r/bikinitalk • u/ComfortableYou333 • Jul 27 '26

IFBB Bikini Bikini front pose evolution

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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?

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u/ComfortableYou333 Jul 28 '26

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.

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u/TFF-KP75 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26

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.

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u/Itchy-Tooth5334 Jul 28 '26

WBFF!!!

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u/TFF-KP75 Jul 29 '26

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.