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Posing is one the most important aspects of your presentation with bodybuilding, fitness and figure.

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• Learning How to Pose Effectively
• The Poses & Instructional Videos
• Practicing
• Posing Routine
• Music Selection
• Misc Tips & Tricks
• Arnold Schwarzenegger Speaking on Posing

Before you begin practicing posing in earnest, make sure you have the poses right.

There are various ways to learn the correct poses.

One thing everyone should do is study videos of the top pros who are known for their posing [Melvin Anthony, Darrem Charles, Milos Sarcev, Shawn Ray, Mustafa Mohammad etc.] Do not just study their routines, study the mandatories which are most important. It is quite boring yes, but watch them over and over. In today’s electronic age, you do not need to go out and buy DVD’s you can watch them on Youtube easily enough. If you can get your hands on bodybuilding DVD’s that can be better in many ways.

Study everything, from their transitions from pose to pose to every single mandatory. Watch the videos over and over, and the mandatories are really what you should be focused on watching.

Getting someone in real life to help you with your posing is ideal if possible. Note that bodybuilding can often be full of so-called experts, so make sure this person actually knows what they are talking about. Having someone teach you totally crappy looking poses is not exactly ideal.

Make sure you have the correct information about what poses are allowed in the federation you plan to compete in. various rules can apply. Take a front double bicep for example, it can be done with one leg out to the side, or legs even – make sure you are aware of which one will be allowed – or as a backup, practice both versions.

Different federations/divisions can vary but the general mandatory poses in bodybuilding are:

1. Quarter Turns [not a pose per se]

2. Front Double Bicep

3. Front Lat Spread

4. Abs and Thigh

5. Side Chest

6. Side Tricep

7. Rear Double Bicep

8. Rear Lat Spread

9. Most Muscular

Instructional Videos

These videos were compliled and instructed by Gary Udit, a well known Americna personal trainer and promoter of the IFBB Pittsburgh Pro Show.

Front Relaxed Posing Demo & Tips  - Men

Front Relaxed Posing Demo & Tips - Women's Bodybuilding

Side Chest Posing  Demo & Tips - Men

Side Chest Posing Demo & Tips: Women's Bodybuilding

Front Double Bicep Posing Demo & Tips: Men

Front Double Bicep Posing Demo & Tips: Women's Bodybuilding

Practice, practice, practice!

This cannot be stressed enough. Bad posing can completely detract from anyone’s physique. No matter how good your physique is, if it not displayed well it will not look good.

Most Australians who follow bodybuilding deeply would be very familiar with one Australian pro in particular who has very poor posing skills which really negatively impacts their stage showings.

If you can’t hit an ab & thigh shot well, your abs will not be displayed to their full advantage. Same applies for all poses.

Photograph and video yourself in poses, and then examine them. As an added benefit to this, you could easily electronically hire a world class bodybuilding trainer to critique your poses.

Don’t forget transitions. Hitting a great front lat spread, and then stumbling into a side tricep is not the best look. Practice moving from pose to pose.

Increase your posing endurance to be able to hold poses, especially the front relaxed. Anyone who has competed knows holding the poses is tiring, so endurance must be built. Every moment you are onstage, you are being watched, no matter what anyone tells you. You may see some pros relax a lot onstage, Dexter Jackson is known for that, but unless you actually have Dexter’s physique – it is a wise move to try and hold some form of pose whenever on stage.

Obviously, using a mirror helps posing. When practicing your back shots, you can position another mirror angled so you can see yourself. Closer to the show date, get used to posing without a mirror so you are more accustomed to it onstage.

Many top pros say they pose for an hour a day leading up to contests. Not that we all have an hour a day to spare, but you should definitely practice as much as you can. No matter how good you think your posing is, it can always improve.

Very few amateurs are fantastic posers, so if you can master the art of posing this can give you a clear advantage.

Design your posing routine well, with the idea to highlight your physique to the best and provide entertainment. We cover posing music in the following section.

Use posing to help disguise weak point. If you look fantastic from the front, and dubious from the back – during your free routine focus on front facing poses. Too many amateur bodybuilders just do poses that they “like”, without considering what shows of their physique best. Consider taking photos of yourself in numerous poses, then comparing them and seeing which ones you look best in.

