You want me to wear what???

      Last week we discussed the importance of posing.  On a somewhat related note, I’m going to throw this out there:  Ladies and gents, buy your competition suits early and practice in them.  I very rarely ever get this from women but for every show I’ve promoted I’ve had at LEAST one male call me 2 days out from the show wanting to know where to get a posing suit.  What???  These aren’t something you can find at your local Macy’s and my own personal preference, I’d rather not borrow a used suit.

      The whole misadventure of trying to find a suit last minute aside, if you’ve never worn one before you’re in for a heck of a surprise.  For guys, these suits sport about a third the material of your favorite Fruit of the Looms.  You’ll suddenly find that you need to shave places that you didn’t even know hair grew.  If you’re not used to it, you’re not going to be comfortable wearing it.  If you’re not comfortable wearing it you’re REALLY going to feel awkward standing on stage in front of 1000+ people all covered in oil.  How much fun will you have on stage if you’re not well prepared?  Get your suit early and wear it for your posing practices.

      Women’s suits are not much more forgiving.  If you haven’t spent a good amount of time practicing in your contest suit, are you certain that everything is going to stay where it should or are you rolling the dice for a Janet Jackson Superbowl mishap?  Practicing in your suit will give you time to figure out if you need to make any alterations, if you need to use bikini bite, etc.  Also, for figure and bikini classes, practice quarter turns and walking in your shoes so you’re comfortable on them.  For women who don’t wear tall heels on a regular basis these shoes can be tough to walk in.  The more practiced and polished you are on stage the better!

      Some people don’t see any need for this but personally I also recommend that everyone does at least 2 practice sessions with oil on.  I know it sounds funny, but you might find that poses feel different with oil than without.  For bodybuilders, getting a good hamstring sweep on side poses takes a little more practice with oil on, as can side chest and others.  Even if you don’t notice anything different, it’s an excuse to have someone at the gym oil you up.  Hopefully you have some good looking friends at your gym.  If not, you can also try asking a stranger.  What’s the worst that could happen?

      If you do not have a local shop that offers suits, there are a lot of great online stores for bodybuilding, figure and bikini competition suites.  Keep in mind that if you choose a custom suit, it may take a while to make.  Order as early as possible so you don't have to stress about your suit right before competition!

Just a few great suit resources off the top of my head:

www.cynthia-james.com

www.jagware-posingsuits.com 

www.competitionsuits.com

Posing

Last year Erin and I were wandering the streets of Las Vegas when we got pulled in to a time share presentation (I’m a sucker for freebies).  An enthusiastic little man spent 2 hours telling us about what a fantastic offer he had for us.  He explained the benefits, explained the savings and told us of the wondrous times we’d have if we just signed on the dotted line.  But of all the things that he could use to pitch the sale, he never actually showed us the inside of the hotel or any of the rooms that he was trying to get us to spend a small fortune on.  We took our free gift cards and left.

If you’re going to sell to an impulse buyer it’s not enough to just tell them what you have to offer.  You need to show them and present it in a manner that will impress them enough to seal the deal.  Think of judges as your impulse buyers.  When you step on stage, you’re selling a product.  No matter how much work you put into your physique or how good it looks, if you can’t show them, they’re not going to buy it.  I’ve seen so many competitors with great physiques place lower than they hoped to only because they didn’t know how to pose.  A fantastic physique with poor stage presentation can sometimes be surpassed by a mediocre physique with a fantastic presentation.  Judges assign placings based only on what they can see.

Anyone who’s ever been to a physique show is probably thinking to themselves “Thank you for wasting 2 minutes of my life Captain Obvious!”  I know . . . it seems basic, right?  It’s as easy as practicing your posing.  The problem is that for the majority of competitors, posing is an afterthought.  So much time and energy is focused on training and diet that posing seems to get kicked to the curb until the last week or two.  This doesn’t seem like a big deal until you watch a competitor who’s barely worked on posing standing next to a polished competitor who has practiced daily for the last 3 months.

