Barbending Bartending Badass: by Eric Ryder

Lets face it.  If it wasn't for the gym, this industry would have already chewed me up and spit me out leaving me with life threatening health issues and unsustainable addictions.  That's me being completely honest.  Luckily the gym found me before the bar industry did.  I made sure to make health and wellness a priority at a very young age and I wouldn't let anything get in the way of that.  With that being said, the bar sure did make it an interesting battle for a number of years.  However, in the end, the gym prevailed and I am happy to now have Beyond The Bar to help support and bring awareness to something that many over look. 

As for "what makes your head turn" like the topic says, it was never about a PR for me in the gym.  The gym will forever be my outlet.  Yea, being big and strong is cool and all, but the feeling you have when leaving the gym with that pump, or the progress you start seeing in the mirror or on the scale, that's what its about.  Putting in work and seeing/feeling results.  Leaving that gym sweaty and sore is one of the best feelings for me.  You come home, look in the mirror and you're proud of your progress because YOU are the one responsible for it.  YOU are the only one who can make yourself look and feel this good.  No one else.  That's what the gym is for me and why I will always be a Barbender by day and a Bartender by night.