RYAN MONTGOMERY IS ONE OF COUNTRY MUSIC’S FASTEST RISING — AND FITTEST STARS

Unless you’re a music star performing in front of thousands of people, or maybe a competitive physique athlete, you’ve probably never dealt with Ryan Montgomery’s dilemma come leg day.

“Because I wear jeans on stage, and because of the upward angle, it makes my legs look bigger than they really are,” says the 23-year-old country music artist, who’s gracing more stages than ever these days. “You get those fricking big legs in the jeans, and it makes your upper body look awful on stage. So, I’m always trying to achieve a balanced look.”

Whatever Montgomery’s doing in the gym is translating nicely to his music career. Young as he is, he’s been at it for over a decade already. The South Florida native started writing music and performing at age 12, after first picking up a guitar at age 5. At 18, he was playing live at bars. The next year he “got the crazy idea to take my truck out to the middle of a tailgate before a Brad Paisley concert,” which made him something of an overnight sensation.

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

As Montgomery says in his single “Sundown Saturday Night,” he’s undoubtedly “livin’ the dream.” Young, good-looking, successful, his future growing brighter by the day — and fitness is at the center of it all.

Dan Solomon, president of the iconic Mr. Olympia world championships of bodybuilding, recently met the rising country star. “I was impressed by his energy, his focus and his desire to promote a fit lifestyle to his fans. This young man has a bright future.”

STAR IN TRAINING

At 6’3” and a lean 180 pounds, Montgomery looks the part of a country music leading man. (Never mind that one of his idols, Kenny Chesney, is only 5’6”, yet still pretty chiseled himself.) As a kid, he was as serious about sports as he was music, competing at a high level in both water skiing and ice hockey. He started playing basketball in high school, which eventually led him to the weightroom.

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

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

That sanctuary is right there at his house, in fact. Montgomery has curated a fairly decked out home gym complete with a power rack, full rack of dumbbells, and a cable pully system. When he’s on the road performing, he’ll find a commercial gym or use whatever his hotel has available.