie Beinstrecker und Beinbeuger.
• Montgomery trainiert in einem voll ausgestatteten Fitnessstudio. Wenn er jedoch auf Reisen ist und nicht in einem regulären Fitnessstudio trainieren kann, begnügt er sich mit dem Fitnessstudio des Hotels oder Bodyweight-Übungen und Laufen im Freien (z. B. am Strand).