There are 2 critical components to good posing.  The first is the form of the posing, which I’ll get into more here in just a bit.  The other is the conditioning of the person posing.  Posing is hard work to start with as it’s essentially a static hold.  Compound that with depletion, dehydration, the heat of the stage lights and nerves and you’ll develop a new respect for how effortless some people can make posing look.  Remember that posing involves more than just the actual poses that we normally associate with bodybuilding.  What we refer to as the “relaxed pose” is anything but.  Quarter turns are tightly held poses as well.

Every minute that you’re on stage you are (or at least should be) posing.  This is the case whether you’re lined up in the front or standing in the back.  You don’t want to be the guy or gal who is shaking uncontrollably every time they hit a pose or who is cramping up constantly.  Depending on the class size, you could be up there for a long time.  Are you prepared for 10 or 15 minutes of posing under hot lights if need be?  My advice would be to practice the “relaxed” pose, quarter turns and mandatory poses for a MINIMUM of 15 minutes a day for at least 8 weeks before competition.  As an added benefit, bodybuilders will find that spending ample time on posing will help bring out more definition in the muscle.

Practice makes perfect.  Or does it?

Everyone knows the old saying and everyone says it.  But as a correction, I refer to one of my all time favorite quotes from Vince Lombardi:  “Practice does not make perfect.  Only perfect practice makes perfect.”  If I do something wrong 1000 times today, the chances of me doing it right tomorrow morning are slim.  In all reality, I’d be better off not practicing at all than I would be to teach my body how to do something incorrectly over and over.  It’s far harder to break a bad habit than it is to form a new good habit.

Posing should be perfectly practiced to the point that it becomes natural and requires no thinking.  But it’s important to make sure that you’re doing it correctly from the beginning.  There are 3 things that every competitor should use to help dial in their posing:  A coach, a mirror, and a video camera.

Posing coaches:  If you’re using a trainer who is experienced in competition they can most likely help you with your posing.  If not, then it would be worth your time to consult an expert for some pointers and help with posing.  There are a lot of little tricks that can turn good posing into GREAT posing.  A good posing coach can teach you how to maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses when you’re on stage.  This outside perspective helps achieve a better understanding of what judges will see and will set you on the right track for proper posing.

 The mirror is obvious and I have yet to see a competitor who doesn’t spend ample time in front of one.  I like to think of mirrors as training wheels for posing.  Eventually, you want to get away from them but they’re a great place to start.  When you’re posing in the mirror, pay attention to all the details.  If you’re hitting a front double bi are you just looking at your arms or are you also making sure that your lats are flared, your quad separation is coming out, etc?  You’re showing the judges the entire package when you hit these poses, not just one muscle group.  Make sure you present it all as well as you possibly can.  Are there any problems with posing in front of a mirror?  Only one:  You won’t have a mirror on stage.

Video cameras . . . they’re everywhere and they’re a dime a dozen.  I have 2 on my cell phone.  Why the heck would anyone need 2 video cameras on the same phone?  Never mind that, back to the topic at hand.  I’m amazed at how many competitors never video themselves posing.  They’ll get video of their dog doing something clever or of uncle Bob getting racked in the nuts at their nephew’s birthday party but it never occurs to them to video their posing sessions.  This is, in my opinion, the best tool we have for learning to pose.  Sure, you can practice front poses in front of a mirror but what about the back?  Watch closely next time you attend a show and you’ll see how many people look great on front poses but can’t manage to make a lat spread or a rear double bi look good.  Often times the poses will be non-symmetrical, arms will be turned down, etc.

The video camera is also a great way to say your goodbyes to the mirror and pose without any visual feedback just as you will on stage.  This feels very different from posing in a mirror where you can see what you’re doing and make adjustments as needed.  Now you’re posing based on feel but you have the ability to analyze the video and make sure everything is looking the way you want it to.  For a new competitor, I’d recommend using video every time you pose until you feel that your posing is consistent and dead on.  Once you get to that point, use the camera 1 day a week to keep an eye on things and track your progress.

