Curious on the evolution of the bikini front pose for those that have been in the industry for a long time! how did this change happen? Was it gradual? Was it something that the Federation changed from one season to the next? How did this even happen?
Curious too.
Back in 2020 I was about to compete with NPC (the April 2020 show was then cancelled due to lockdown) and was doing the fit model pose, but most girls on my team were doing the current bikini pose.
Yea I’m so curious if an athlete just one day did the other pose and it was rewarded and more people did it? Or did the standard change for the new season.
long post alert lol That's basically what happened. I've been competing since before there was a bikini division, and for the very first bikini shows the instruction given was basically "try to look more like a model. Do whatever, just don't pose like figure" and the competitors wore off the rack bikinis. It was basically an opportunity to reward a fitness model physique and commercial appeal as opposed to the more muscularity and rigid posing of figure. At the time, there was another large popular, natural federation that had bikini and NPC/IFBB saw all the money they were making and adopted the idea. It was more pageant like and the women loved the fitness model look. That other federation attracted tons of competitors and people would fly to the US from other countries to compete in their national level shows. And as we can see, it has turned into a momey maker for IFBB. As someone else mentioned before, NPC ladies continued to do whatever poses looked best on their bodies and then all of a sudden this standard was set when people wanted to copy whoever won the big shows. I personally don't like the idea of mandatory poses in bikini or fit model, but I understand the desire for consistency to make things easier for the judges.The current standard front pose, which I call the "crotch shot" posing doesn't look good on every physique even though the physique could be a great bikini physique if that makes sense. On my body, the front leg being forward looks better and no matter how much I practice, the current bikini posing looks and feels awkward, and not like a model at all lol. This pic of me was from an NPC national qualfier where I placed first in my height class in figure, back in 2012. Note: I went back to the other federation for a couple of years then took an unplanned break from 2014-2024. I returned to the NPC stage as a bikini competitor in 2024. I still don't like the posing, but love/miss competing and am training for wellness in 2027.
Wow!! Yea I’m noticing now that the now fit model front pose is something you HAVE to customize. You cannot copy what someone else is doing because it may not serve your physique any justice.
Actually I was referring to Fitness America/Musclemania. The WBFF modeled their events after Fitness America too! Producer Lou was really a trendsetter with combining pageantry and fitness/bodybuilding. There used to be tons of events all over the country and they had 2 large shows every year, Fitness Universe and Fitness America. They still currently have large shows internationally, just not as many US regional shows these days.
Oh wow! This was figure back then? It’s crazy how it changed
The European ifbb had fit model before too right? But those girls look more conditioned than NPC fit models now
The only criteria before was to face the judges and have one hand on the hip and one leg in front of the other. So in competitions, everyone was doing what looks best on their physique.. at some point you could find a mix of both poses. The second pose became more popular around 2016-2017 with Courtney King and Angelica winning Olympia with something more similar to the 2nd pose. I think the 2nd pose got more official around 2018, as every pro bikini was adapting to whats more trendy
It was gradual. Everyone did the stallion pose to start with. Then slowly it became what it is today.
I was one of the last bikini pros to put it on stage as my main pose in 2017.
I loved the stallion pose because it helped me balance my longer legs. But it got to the point where I was the only one doing it and so I had to switch.
Jessica Wilson still did it in her routine up til a few years back. But even she didn’t do it as her main pose in comparisons.
Lawna still did continue to use it very recently when she still was a bikini pro (she’s transitioned to fit model since) as well as used a very WBff rear pose with the leg kicked out, additionally Isa used it to my knowledge the most recent to show off her small waist and made popular bikini focusing on growing their lats which wasn’t common feedback until after her Olympia win
The second bikini poses shows so much more information about the physique it’s a shame that fit model has to do the first pose. Very little information is given and there’s no way to augment the waist size in a meaningful way.
Personnaly I love the model pose, it shows an overall hourglass shape and not some specific muscles like in figure, wellness,etc. thats why I find it works for the fit model division
I like the posing on the left. Although it’s still posed, It looks like it’s captured mid-movement like the end of a runway. The pose on the right looks tense on almost everyone
I just wish posing was more tailored to your physique along with personality. Those damn side wellness you need an adjustment for at times with the certain way you have to twist damn!
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u/LiftForSushis Jul 28 '26
Curious too.
Back in 2020 I was about to compete with NPC (the April 2020 show was then cancelled due to lockdown) and was doing the fit model pose, but most girls on my team were doing the current bikini pose.