How Posing Effects Your Judging
This post is part of The Ultimate Bikini Prep Guide – check out the full guide for more!
As a prep coach – but specifically NOT a posing coach – I am sometimes guilty of de-prioritizing posing as well. I offer my clients posing feedback from the pics and videos they send but I don’t do scheduled 1:1 or group sessions as I just don’t have the scheduling availability to do so.
I do, however, consistently hammer home that it needs to be worked on, and the truth is that people (guys worse than women) just don’t until it’s too late, very often.
Posing is an afterthought. For your first show, you might be able to get away with that because no one has any expectations of you for your first show. After that and reviewing the pics, you might say “holy shit I need to fix my posing” and you’re likely very correct.
Judges Score What You Present — Not What You “Have”
Having a great physique means jack shit if you can’t show it effectively.
Period, full stop. That’s this whole post right there. If you stop and don’t read the rest, you’re probably getting 30-40% of the total value of everything that follows in that one sentence.
But let’s keep going.
Posing is art, definitely. It’s your first impression you make on the judges, and everything they see and score flows from how you show yourself on stage.
If your glutes are huge and you’re lean as hell, bad posing can make your glutes look flat and saggy. No one wants that.
Posing Changes How Your Physique Is Perceived
When I do offer clients feedback on posing, it often starts with big swings.
“Learn how to flare your lats”
“Suck in your waist”
“Actually flex, don’t just stand there”
But beyond that, tiny little changes in how your feet are set, or how much your hips rotate, etc – those can add up to huge changes in your physique and how it’s seen.
Angle and Rotation Can Alter Proportion
Just a small adjustment in how much your hips rotate can have large impacts in your waist, shoulder-to-hip ratio, how much your glutes pop, and more.
Also when you’re posing well and you know it – you have more confidence and that shows on your face, which is HUGE.
Tension vs Relaxation Alters Conditioning
This one is tricky. The golden rule of bodybuilding is “if the judges can see it, flex it” but there are exceptions.
Depending on the pose and how you stand, how your weight is shifted between feet, etc – it might make sense to keep certain muscle groups more relaxed.
A male bodybuilder in a side chest or side tricep pose needs to keep their hamstring relaxed and unflexed. Flex it, and it looks way smaller – every single time.
In a bikini front pose, a relaxed quad might be exactly what you need for the same reason.
Transitions Are Judged — Even If They’re Not Scored Separately
Let’s talk briefly about scoring. Look at judge’s scorecards and you can see exactly what criteria they’re judging on: muscle, conditioning, symmetry, posing, presentation…
Oh wait no I’m sorry, that’s wrong. None of that is explicitly scored or EVER written down. A scoresheet consists ENTIRELY of one number: how is this person placing in this lineup?
First, 2nd, 3rd, etc. That’s it. Nothing else gets “scored”
All those other factors get considered, but the overall placement in a class is the only thing that gets written down.
Which means that those written criteria count, but so does EVERYTHING else. Keep in mind judges are humans. If you have red hair and a judge has a redheaded ex they can’t stand, yep – there may be some small bias that works against you that you can’t control.
Can’t control it, so don’t worry about it. Alternatively, maybe they have an irrational love of redheads and it works in your favor. Maybe they have no bias. All things are possible.
My point, finally, is that your transitions – the choreographed movements that happen between the poses – really matter as well. It’s a chance to call attention to yourself with great flow, and accentuate parts of your physique that don’t show as well in the static poses.
Hair hides your back in the back pose? Make sure the judges get a good luck as you’re transitioning at least.
Posing Can Hide Weaknesses — or Expose Them
You definitely want your posing to hide your weaknesses and amplify your strengths, not the opposite. A good posing coach can help you identify those tweaks.
This is what I call “level 2” posing. Level 1 is just nailing the basic requirements of the pose. Level 2 is taking ownership of it and making it yours.
When Poor Posing Exaggerates Imbalances
Whether it’s tilting your hips too aggressively (looking more like a Fit Model competitor), keeping your shoulders unevenly aligned, or over-arching your lower back, all of these things can wreck your presentation.
