These Are 9 Poses Every Competitive Bodybuilder Must Learn
Bodybuilding goes beyond merely lifting substantial weights and admiring your reflection when you have a pump; it’s more of an art form than you might realize. Posing is just as significant to the discipline as lifting weights. Observe the Mr. Olympia stage, where numerous well-built athletes showcase impeccable posing routines with fluidity and elegance, enhancing the overall appearance of their physique. Conversely, there are also those with impressive physiques that are significantly marred by poor posing, which appears stiff and mechanical.
If you completely eliminate posing from the scenario, bodybuilding loses a lot of its appeal, becoming just an exhibition of very large, shredded individuals on stage in posing trunks.
When one thinks of a bodybuilder, a large muscular man flexing his biceps often comes to mind, but it’s much more than just a few bicep poses. Bodybuilding competitions wouldn’t exist without posing. Legends like the Austrian Oak, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and today’s bodybuilder Kai Greene took posing classes to highlight their physiques on stage. If you plan on competing or wish to impress with your physique, mastering proper posing is essential.
Required Bodybuilding Poses
Entering a bodybuilding competition involves performing a set of mandatory poses. Let’s examine them.
- Quarter Turns
- Front Lat Spread
- Front Double Bicep
- Side Chest
- Rear Lat Spread
- Rear Double Bicep
- Side Tricep
- Abdominals and Thighs
- Your Favorite Most Muscular
Quarter Turn Poses
The posing segment of a bodybuilding contest begins with obligatory poses, where the athletes stand facing the judges, with their lats expanded. The athlete rotates clockwise when instructed to “quarter turn to the right,” continuing each pose until all sides are covered, returning to the original stance.
Front Lat Spread
The routine commences with the front lat spread on stage. While each pose targets a primary muscle group (such as the lats in this pose), the importance of other muscles should not be overlooked.
The front lat spread highlights the breadth of your lats from the front, chest thickness, shoulder development, as well as the size of your front arm and forearm. Ensure you are focusing on flexing your legs to display the separation and muscle mass in your quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves throughout the posing routine. A method to flex your legs from the front is to plant your heels and use the balls of your feet to “spread the floor,” pushing away from you.
Front Double Bicep
The front double bicep pose is among the most iconic and typically follows the front lat spread on stage. It showcases the mass, definition, and peak of your biceps. Balanced triceps and forearms enhance the appearance of your arms, making them look larger and fuller.
This pose also highlights your lat span, quad size, and the definition and size of your front calf muscles.
Side Chest
As you pivot to your right, hit the side chest pose to display your chest’s size and thickness from either side. On stage, rotate your body to one side, grasp your wrist, pull your elbow back towards your side, and use the other arm to push your pecs together for a pronounced effect.
Besides the chest, this pose highlights your arm, forearm, shoulder, hamstrings, quad sweep, and calf muscle size and definition. Position one leg against the other, keeping your front leg on its tiptoes to accentuate the calves and hamstrings.
RearRear Lat Spread
The rear lat spread will show the expanse of your lats from the back, the thickness of the trap muscles, your arm size from the rear, along with glute and hamstring definition and separation, as well as the rear calf structure.
This pose is performed similarly to the front lat spread, but from the rear, emphasizing the glutes, hamstrings, and calves more.
Rear Double Bicep
Facing away from the judges, the second back pose known as the rear double bicep is executed. This stance highlights your arm size and the biceps mass and peak from the back. It also showcases the separation of your shoulders (rear delts especially) and biceps.
The rear double bicep pose fully displays the thickness and definition of your back muscles, including the trapezius, infraspinatus, teres major, and latissimus dorsi. It also highlights the development and separation of your glutes, hamstrings, and calves.
Side Triceps
The side tricep pose highlights your triceps, particularly the lateral head, from your chosen side. This stance displays your chest size, side forearm development, thigh separation, and calf definition from the side.
You might also follow the same leg positioning as the side chest pose to emphasize your hamstrings and calves.
Abdominal and Thighs
The abdominal and thighs pose emphasizes the development and separation of your external intercostals, serratus anterior, quadriceps, and abs. This pose highlights your entire frontal musculature, including your arms, chest, shoulders, and calves. Most bodybuilders perform it with their hands behind their head, tensing their abs to accentuate the abs and obliques.
Many prefer incorporating the stomach vacuum during this pose.
Favorite Most Muscular
The favorite most muscular pose is a preferred stance for many bodybuilders. This pose allows bodybuilders to showcase their best features through their chosen pose style.
Some bodybuilders strike the pose with one hand on their thigh while the other arm is flexed across the body. Others, like Phil Heath, perform the “crab version” of the pose by bringing their arms and hands together across the midsection.
Bodybuilding Posing Conclusion
Overall, posing is a craft that fully integrates bodybuilding. However, not everyone is familiar with all the poses, so these were 8 essential bodybuilding poses everyone should be aware of.
Which pose is your top pick? Share with us in the comments below. Also, remember to follow Fit Journey Now on Facebook and Twitter.