Posing "The Lost Art" by TEAM 3DMJ Coach & WNBF Pro - Jeff Alberts
I was fortunate enough to have started my bodybuilding career in 1993 in Fremont California where none other than the legendary poser, Ed Corney, resided. He gained legendary status in the famous bodybuilding documentary “Pumping Iron”, where he performed one of his great posing routines at the 1975 Mr. Olympia prejudging. During that routine he carried out each pose with tremendous flow, certainty and with beautiful transitioning. In response, Arnold Schwarzenegger made that famous comment, “Now that’s what I call posing.” The 1990 “Mr. Fremont” was my very first time seeing a bodybuilding show and I was excited to see Ed Corney guest posing that night. He not only had a great performance, but he performed his dramatic routine with a live singer on the same stage! That was truly inspirational! I trained at the same local gym (Bob’s Gym) as he did during that time and I looked up to him for his artistic abilities on the posing dais. He also happened to be the head judge and the annual guest poser at the local “Mr. Fremont” bodybuilding show. At the time, I viewed becoming “Mr. Fremont” as my ultimate goal. The show greatly appealed to me because of its rich history and roots, going back to its start in 1967, where none other than Ed Corney won his first title. To have one of the best posers of all-time as a head judge inspired me to pose just as greatly as he did. In order to achieve that goal, I had to study every detail about his posing and that is exactly what I did. I had video footage of his guest performance and I must have watched that performance over 100 times. I examined every pose which included his foot, leg, torso, arm, and hand placements and even his facial expressions. I really took in every aspect of his posing style. I found not only was his posing perfectly matched with his body type, but his transitioning from pose to pose was simply majestic. I learned from Ed’s posing because I wanted to follow in his footsteps, but I also wanted to make my very own style. At the 1995 Mr. Fremont I took 2nd place with only one 1st place vote. That first place vote came from none other than the great poser himself, Ed Corney. The promoter of the show and owner of Bob’s Gym, Bob Perata, expressed to me that “Ed Corney liked your posing and that is why you received the first place vote.” For me, that was a victory and I will never forget it! As I have evolved over the past 16 years of my career, I have studied many bodybuilders. I have evaluated their posing, and learned from them by dissecting their every move to help me hone my own craft. To be a great poser, you must be willing to do what is necessary to keep improving your style. There are many key factors to becoming a great poser. Let us take a closer look at some of these elements of success. Understanding Your Body Type You have to be aware of your body’s structure and the amount of development you currently have. Many novice and intermediate bodybuilders will look up to more prominent bodybuilders and try to emulate their poses exactly as they hit them. The disadvantage in this scenario is you probably do not have the same body structure or the same amount of muscle as the more prominent bodybuilder in question. If you attempt to emulate the posing of a bodybuilder who has more muscle than you and a different structure, it will tend to make you look awkward in some poses. One way of overcoming this problem is to recognize and adjust poses to fit your body. Simple things such as foot placement, torso placement and arm placement can go a long way in customizing a pose for your physique. Studying “The Art of Posing” You have to become a student of posing and that means putting in time to study yourself and others. Watching video, breaking down photos and listening to other bodybuilders who possess above average posing skills are all great ways to improve one’s performance. By studying you can get a better understanding of how different poses look on you and different body types, which will assist you in adjusting certain poses to fit your physique. Practice Makes Perfect It only makes sense that practice creates perfection and the more you practice at something the better you become. This applies to posing as well; you have to practice on a daily basis to achieve perfection with each and every pose. Posing practice should not be just an afterthought to your training. It requires an abundance of patience and many hours of practice. Many bodybuilders will start practicing too late as they prepare for a bodybuilding contest. Once the show arrives, it becomes very evident they did not spend the proper time needed to perfect their presentation. Many posing mistakes are made due to incorrect positioning, extreme shaking and trembling, lack of conditioning, lack of confidence and poor transitions which all correlate with inadequate practice. Transitioning From Pose to Pose What is transitioning? This is the way you move from one pose to