Popular Bodybuilding Poses Explained

Mastering Bodybuilding Poses: Your Guide to Perfect Posing

If you’re a bodybuilding enthusiast, you probably love hitting the gym and building those impressive muscles. But have you ever considered stepping on stage and competing? If not, you might not be familiar with bodybuilding posing – the art of showcasing your muscles in a specific way for comparison.

While you might have tried some posing in between sets or after workouts and know the names of popular bodybuilding poses, understanding all eight mandatory poses and how to perform them effectively can be a game-changer. Whether you plan to compete or simply want to better appreciate what bodybuilders do, here’s a breakdown of each pose to help you master the art of posing and show off your hard-earned gains.

The Front Double Biceps Pose

What It Is: This iconic pose is performed facing the judges and audience, displaying the entire front side of your body. It’s all about making yourself appear bigger and wider than you actually are.

How To Do It:

Raise your upper arms slightly above horizontal and angle your elbows about 10 to 20 degrees in front of you.
Flex your biceps, forearms, and serratus while spreading your lats as wide as possible.
Tighten your abdomen and turn your feet out at 45-degree angles, keeping your knees slightly bent and quadriceps tense.
Stand tall and lengthen your spine without aggressively flexing your abs, pecs, or lats.

What It Shows:

Development in your biceps, forearms, lats, serratus, and quadriceps.
Aesthetics and symmetry.

The Back Double Biceps Pose

What It Is: This pose showcases the muscles on the back half of your body, making you appear bigger and wider when executed correctly.

How To Do It:

Face away from the audience and set up your upper arms similarly to the front double biceps pose.
Flex your biceps, forearms, and serratus, rounding your upper back slightly and tensing your lats and upper back.
Step back with one foot and turn it out 45 degrees while flexing your hamstrings and glutes.

What It Shows:

Development in your deltoids, triceps, biceps, forearms, upper back, lats, glutes, hamstrings, and calves.
Symmetry and aesthetics.

The Front Lat Spread Pose

What It Is: The front lat spread highlights the musculature on the front of your body, emphasizing aesthetics and your v-taper.

How To Do It:

Stand with feet turned out at 45-degree angles and flex your quads.
Place hands on your waist and draw your elbows forward to spread your lats while flexing your serratus.
Flex your pecs and stand tall, elongating your spine.

What It Shows:

Development in your lats, pecs, arms, shoulders, and quads.
A chance to showcase a well-developed back.

The Rear Lat Spread Pose

What It Is: Often said to win contests, the rear lat spread focuses on the upper back and lats.

How To Do It:

Face away from the audience, set up your feet as in the back double biceps pose.
Flex your hamstrings and glutes, rounding your mid and upper back while spreading your lats.
Your lower body tension should create a stable base.

What It Shows:

Development in your upper back, lats, glutes, hamstrings, and calves.
Importance of featuring your lower body.

The Side Chest Pose

What It Is: As the name suggests, this pose highlights your body’s musculature from the side.

How To Do It:

Face the audience sideways, pack your dominant arm against your side, and flex your bicep.
Grab the wrist of your dominant arm with your other hand and slightly bend the knee of your non-dominant side.
Flex your quads and rise onto the ball of your dominant foot.

What It Shows:

Development in your deltoids, traps, chest, biceps, triceps, forearms, quads, and hamstrings.
An opportunity to display your overall physique.

The Side Triceps Pose

What It Is: Like the side chest pose, the side triceps highlights your musculature from the side but with more emphasis on your midsection.

How To Do It:

Set up your lower body as in the side chest pose.
Straighten your dominant arm by your side and grab your wrist with your other hand, flexing your triceps.
Apply pressure with your dominant arm against the tension created by your other arm, engaging your abs, chest, and legs.

What It Shows:

Development in your triceps, pecs, abs, obliques, deltoids, quads, and hamstrings.
The importance of twisting to reveal your entire physique.

The Abs and Thighs Pose

What It Is: This pose primarily showcases your quadriceps and midsection, emphasizing leanness.

How To Do It:

Plant one foot firmly with the foot turned out at 45 degrees.
Take one step forward with your other leg and set your foot with your ankle extended.
Put your hands behind your head with your elbows in the air, rounding your entire back.

What It Shows:

Development in your abs, lats, serratus, and quads.
The transition from serratus to well-defined abdominals and obliques.

The Most Muscular Pose

What It Is: Also known as the crab pose, this pose shows the majority of muscles on the front of your body.

How To Do It:

Stand with your legs fairly close together and feet turned out at 45-degree angles.
Grab your wrist with your other hand in front of your lower abs.
Flex your pecs, abs, biceps, forearms, and quads as hard as possible.

What It Shows:

Development in your traps, shoulders, arms, pecs, abs, and quads.
A chance to showcase your total package.

Perfecting Your Posing

Now that you know the essential bodybuilding poses, it’s time to practice. Posing immediately after workouts or in dedicated sessions can help you learn to flex the correct muscles and present your best physique. Whether you plan to compete or not, applying the right technique in posing will make the most out of your photos and showcase your hard work in the gym. Remember, posing is an art, and like anything else, it gets better with practice. So, strike a pose and show the world your impressive gains!