But to point it out because I def would love others to take away whatever they can:
1. My muscles are full, mature, and dense. So basically, I really don’t need to flex or tense up anything to make them pop. This ESPECIALLY becomes more visible on stage under the lights. I literally need to almost just stand there completely relaxed.
2. From the front – my legs need to have a slight space in between, toes out, fanning my toes, and pushing my toes away from the floor. For me it leaves for a better line of the legs, and in person they look longer and more streamlined. It’s subtle, but remember from the judges perspective if sitting down below it makes everything tighter and sleek without the bulk (for me). The arms need to be relaxed point blank, again it gives me a more balanced look from top to bottom instead of an overpowering upper body. My shoulders are up, WAY up. And now they are down and relaxed. The rotation of my arms allow for enough display of the shoulders. In blue I’m leaning forward which you can’t tell. For some reason it was even more pronounced with my nerves on stage. Now I’m leaning back because for me it opens up the line of my chest and tightened my waist (the blue suit pulls my waist in more because it sits higher on my hips).
3. From the back – The feet are turned out slightly to accentuate the line of my legs and shape of the glutes. Taking into the equation the same thing I mentioned about the feet and legs in the front, you can better see my outer quad sweep, the legs are longer and streamlined (particularly from the judges perspective). Also the shape of the glutes is definitely better. They’re fuller and rounded as opposed to a little wider. The arms for me are crucial here. Again my lats are full and dense. Before the first thing you notice is my back. It really overpowered my lower half. So now it flows a bit better. Big lats, big butt, sweeping quads, ok better lol. Again you can’t see that I’m flexing slightly in blue, and not AT ALL in fushia. Under the lights, huge difference due to the shadows it casts on the muscle. I was also leaning forward a bit, and now I’m leaning BACK because it changes the way the lights hit the contours of the body and how it brings about the definition. My arms must remain down and rotated to downplay the size of my back. So that my symmetry from top to bottom falls into synch.
Stage is all about creating illusions so I have to figure out how to make my illusion work well for me and meet the standard. And remember the judges are always looking for your flaws first. And when they compare us its the minute details that can make ALL the difference.
I learned this valuable lesson at the Cals, and I won’t ever have a judge tell me the only thing that stands in my way is my posing. Not my body or anything else, just something so simple as posing.