The trigonometric Ruijsenaars-Schneider model is derived by symplectic reduction of Poisson-Lie symmetric free motion on the group U(n). The commuting flows of the model are effortlessly obtained by reducing canonical free flows on the Heisenberg double of U(n). The free flows are associated with a very simple Lax matrix, which is shown to yield the Ruijsenaars-Schneider Lax matrix upon reduction.
