How to Pose

[coffee-guy]

Quarter Turns...

Standing Relaxed - This pose is one of the most important poses to learn, mostly because you are doing it whenever you’re not hitting a mandatory. It's pretty simple once you get it down. First off, in every pose you do, you always start with your feet - plant them where they need to be and move on from there. So, put your heels close together but don’t let them touch, having them closer together makes your shoulders and back look much wider. Then "sit" on your legs, that pretty much means that you bend your knees ever so slightly and flex your quads, you don’t have to worry about hamstrings in this pose because the judges won’t see them. You then move on to your stomach, you can do two things with this, if you have good abs, flex them, but I prefer to vacuum them in, this makes the shoulders look wider and your chest looks much fuller. Flex your lats out to the side and let your arms sit on them, one of the biggest mistakes a person can make is exaggerating their arms out from their lats, I have seen people do this and it looks stupid. Clench your fists (with your thumbs inside) and flex your arms but not too much because it won’t look right. Keep your head upright and parallel with the floor - this gives you a look of pride and confidence. Frank Zane once said "if you don’t feel good on stage, then what will the judges think?”

[coffee-guy]

Quarter turn to the Right - (Your left side will be facing the judges) - The most important thing to remember in this pose is that when you turn, don’t lookdown. In this pose, get your feet right, like always, and then flex your calves, hamstrings and quads. Don’t bend your knees too much. To make your hamstring look larger, push it up against your back leg - this gives the illusion that it is bigger then it really is (this is often easily done by placing the heel of the foot facing the judges into the area next to the arch of your back foot so that your legs are cambered but not enough to have the judges correct you). Next, start with your arm, ball your fist, thumb inside, and extend your arm downward (to flex the triceps). With your other arm make sure to bend it up a little, and bring it slightly forward, press it against the pec in order to make it look fuller. Don’t bring your arm up like in the Olympia pictures, in NPC events they will mark you down for this and make you put your arm down and that’s pretty embarrassing. With your abs you can either vacuum them or you can flex them, if you’re going to flex them then you should bend slightly toward the judges to make your obliques stick out more. Don’t exaggerate a turn in your body and make sure your head is always facing straight. DO NOT LOOK AT THE JUDGES!

The quarter turn to the Left (right side side facing judges) - is the same thing as the left side facing.

[coffee-guy]

Quarter turn to the Rear (back facing judges) - The most important thing to do in this pose is to make sure to spread your lats before you turn. If you turn and then spread your lats, you show your body when it’s not at its best, don’t do that. Also, make sure to not look down when you turn. Once you get your feet planted (heels close together), flex your calves and hamstrings, quads won’t be seen by the judges. Your lats should already be spread, make sure not to over exaggerate the arms and pretty much let them sit/hang on your lats. Ball your fists with your thumbs inside and keep looking straight.

[coffee-guy]

Front Double Bicep - Start with setting your feet, place your better leg slightly forward and flex both legs. Keep your feet planted on the ground. Next comes your stomach, you can do two things with it in this pose - flex your abs or vacuum them. I prefer the vacuum, but some people like to flex them - do which one you feel works best. Next, raise your arms and flex them hard! Keeping them a little bit higher than parallel with the ground, this gives the illusion that you’re taller than you really are. Keep your fists balled and your thumbs inside your fingers (the judges will count off if they are sticking out). Point your hand where you feel they make your bicep look the best (twisting backwards gives them a really good peak but twisting them more forward makes your upper arm appear fuller and your forearms appear more developed so go with the presentation you like best). Pull your shoulder blades in to make your lats and chest come out more. Keep your head straight and remember to smile!

[coffee-guy]

Front Lat Spread - Starting with your feet, put your heels close together but your toes outward and sit on your legs a little, make sure to flex those quads. Don’t flex your abs on this pose, vacuum them in and try not to squeeze the skin and make it wrinkle. Put your thumbs above your hipbones on your lower back and slowly spread them forward. Everybody is different so you will have to experiment to see how far forward you will need to bring your arms to make this look good. Keep your hands in a fist so that you don’t cover up your abs. Keep your shoulders down, almost flat - the biggest mistake people make is raising their shoulders up, it looks stupid, don’t do it. Look straight ahead and keep your chin parallel to the floor.

[coffee-guy]

Side Tricep - Starting with your feet, turn to the side and spike down the leg the judges see, make sure to flex the shit out of your calf and hamstring (again – putting the toes of the forward foot in the arch of the rear foot helps). Push your hamstring up against your other leg so it looks bigger and fuller. Flex your abs toward the side that is facing the judges to better make your obliques come out. Next take the arm you’re flexing and bring it behind your back, grab it with the other hand (you can grab the wrist, your thumb, or your whole hand, do whatever you’re comfortable with). Pull your arms back against your body to make the triceps look fuller and flex your chest to make the striations come out. Keep your lats slightly flexed and your shoulders wide. Look towards the crowd and smile!

