What is "the" look for Figure?

[Tiki]

Inspired by some of the comments posted in the "What Drugs Do Figure Athletes Use" - I would like to know....

What is "the" look for Figure? *If possible please post photos.

[Allifit]

It changes with every show.... this has been posted and reposted and hashed and rehashed on so many threads on so many boards SO MANY times....

and we're all still sitting here scratching our heads like idiots. I don't think we'll ever know... cause at times I'm not sure the judges know. Other then inconsistency, nothing is consistent....

[tammyp]

the only advice i can offer is look at the top 5 at national shows.

[Angela123]

at the regional level...it is ALL over. there are countless, countless stories about one week a woman winning the overall to next week not even placing top five. ive seen and heard of the overall winner being a woman who looks like she could have been a lw fbb to the overall looking like a ms hooter's bikini america. one show a woman may be told to get her legs more conditioned. the next show she does she may be told her legs are now too ripped. she may be told to work on adding more muscle to her frame, a year goes by, and at a show she is now told she is too muscular, then the next week at a show she may win the whole show.

at national level it is a bit more clear cut though there are ALWAYS surprises that throw everyone for a loop. it seems they like the classic Y shape...some nice roundness to the delts, a developed back, small waist...definitly a V. no X frame anymore. they'd rather see no hips, not much of a booty, slim calves, not thick round muscular ones...slim trim legs. do not necessarliy focus on bis and tris, i mean yes, your arms should be toned, but you dont need to have developed arm muscles, they actually do not want to see seporation of bis and tris on stage. conditioning wise...this is tricky. some can get away with looking ripped and they do fine..others when they looked ripped, get points taken off. if u have slim not very bulky legs, you can get away with being more ripped, bc you do not have huge muscles that would be popping out. but someone with a nice quad sweep, if they get ripped, they would not do as well bc their legs would be looking way too muscular. but at the same time those with bulky very muscular legs would have to get ripped in their legs for them to look stage ready. if they weren't, they'd look thick.

its hard to look at the top 5 at each national show...bc sometimes they are all different lol. the same with the top 5 at figure pro shows.

it depends on the height too. jenn gates can get away with more of a curvy look bc she is shorter. while gina aliotti can get away with more of a Y shape bc she is a bit taller.

figure is more about your genetic structure...and you cannot fix that with diet, cardio and weights. many women dont realize that and they spend years of unhappiness competing in figure..when in actuality they just dont have the frame for that. this is where, "im too hard" or "im not muscular enuf" or "im too muscular" comes in effect." some judges r not going to say to your face, "you just dont have it, you never will be huge in figure." so they tell you to work on parts of your body that will help YOU achieve a better body not help you win a pro card. which is fine...bc in actuality, you should be doing this FOR you.

i was all about making it...til something finally clicked in me. and i realized how much i really just loved competing and the process of getting ready for a show. i told my trainer to just bring me in ripped and dry..bc that is how i liked myself. and that i would continue to lift weights hardcore, even though i was told to stop lifting for a year. haha..he told me not to flex my quads on stage bc it would hurt me...what did i do...flexed those babies at jr nats..i wokred hard for those to get ripped and popping out. i wanted to show those suckers off. i had so much more fun with competing after i realized all of that. but now i have even more fun that i switched to bb. haha

[banger]

i had an interesting coversation with a national/pro judge after my wife's last show in oct. he told me that the npc was making a effort nationally to tone down its look in the figure cat.

you can look at the national's this year and see that the ladies who did well are not as lean as they were 2 years ago. my wife was told to either soften up alittle or swtich to bb.

we all know that its not the best conditioned lady who win's a figure comp. for my wife she carries a lot more muscle, i think that if i were a women i would go where i fit.

[Tiki]

Thank you for everyone's input.

Having come over from bb.com (where the details of competition aren't as widely discussed in the womens section) my apologies if this thread is beating a dead horse; that surely wasn't my intention when I created it.

And Ondrea, thank you for such a detailed description. Even without a photo I get a very clear picture of what you're talking about.



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[tammyp]

no worries tiki. thats is what its all about!

[tammyp]

personally i loved the look of the 90s. they were shredded but compact.