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How an Injured Rodeo Champ Started a Business That Caught the Eye of Daymond John Ryan Ehmann knows what it means to fall down and get back up again.

By Jason Daley

This story appears in the January 2016 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

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In his early 30s, Ryan Ehmann woke up in a beat-up camper in the middle of a Texas hay field and thought, "How did I get here?"

It wasn't a deep mystery -- after 12 years on the rodeo circuit as a bronco rider, he'd ruined his back, racked up $67,000 in debt, had no job prospects, and no real place to go. It was a true rough patch until a sympathetic friend took pity on Ryan and gave him some Tony Robbins tapes to pass the time. After listening to the big-toothed success coach, Ehmann was energized and determined to get his life back.

Though over a dozen doctors said his spine was shot, he believed that through hard physical training he could get back up on that horse, literally. Even more, he was determined to win a rodeo national championship. So he signed up for courses at Dallas's Cooper Institute to become a certified personal trainer with the idea of learning enough about the human body to develop a plan to rebuild himself. He also became a trainer at the local Gold's Gym. "I got the answers to what was wrong with my back," he says. "And I also realized millions of people suffer from lower back pain -- their muscles are too tight, or their muscles are too short, or they're not eating a good diet."

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