THat's cool that there are that many competitors - the shows I've done have had minimal female BB's. But thousands of friggen figure girls (no offense figure ladies
) But just thousands of them and they take so damn long to get thru. And some of them just shouldn't be on stage. I almost wish the requirements were more stringent for figure. And I swear there's ALWAYS the one weird lady who is like a yoga instructor or some new age whack job who someone told her she could do a competition - except she has no idea how to do it. OMG. And then the posing routine they do --- the audience actually isnt' sure if its part of the planned show & is the comic relief or something. Wow.
Anyway I'm side tracked.
Abs - you will see AMAZING transformation on your abs when you do the water depletion. Seriouosly. So don't worry about that now. Keep working on getting deeper seperation on your abs because I don't think you will have a problem gettign them exposed at comp time. I would be careful tho that the weighted ab work doesnt' get you too thick. Your waist is already more prominent than your hips so just watch that. If anythign you could just do compression crunches -- do a crunch, blow out all the air & hold it for a few seconds. Arnold also did what he called Vacuum crunches. Where you sit upright, contract your stomach & blow out everthing and just really focus on your ab muscles only contracting. You can do these both sides (obliques) and front.
Are you guys going to the Arnold at all this year? If you are having any issues w/ the abs & thighs pose itself I might be able to spend a little time, or even get one of the pros or national level competitors to show you. We're at the Road to da Pros booth. LOTS of pros wandering around there.
Another thought I had on the posing - for side relexed pose, the judges might call out "Arms to your sides" - so your pose w/ one arm to front, one to the back & your leg bent might not be what they want. Be sure to practice just a regular pose to the side as well. Exactly like your front & back poses. To cover both of them - because the side pose like you are doing lets you show a little of your muscle - and then settle into the feet down / arms to your side pose -- As you turn, show your arms & thighs like you are posing for the side relaxed, hold that for a second when you get to the side, and then settle to the arms to the side/ feet down position. You never know so be ready for both. I've seen at some shows where the figure girls do their fancy side poses and the judges will yell "Arms to the sides ladies!" and they are completely lost because that's not how they practiced it.
On your rear mandatory poses (lat & rear dbl bi) you can set your outstretched leg to the back instead of the front - this is your chance to show off your ham cuts. When I do those poses, I plant my back leg first (with the ball of the foot as your plant point) and lean back to activate your hams. You can practice this in the mirror to see what angle of turn on the back legs shows off your hams the best.
I already noted that you might want to rotate from the waist more on your side chest as well.
Last of all, if you have a video cam, I'd suggest taping a whole run thru of your poses just as if they were doing the call outs on stage. This is a great way to see yourself how the audience would see you - note which way you present best / worst, where you tend to lean to one side, etc. - trust me we all have a dominant side so that will show up when you look at yourself on tape.
Symmetry round:
- front relaxed
- qtr turn to the right, (side relax)
- qtr turn to the right (rear - remember too pull out your lats)
- qtr turn to the right (other side)
- qtr turn to the right (front)
Thank you ladies.
Mandatory poses:
-(start at front relaxed)
- Front double bi ... and relax
- Front lat ... and relax (they may or may not call this)
- Your favorite side, side chest ... and relax
- Your favorite side, side tricep ... and relax
- Turn to the rear, back double bicep ... and relax
- back lat spread .... and releax
- Abs & thighs ... and relax
- Your favorite most muscular (you never know if they are will call this so have a pose...!) and relax.
- Turn to the rear .. Show of calves (again, you never know...) ... and relax
Thank you ladies.
60 Sec routine (no music)
- here I generally just do the same as the mandatories, leave out the ones that dont' show my best features (or are my crappier poses) at my own pace. Keep the "dance moves" out of this one, hold your poses for 2-3 sec, smile at the judges - esp when you know these are your best poses -- look at the audience like "YEA BABY I"M SOLID!"
and then acknowledge the judges and be done.
90 sec routine w/ music
- whatever rocks your socks!
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You are amazing in how much time you take all of us!!!!! Yes, we are going to the Arnold. We are leaving Thursday night when I am finished with school...will take us about 6 hours to get there. I will FOR SURE stop to see you on Friday. Can't believe it, but at that time I will be 4 weeks out... and probably nearing a nervous breakdown!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