Chance may favor the prepared mind but a judge's score card favors the prepared body.

Trainers vs Trainees

Throughout the year I get a lot of questions from competitors (and potential competitors) about whether or not they should use a trainer and which one would be best for them.  As we approach the Night of Champions I’d like to mention a few things in regards to using a trainer for competition.

Trainers . . . would I recommend them?  Absolutely!  Even the best trainer would be well served by an expert pair of eyes and an outside perspective if they themselves were competing.  Having all the knowledge of diet and training in the world still will not be enough if you cannot look at yourself objectively and make appropriate changes.  This is hard to do when you see yourself every day.  This is not to say that you can’t compete without a trainer and still do well but in my experience, the vast majority of competitors who step on stage and look phenomenal used an expert to guide them through the process.

While there are literally thousands of trainers at our disposal, it’s important to remember that different trainers specialize in different disciplines.  While your local gym personal trainer might have some experience in competition, the vast majority don’t specialize in it.  Taking an average overweight, out-of-shape person and getting them moving is a whole different game than taking an in-shape, active person and whittling them down to contest condition.  Before you settle on a trainer, ask them to provide a portfolio of other clients who they’ve trained for competition.  If their previous clients looked great on stage then you’re on the right track.  If not, you may want to reconsider.  Stage competition goes beyond just conditioning as well.  A good competition trainer will not only be able to assist with diet and training but also with posing, stage presence, suits, tanning and all of the other little details that make a winning physique stand out on stage.

Timing is everything.  If you plan to compete, I recommend contacting your potential trainer as far out as possible.  A lot of times trainers are called 10 or 12 weeks out from a show.  That doesn’t leave them much time to figure out how your body responds and what they need to do to get you where you want to go.  There’s nothing wrong with getting in touch with a trainer a year out from competition.  Get a consultation, have them evaluate your weak points and give you some direction on what to work on.  While the last 12 weeks are going to be the most critical to your conditioning, the proceeding year is important for building a solid foundation.  If you're thinking of competing next spring or even next fall, now would be a great time to start talking to trainers about starting a program.

The most important thing!!!

. . . if you skipped past everything else I wrote, I hope you’ll listen to this:  If you’re paying a trainer to train you then do EXACTLY what they tell you to.  A good trainer has an entire plan that comes together to produce a final result.  Changing any part of that equation, no matter how insignificant you might think it is, will change the final result.  This means eating exactly what they tell you to, when they tell you to in the amounts they tell you to.  This means doing the same type of cardio for the same amount of time on the same days that they tell you to, etc.  If you’re not following part of the program, then you’re not following any of it. 

If you let self discipline slip and do something that is not part of the plan then you owe it to your trainer and yourself to tell them what you did so they know what’s happening with your body.  I’ve seen trainers pulling their hair out because a client’s body isn’t responding the way that it should only to find out months after the competition that their client was off doing their own thing and not following the program exactly.  If you don’t understand why your trainer has you doing something, ask them.  If they know their stuff they’ll be able to tell you exactly why. 

Keep in mind that people’s bodies respond differently to diet, water, etc.  If you are following the plan 100% and step on stage and are retaining a little more water than you’d like to, chances are your trainer will know just what changes to make for the next show and can dial you in even better next time.  But what if you’re retaining a little water and your trainer didn’t know about the half bag of Doritos you used to sodium load on Friday?  Do you think they’ll be able to improve your condition on the next go-around?  Probably not.

Once you’ve found a trainer you want to work with and established a plan, be consistent with it and be honest with your trainer.  You’re paying them to help you but they can only do that if you follow the program and are up front with them about the details. Over time, your trainer will understand your body and habits even better than you do and be able to help you achieve a top notch physique.