There are so many more poses than the mandatories, so there is no excuse not to show some innovation during your routine. Coming out and hitting a front double bi, then 5 most musculars is not exactly the height of entertainment, nor will the judges be bowled over by your routine.

There are many varied thoughts about this, and there are few fixed rules.

Although the point is made that we compete for ourselves, let’s not gloss over reality, most competitors want to place as high as they can. Attempting to cater the judges and audience musical tastes may be somewhat “kiss assish” but why not try and score a few subtle points where you can?

One thing to contemplate is everyone has different tastes. While some feel hard rock is the best posing music, others swear by more classical/dramatic type music and others will only pose to hip hop. While you may love a song, others may despise it.To use a cliché, “One man’s poison is another mans paradise”.

There is also the issue of double songs. I am sure most hardcore bodybuilding fans have been at a show with a larger lineup and heard the same song used from more than one entrant. This is not the best impact – to come out to a song that someone else just used, and obviously there is no foolproof way of preventing it.

Splicing two songs together presents the ideal musical scenario.  The major advantage that this simply appears far more professional, a bodybuilding show is after all a ‘show’, designed to entertain. Plus, it prevents the dreaded exact same song scenario, as well as caters to double the tastes of judges and those in attendance.

It also gives you a chance to “mix up” your posing style as you blend with the music. Some slower poses, some power moves etc.

Mixing in some sound effects and original things is always a plus. Again, look at the pros – they do it all.

Inching Around Onstage

Ever notice the closer something is the larger it appears? So use this to your advantage onstage!

Bodybuilders generally want to look larger, so if you subtly inch a bit in front on the lineup you can appear ever so slightly larger. Obviously the opposite can apply for figure/fitness, if you are not quite lean enough and want to look a touch smaller than the line up try to inch back.

Anyone who has sat in the side seats of the IFBB Olympia where the top competitors compete, can see the subtle jostling of the top guys trying to edge forward.

Naturally, some judges/promoters may be aware of this and have set stage lines, but if you are a ‘smooth operator’ you can still gain a few inches or so.

Figure/Fitness – Thigh Slimming Trick

This can be slightly hard to explain, but it well worth trying to understand. A good way to get a clearer example of this is to use photos to examine the foot positioning of many top pros. Video it is really to slight to catch, photos are really the only way to see this.

When you are standing facing backwards during your quarter turns, do two things;

• Ever so slightly put one foot in front of the other a very small amount so it is barely noticeable.
• Also, very slightly torque heels outwards. As in roll your feet outwards ever so slightly.

Both these actions if done subtely [do not overdo it!] will really help your things to look slimmer. It takes some practice, and the best way is to get photos taken of you. Here are two photos showing the foot positioning of two top IFBB figure pros.

 I find out which poses they really like. That’s why I don’t have a specific posing routine, because you never know what they like and what they don’t. Sometimes you think a routine is good but the applause is going down. Like Franco explained, he did one shot coming up for triceps from the side and the sound went down, so he cut the shot. You have to be very flexible in these things. You have to listen. When you hit the most muscular and they start screaming, you know they like the more freaky poses, so you keep hitting it again and maybe hold it longer to get the cuts out more. You know then they like drama shots and you can forget the symmetrical stuff.”

A lot of things go through my mind while I am posing. When I pose, a very good pose let’s ay the most muscular pose. The audience starts screaming. In my mind I say to them, kind of like Well, here it is here is the best body look at it and just freak out because your only going to see one of them. That’s it. I let them know that what they get is mind-blowing. They are not going to get it tomorrow, not the next day. Maybe never again. It’s a once in a life time experience. Especially since my career as a bodybuilder is almost over. I just hope they appreciate my body. Obviously they do. I hear the applause.

Onstage I’m always different than offstage. I can be very friendly offstage, but onstage I will pull one trick after another on my competition to wipe him out, you know-because it’s my living and I have to win. Franco is my best friend, but I will do as much as I can to make him look bad and make me look good.”