the next. The way you transition into a pose is just as important as the pose itself. Many bodybuilders will hit a front double biceps and all of a sudden turn around for a rear lat spread. This will cause their transition to have no flow, and overall they will appear very choppy and unorganized. A poser with poor transitioning conveys to the audience a sense that the bodybuilder is uncertain as to where he or she is going next. Your poses should have a nice flow to them, look organized and your movements should be very smooth and precise. With superior transitioning a bodybuilder looks confident, professional and more appealing. My posing routine at the 2009 INBF Washington State Naturals where I performed a slower style routine to emphasize smooth and precise transitioning between my poses. Stage Presence Stage presence is your existence on the bodybuilding stage. How you portray that existence is vital for your success because it is seen by the judging panel and the audience members. How do you want to be remembered after your latest bodybuilding contest? This answer lies in your personality and it is very important for you to be yourself on stage. You may be confident, arrogant, nervous, scared, fun, serious, competitive, angry, etc, but it is up to you to decide how you will make your presence known on contest day. Facial expressions and body language are the main communicators on a bodybuilding stage and they are the tools to make your stage presence known. Facial expressions with a smile tend to make an audience feel comfortable and favorable toward you, while a bodybuilder with a scowl might be interpreted as being arrogant or having a bad attitude. Body language also tells a story on a bodybuilding stage. For example, bodybuilders with shoulders which appear to be slumped and their head slightly dropped tend to look unsure. On the other hand, a bodybuilder standing with his shoulders up and his head up appears to be very confident. It is very important for you to really bring out your best stage presence and to portray yourself the way you want to be remembered on that special contest day. Music Selection Music selection should fit your personality as well as appeal to the general audience. You may have a physique that is heavily muscled and you’re thinking “I am going to go hard core with the craziest rock song ever!” but more often than not, most in attendance are not going to relate to that music selection. You finished what you thought was a hardcore and awesome routine, but it ended with the sound of crickets. You can choose a rock song, but try and pick one that the general public has probably heard and accepts. Music selection should also fit your posing style. Having a posing style with a slow and smooth tempo would normally look best when using slower tempo music. Some bodybuilders will also include dance moves into their posing routine, in which case up-tempo beats are generally the better choice. Overall, music selection is very wide open and the choices are endless. Performing an uptempo posing routine from my 2006 Contest Season, using an up-tempo music selection. Posing Coaches At every gym and on every bodybuilding forum there seems to be somebody who will tell you the ins and outs of posing. He will say,” just raise this arm up, pull that leg in and do it like me and that will fix your problem.” This is not the case, posing is just not that easy. It takes many years to perfect the art of posing. Some bodybuilders who have competed for over 20 years are still making the same mistakes as when they first started competing. Experienced coaches will study the art of posing and recognize different physique structures. They know how to assess and adjust the physique properly to get the most out of it. Posing coaches will listen to a client’s concerns and feedback and use that information to guide that client to be at his or her best. An experienced coach knows it takes many sessions of practice to perfect each pose and to have a client feel comfortable performing them. Choosing the right posing coach should be done very carefully with the proper research of their credentials. In Conclusion I have competed in 25 contests over the past 16 years and my posing has evolved just as my physique has evolved. I train to further improve my physique with each contest outing and I also continue to sharpen my posing skills to ensure I look professional, confident, poised and to connect with the general audience to ensure my posing does not become “The Lost Art”. To read Part 2 click here. TEAM 3DMJ offers contest preparation services, which include weekly posing assessments and adjustments, guiding you to your best contest condition yet! |
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Posing as an art form has somehow disappeared from most bodybuilding stages and it seems to have been lost for quite some time now. Not since the days of Ed Corney, Frank Zane, Franco Colombo and Arnold himself, have we seen a real emphasis on the art of posing. 
