THE BIKINI DIVISION: PRESENTATION AND POSING

It has been a while now since the various divisions in women’s bodybuilding have got established in India. As I have always insisted, bodybuilding, in its purest sense, implies building our body.

By building, I mean making it stronger, more powerful, capable and efficient as well as enhancing it aesthetically to its supreme potential. When it comes to competitive bodybuilding, the focus is on what is visible on the forefront. That is why the entire limelight falls on the aesthetics.

The paradox is that since the human body is one single entity and works as a unit, we cannot isolate certain parts or aspects of it and just present them by ourselves. It has to be in entirety.

So how we can logically place this is to be able to build and form the body for the competitive stage, we need to train, exercise, recruit the muscles, tendons and neurons, have a good bone density, good blood volume, optimum vascular hypertrophy for blood supply and neural hypertrophy, that is increase in neural pathways, most of which are unseen, to form the visible structure.

That is why what is presented on stage within a few minutes may take years to form.

Years of giving up the usual little indulgences calibrated nutrition, living with soreness, minimizing social interaction, thoughtful exercise and training with conscious awareness towards a targeted body structure. It is in fact sculpting your body with a coveted, unseen chisel, like a silent surgery.

After going through that kind of penance for a prolonged period, the one thing that has the potential to make or break the competitive career of an athlete. This invariably holds for the presentation on stage. This invariably holds for all the bodybuilding divisions.

Bodybuilding is not a new sport. It has been there for several decades, now in a formal, structured way. But primarily existed only in the male domain.
When I had started my journey I was actually ridiculed and made fun of. However, I had it deep inside me that bodybuilding shouldn’t be the same for men and women. Every individual must in fact strive to become the best version of himself or herself.
It is heartening to see the initiative by the International Federation of Bodybuilding to make it a more inclusive sport.
That was the premise of bringing in the Men’s physique and the bikini divisions, which were not as extreme as conventional bodybuilding.
The bikini division for women in fact celebrates the feminine body. An hourglass figure with a comparatively softer touch, highlighting the significance of aesthetics as well as strength, glamour and beauty.
Since it is a bodybuilding division, it goes without saying that a considerable, visible amount of muscle with low fat is certainly expected as in all bodybuilding divisions.
However, it should be a body that has been achieved athletic endeavors and controlled and calibrated nutrition. For the bikini divisions, the judges would not like to see very deep separations, hardness and strations.
It is the overall structure that is more relevant here. The beautiful streamlined hourglass figure, expressing an amalgamation of beauty, strength and discipline is what we are looking for.
After sculpting your body with all that hard work, the presentation can be a great decisive factor.
Posing and presentation in itself is highly underrated. All your hard work can be undone if this aspect is overlooked. One must understand that this area is still highly underrated.
In a bodybuilding competition, it is visual presentation that is marked on stage and is highly subjective.
It also depends on the inclination of the judges, as to which aspect of the body they tend to focus upon, of course within the domain of the guidelines set by the federation.
In case at some point there is a difficult decision, the presentation and overall aesthetics can make all the difference.
That in fact is one area that we can control more easily.
One must therefore ensure that the tanning, make-up, jewellery and shoes are exactly as per the guidelines as enlisted in the official website of the federation.
You must do your homework, or ask your coach for the standard and general format of the suit, make up and jewellery.
The IFBB recommends that the tanning should be such that it should not come off when touched.
The judges on their part look for balance and shape besides the overall physical appearance including the complexion, skin tone, posing and overall presentation.
Also, one must remember that if your flexibility is poor, then your posing will be directly affected. If you are able to master spinal rotation and arch your back effortlessly, your posing will look very streamlined and aesthetic.
A lot of people think that the bikini division is just primarily focused on glutes. That can’t be farther from the truth.
Just like in all body building divisions, the overall shape, muscularity, and symmetry, does matter here. The only difference is that the development is not as extensively intricate.
The body should be conditioned enough so that the judges can see the structure. But not the separations or striations.
If during training in any of the bodybuilding divisions you focus only on one body part, say glutes, or deltoids, there will be imbalances in strength mobility and postural imbalances, leading to injury.
A lop sided approach in any form may get you through an amateur level. But on a pro-stage, everyone is a champion. Even the unseen intricacies get highlighted amidst perfection.
The IFBB does not promote super-lean and an extremely conditioned physique in the bikini division.
Since the changes in women are very gradual, the IFBB encourages women to train get strong and build lean muscle mass but not get a striated hard-core body like that of a conventional bodybuilder.
The idea is that the women’s divisions must be women friendly.
As women tend to gain muscle in the lower body, they must make a conscious effort to balance the upper body as well.
Therefore it is desirable to see good deltoids, but not fully capped, overpowering shoulders with a vascular body.
Visible abs are a joy to see, but not block square hard core abs.
Well developed upper glutes, a visible glute ham tie and a quad sweep is desirable, but the sweep need not be overpowering and covering the knee cap.
It has been felt at the amateur level that a good body that has good genetic potential and structure is preferred even if it is comparatively softer, because they would also potentially have a longer athletic journey and go well above at the pro-level and stay there.
One of the things that all athletes must remember is not to give too much time during individual posing on stage. That can give the judges an opportunity to find their flaws. Remember that they are looking at you with a critical eye.
You just need to do the front pose, the back pose a little bit of sass and flamboyancy with confidence and faith that says, “I know I am the best and I enjoy myself.”
Make sure the judges see your trunk number. Try to put it on the connector.
Stay calm, never rush and never hold a stance for too long.
The transitions must be smooth. But don’t waste too much time on the transitions.
Judges mainly see the front pose and back pose. You can keep eye contact with judges to show that you are connected and engaged. Soak in the moment. Acknowledge the judges.
Every bodybuilding athlete across all divisions must know how to flare their lats.
Keep your chest up and the shoulder line straight. The activation in all muscles needs to be internal and should be so well packaged that it comes like a reflex action.
While doing the back pose, you should not bend forward. You must just arch your back well.
Remember that the judges are sitting lower than the stage. If you bend too much, the upper body will appear farther and hence look smaller than the lower body.
You need to arch your back, push back and pop up your glutes out for the development to show.
Remember that if you widen your legs to much the glutes will look narrower.

The judges are not looking for depth and thickness in the back. So while doing the back pose, you don’t need to pull your hair to the front. The only thing that needs to be seen is the outline shape of the back and deltoids.

It is desirable to wear your hair such that lower back at the waist is visible. So you can trim or curl your hair, if they are too long.

The comparison rounds are actually more relevant than the individual posing round because usually the selection and elimination is done in these rounds.

In the comparison rounds, you need to stay objective as the comparison is between apples and apples and not apples and oranges.

The judges would like to see all the contestants in the same position.

Presenting a body is not about individual body parts but about you as a whole. The stage presence certainly matters.

It is only weight training that can make a difference to the structure of a body and make it stronger, efficient and shape it up.

In my career, I have seen several ambiguities and apprehensions about the bikini division.

The bikini athletes sometimes are the hardest workers. But since the muscles are not huge or conspicuous, their hardwork is underrated.

The bikini athletes are a classic example of how a woman can portray her body exuding feminine strength. That is a great cause besides moving towards a stronger, healthier society.

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