My teammates consider me as the experienced old guy of Team 3DMJ now that I can officially compete in the master’s division. Because of my age and experience, they’ve labeled me as the “The Sensei”. Now, I could take offense to the fact that they are taking cracks at my age (and they often do by the way), but it’s all good because they do it out of love and respect for me. But more importantly, they’ve appointed that title to me because of the good eye I’ve developed over the years in understanding and coaching athletes in quality posing. It’s nice to hear my peers recognize me for this quality, but do I consider myself to be a perfect poser? Not at all. This is because perfection, in my opinion, does not exist in anything we do, but we can surely give our best effort in trying to become perfect and that’s what I strive to achieve with each show I compete in.

I’ve attended a lot of bodybuilding shows over the past 2 years and I’ll be brutally honest, I’m very disappointed with the quality of posing I’m seeing. I can’t help but to feel a little bit frustrated sitting there in the audience. You can see the lack of desire in one’s preparation immediately from poor positioning, inadequate posing conditioning, lack of poise and the lack of enthusiasm. As spectators, all of us deserve a lot better effort. I don’t know about you, but after spending 25-30 dollars for a ticket, I’m expecting a little more from the athletes up on stage. When I go and spend $11 on a blockbuster movie for example, I want to be entertained for 2 hours with good acting and lots of fast paced action. Who wants to see a “B” movie at “A” movie ticket prices?

 
Which would you rather pay good money for? Transmorphers or Transformers.

When I prepare for a bodybuilding contest, I’m sure to put an equal amount of work into my posing as I do with the rest of my contest preparation (weightlifting, nutrition and cardio). I allocate plenty of time to practice…at least 3-4 days per week to begin with. In fact, this prep I happened to begin 16 weeks away from my first scheduled show, but in general, 8 weeks out is just about right. As the show gets a bit closer, I will definitely ramp it up to 6-7 days per week.
 

Big thanks to 3DMJ family member, Nick Varela for the awesome music!

It’s my absolute goal to leave a memorable impression with the audience that I am a true professional on stage and that I take a lot of pride in my art. That’s more of a goal for me than to place well or to be victorious. I care what the judges think of my physique and performance, but for me it’s more so the audience I’m aiming to please, simply because they are the one’s paying good money to watch me perform. Whether I’m shredded or not...that really should not dictate how well I perform on stage. I still have complete control over my posing, so I really want to perform like a true professional no matter what condition I may be in. There’s no better feeling than to have an audience member come up to me after a show and say, “I really enjoyed watching you pose on stage!”

It’s my intention with this blog to create awareness that great posing is vital to improving the quality of bodybuilding shows we all love to compete in and attend. Posing should be equally as important to you as showing up as the biggest and most shredded athlete on stage. Don’t be the guy we’ve all heard of too many times, “I’ll just wing it.” I know for me, I take pride in bringing my best physique, but I take more pride in my posing performance. Set a new standard…put forth your best effort and give the bodybuilding fans their money’s worth.

Stay tuned in the weeks and months to follow, as I will touch on some of my key points to improve one’s posing skills.