[coffee-guy]

Side Chest - Start with your legs the same way as the side triceps pose (refer to the post "Side Triceps"). Flex your abs the same way you would in a side triceps pose. Now, start by bringing up the arm closest to the judges next to your body, ball your fist with your thumb inside of it and grab your wrist with the other hand, press down with it to make your bicep flex. Tense your shoulder to bring out the striations on it, lean to the side a little bit so the judges get a look at your shoulders and traps. with the arm that’s farthest away from the judges push that bicep up against the pec closest to it, this makes the pec look much fuller and helps bring out the striations some more.

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Abs and Thigh - This is probably the easiest pose to do. Put your best leg forward and flex the shit out of it, make sure to flex the other leg as well. Raise your arms over your head and interlace your fingers together, pull your stomach down and flex your abs. Make sure to keep your arms forward, not out, this makes your lat sweep look bigger. Flex your arms and smile.

[coffee-guy]

Back Double Bicep - Starting with your feet, place your better calf back and flex it, along with your hamstrings. Turn the leg you’re flexing slightly inward and flex that quad. Arc your lower back VERY slightly. Raise your arms up and flex your biceps...HARD! Now push your shoulder blades into your back so more definition comes out. Flex your glutes as well. Make sure to ball your fist with your thumb inside.

[coffee-guy]

Rear Lat Spread - Put your feet in the same type of stance as in the back double bicep pose (see post titled "back double bicep"). After you have done that, place your thumbs above your hip bones on your lower back and spread your arms forward. For more on how to do this, check out the post "front lat spread". Make sure to flex the triceps. Just like the front lat spread, keep your shoulders down, don’t bring them up and flex your traps, it just doesn’t flow correctly.

[coffee-guy]

Most Muscular (crab) - This pose is one that can make or break you. There are three different types (crab most muscular, hands clasped most muscular, and hands on hips most muscular). I will go through all three.

Crab - Start out by putting your best leg forward, it doesn’t really matter where your feet are, put them where you want. Start out by leaning forward but not too far, does it like a bent over row. Push your traps up and your shoulders out, making you as wide as possible. Bring your arms up and flex the shit out of them, make sure to keep your legs and abs flexed as well and make sure to keep your thumbs inside of your fists like always. This is my favorite version of the most muscular pose, and the easiest to do IMO.

[coffee-guy]

Most Muscular (hands clasped) - Start out by standing straight up. Heels close together, toes out, sit on your legs. Bring your arms in and clasp your hands together. Push your hands together and spread your lats out slightly. Flex your arms and shoulders. This pose is pretty hard and takes some practice.

[coffee-guy]

Most Muscular (hands on hips) - Start out by putting your better leg slightly forward and your heels close together. Put your hands on your legs just a bit below your hips. Push on your legs to flex your arms and shoulders, spread your lats out and flex your chest inward. Tense your abs and you have yourself a pretty sweet pose.

[coffee-guy]

Victory Pose - This is the pose you need to know if the class is close enough together the judges will call this pose. At the show I did they called it for the overall....this pose made the one point difference the middleweight got to win the overall.

Start with your feet planted on the ground (The judges may call this from the front or the back - it’s pretty much the same pose though). Put one leg back like you were to do a back double bicep (if your back was facing the judges), if your front is facing the judges, heels in, toes out. Raise your arms into the air looking up to your wrists. Your hands should be pointed outwards so the tops of your wrists almost touch. Push your back in and vacuum your stomach (it is almost impossible to flex your abs while in this pose and make it look good) and make sure your lats are out as much as possible. Keep your thumbs inside of your hands with your forearms flexed. Make sure to flex your arms.

*note* this pose is hard for anyone to look good in. Think about it, two guys in history have pulled it off, Lee Priest and Sergio Olivia. I wouldn't recommend putting this in your routine, I am only putting it in this thread in-case the judges call it on you.

[coffee-guy]

Archer Pose - This pose is more of a graceful pose than anything. You can do this one two ways.

Standing or kneeling. When standing, put your best leg forward, heels inward, and toes outward. When kneeling, let one foot stay back while you bend the other knee forward. So....one leg will be straight out, the other will be bent.

Now - start off by putting one arm (try both arms and see which one looks better) in a bicep shot. Like in a front double bicep. Now - with the other arm reach out and point it straight. Make sure to LOOK WHERE YOU'RE POINTING!! Make sure the lat is spread out and your abs are flexed. This is called the archer pose because it looks like you’re shooting a bow and arrow, so a good way to transition it into your routine is to act like you’re shooting a bow and arrow. The main thing is to look where you point.