Annnnnd, as a bodybuilder, you are required to execute A LOT of different poses. You are also required to perform a posing routine that is choreographed to music. In this routine you display your best features and show off your personality to the audience and judges.
I remember being more stressed out about the posing routine to music than I was with the nutrition and exercise part of competition prep.
Because of this, I spent every day dissecting each and every pose and working on mastering the execution of every one of them. My hard work paid off and I would consistently win best poser awards at all of my shows.
Then in 2004 I switched to the figure division and l remember thinking there are much less poses than in bodybuilding, but now I was stressing about having to do them balancing in heels, and also having to do a fancy walk on stage smiling like I'm having the time of my life. My demeanor is much more serious so this was a challenge for me to break out from at first.
So once again I dissected every component of posing and presentation and worked on mastering the poses, mastering how to walk and pose in high heels, and choreographing every component of my stage presence. My hard work paid off again and, over the years, I earned three pro cards in three different federations.
Then about a decade into my career, I bought a fitness facility and started hosting group posing classes. This was still ten years ago from today so there wasn't the workshops, posing coaches, or online tutorials at this time either.
People kept coming back to learn how to pose for different federations, and some would come back consistently to continue making improvements from show to show. I had people travel four hours one way to come master their posing and presentation skills. Especially when they were preparing for their first show and had never stepped on stage before in their life.
Throughout the years, I have helped competitors look and feel like champions.
I helped competitors who struggled with knowing how to make the poses look flattering on them go from awkward to total domination on stage.
I helped competitors learn how to properly open their lats in their poses (clients dubbed me "the lat whisperer!")
I helped competitors go from walking like a linebacker in heels to strutting the stage with confidence.
I helped competitors who are naturally shy or super serious go from forgettable or "meh" to absolute stand outs on stage.
And I helped competitors who were consistently placing 4th and 5th at their shows bump up their placements to 1st and 2nd place...just with posing adjustments.
My unique background having:
competed in 6 federations, and mastered the posing skills in all of them...
having judged for 4 federations as well...
having a background in modeling, acting, and runway school...
10 years of full time teaching posing and stage performance to men and women in over 10 federations...
and with ongoing instruction of hundreds of students in my various virtual posing clinics and weekly virtual group posing classes...
...means that I have developed a unique set of skills that you won't find anywhere else.
Plus, I consider the bodybuilding division the core division of our sport. Think of it like the parent division, of the entire sport. Every division today is a spin off of bodybuilding. Having started as a bodybuilder allowed me to see things in people's posing and stage presence in every category of the sport that they would not have been able to see on their own without my experience. The bodybuilding category is hyper specific and it taught me to look at each and every part of the body with extreme detail.
I look at each and every one of my clients with extreme detail. I know exactly what areas of their body they needed to accentuate. I also knew the areas they need to draw less attention to as well. Most are shocked at how I literally see everything virtually too. Plus, I get you. I understood the psychology of what you are feeling, so I know how to draw your out of your shell like I had to do for myself.
Over my 20 years of experience in the bodybuilding industry, I have developed my own teaching language, teaching methods, my own original skills and tactics that allow me to help you to become not just good at posing, but great at it.
My posing clinics are your starting place :)