I can hear it now… “Posing? Dude, are you serious? I don’t ever plan on competing, why should I learn how to pose?”

Before we start making jokes, just hear me out. When I mention Posing, I’m not talking about shaving down, greasing up, throwing on a pair of panties and flexing mercilessly in some hidden corner of your home, all alone with your cell phone.  What I’m talking about here is the utilization bodybuilding posing techniques to help you achieve a higher level of physical and mental conditioning – plain and simple.

Regardless of whether you plan to compete or not, there are many benefits to learning basic bodybuilding poses:

Backstage at the ‘80 Olympia. Killer side-chest pose. One of my all-time favorite photos.

1) Developing the mind-muscle connection. Proper posing requires complete control of each muscle group. You should develop the ability to plant your feet securely on the floor, flex your calves, and work your way up through your hamstrings, to your quads, then to your abs and lower back, flare your lats, chest up and flexed, looking straight ahead, tighten the triceps and biceps – hold for at least 30-seconds with your abs completely contracted. You should work towards the ability to flex every muscle independently throughout the body – this will greatly enhance your mind-muscle connection while training in the gym.

2) A way of measuring progress. One of the best ways to keep things honest (the mirror will not lie to you). If you learn how to pose, you will become more in tune with your muscular development. With every week, and every month that passes, you can easily watch and measure for more fullness, more definition, more muscle separation, more striations, more vascularity, etc. You will begin to notice things like your right quad having more sweep than your left, your left deltoid is fuller than your right, etc. thus providing you the information to better address your weak points and imbalances.

3) Better cardiovascular capacity. Learning how to hold your muscles contracted for prolonged periods will greatly improve this aspect of your health. Posing is no joke, try holding any pose for 10-seconds, this is no small feat. Now try holding the same pose for 30-seconds.

4) More hardness and separation. Flexing and holding will help with hardness and separation. Almost every movement in the gym can be duplicated with a pose or hard flex. You should be able to fully contract your triceps, your quadriceps, your pectorals, etc. without the weights at any given time.

5) Better Posture. Developing control of your muscles will help to maintain proper posture as well as assist you in correcting bad posture.

Fellas, the list of benefits goes on, and if you want to have a starting point, this is a great tutorial on the basic mandatory bodybuilding poses:

In addition to the mandatory poses, I encourage you to search the internet for countless non-mandatory, but classic and highly inspirational poses from some of my favorites:  Arnold, Ed Corney and Robby Robinson.

I would recommend posing at least twice per week to get started. As you begin to incorporate posing into your regular routine, make sure to take photos along the way – you’ll be surprised how it helps your overall appearance!