Conversely – there are situations where you might WANT to employ one of those to hide a weakness.
When Good Posing Makes the Physique Look Complete
But when those small adjustments each make your physique 1% better and you stack 10 of those tweaks on top of each other, you’re talking about real improvement here. And outside of having enough muscle and nailing your conditioning, THIS is what makes someone look like a pro.
You also need to practice enough that your transitions have an effortless flow to them without looking overly rehearsed or performative, and have enough experience that keeping your breathing controlled and your waist tight the entire time you’re on stage feels like second nature.
Why This Matters Even More in Bikini
Let’s just pull the curtain back a bit and be very real. None of this is meant to be judgmental or diminishing in any way, but it’s the reality of the situation.
Bikini is half bodybuilding, half modeling/pageant work.
Your physique realistically is half of what you get judged on. Your posing, presentation, and overall look is the other half.
Glass half full – you get the opportunity to curate a presentation that is authentically YOU, and your posing is a big part of that. You can do things that other people don’t as long as they work for you and don’t distract from your overall presentation.
Glass half empty – it’s more work on stuff that you might really not want to get judged on. A lot of women LOVE the glamour aspect of competing, many do not.
But you need to accept it and play the game, like it or not.
Yes, it’s sexist. Guys don’t have to do this. I agree it’s totally unfair. I’ll go so far as to say it’s misogynistic and it sucks.
But, ignoring it is basically a silent protest that’s just going to hurt your placement – so, my advice is to play the game and learn to enjoy it, or just don’t do it.
Posing Under Pressure Is Different Than Posing in Practice
Stage conditions are NOT practice conditioning – but I do advocate for making your practice as “real” as possible.
Play music while you’re posing, preferably in the room over a speaker and not headphones. Don’t allow yourself to stop and start. If you make a mistake, keep going. There are no do-over’s on stage.
Stage Lighting Changes Everything
Until you’ve been under stage lights, nothing can really prepare you for them. They’re hot. Blinding. It changes your perspective on your own movements. Things sound weird on stage when you’re under lights. Everything sounds so much quieter, you wonder why people aren’t cheering more. Is something wrong? Am I not supposed to be up here right now? Did I line up with the wrong class?
And boom, before you know it, you’re done and off-stage. You didn’t even really get a chance to realize you were on stage.
Your head won’t slow down enough for you to really get in the zone.
The only antidote for this is more shows and more practice.
If you have performing background in theater or music, frankly that helps – you’ve been on stage, under pressure, and watched under lights. Bodybuilding is the same thing – just more naked and weirder.
Why Leaving Posing Until the End of Prep Is a Mistake
A big reason why you absolutely don’t want to wait on posing is because it just always takes more time than you think it will in order to get the basics down right.
Even if you’ve done it before, you’ll get rusty if you stop practicing. My last show was in 2024 (I took 2025 off from the stage), so as I’m getting ready to start prep again soon I realize my posing sucks ass and I need to invest more time in polishing it back to its prior standard and then continuing to improve from there.
Another reason not to wait is kinda obvious: deeper in prep, you’re more tired. Posing is hard.
Do more of it when your body and brain are more fresh.
Treat Posing as Part of the Competitive Build
The best competitors are those who pose regularly, and treat it like it’s training, cardio, or meal prep. It’s something you do regularly and consistently, not just “when you have a few minutes” or when it’s time to take progress pics.
Hire a posing coach or have someone with a good eye watch you, or record your videos and get feedback. There are Facebook groups you can join that offer help with this, and in Bikini Blueprint you can submit posing (or training) videos for our weekly calls to get feedback there as well.
Set aside 15 minutes 2-4 times a week to work on your routine. Schedule a posing session with a virtual coach for 30 minutes and walk away from that with 3-4 top level points to focus and improve upon.
Read more about official judging criteria for bikini here
Want to learn more?
Get notified when new posts like this get published.
