Confidence Is Key Despite the challenges, my changing physique was giving me a whole new confidence, and in the bikini competition world, you need that -- especially when posing. Posing is one of the most important aspects of the bikini competition, and according to two-time Mr. USA winner and IFBB Bodybuilding Pro, Tamer El-Guindy, it can make or break your placing. "The girl next to you can have better abs, tighter glutes and chiseled quads, but if she doesn't know how to pose, she could come in dead last," El-Guindy shared at a posing workshop.
So, to keep myself from looking like an idiot, and to give myself a fighting chance at placing in the competition, I turned to one of the most successful posing coaches in the business, Kenny Wallach.
I showed up to my first posing session in Spandex shorts and a sports bra. (My gorgeous Angel Competition Bikini suit hadn't arrived yet.) Wallach took one look at me and said, "Are you wearing anything beneath your shorts?" Flustered, I informed him that I was rocking some bikini-cut underwear. "Good," he responded. "Take off your shorts."
I consider myself a fairly confident and open person, but when a complete stranger tells you to drop your pants (especially a guy), it can make you feel uneasy. "I'm a professional, honey," Wallach added, as if reading my mind. "This is strictly professional. I need to be able to see which poses are going to be the most flattering for your body."
I would spend the next six weeks twisting my body until my spine felt like it was going to break, flexing until I felt like I was going to pass out and practicing posing stances for an hour twice a day. The cherry on top? No one tells you that posing is as rigorous on the body as an hour-long workout, as multiple hours flexing and holding certain positions strains, stretches and works the muscle. There were mornings it was near impossible to get out of bed, because my back literally felt like I had been hit by a semi. But, as the weeks drew nearer to the show, my poses became stronger and more confident, and I finally started to see a competitor staring back at me.
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