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RE: World Fitness Federation (WFF-International) - WFF/WBBF Secretary - 09-20-2026
INTERNATIONAL JUDGES AND TRAINERS SEMINAR IN KLAIPEDA.
WHEN BODYBUILDING BECAME JUST ABOUT MUSCLES: WHERE DID THE ART OF POSING GO?
Bodybuilding was once about much more than displaying muscles. It was about the stage, music, movement, artistry, and the ability to turn one’s physique into a true stage performance. Today, much of that has disappeared. Has bodybuilding become too simplistic?
This question will be discussed on September 27, 2026, in Klaipėda, Lithuania, at an international seminar for coaches and judges, organized by the World WFF-WBBF Federation and the International Sport University (ISU).
One of the main topics of the seminar will be the art of posing, its importance in competition, new categories and judging principles, as well as the future development of bodybuilding.
There Was a Time When Muscles Alone Were Not Enough
There was a period in bodybuilding history when an athlete had to be more than physically well prepared. He had to know how to present his physique.
In 1987, during the establishment of the USSR Bodybuilding Federation, a series of specialized seminars was organized. One of them was conducted by Vitalijus Asovskis, then head of the Vilnius School of Bodybuilding.
Together with Česlavas Tamulevičius, the founder of the Vilnius School of Bodybuilding, and drawing on their practical experience and years of work with athletes, he developed a classification of the main bodybuilding poses.
This was not merely technical work. Posing was understood as a special language through which an athlete told the story of his physique on stage.
On Stage, It Was Not Enough to Be Strong — You Had to Know How to Show It
At that time, the free posing routine played a particularly important role.
An athlete did not simply perform the mandatory poses. He created his own performance: choosing the music, arranging the sequence of poses, transitions and movements, and creating a complete stage presentation.
Judges evaluated the overall impression of the routine, artistry, stage presence, musicality, posing technique and the athlete’s ability to move smoothly from one pose to another.
This forced athletes to develop far beyond the gym.
Lifting weights alone was not enough to become a stage virtuoso. Athletes had to learn how to control their bodies, understand music, use the stage, connect with the audience and present themselves to the judges.
Anyone can lift a barbell. Far fewer can command a stage.
As a result, there were occasions when a physically outstanding athlete lost to a competitor who was better able to present his physique on stage.
This judging philosophy encouraged bodybuilders to work harder and develop not only their physiques, but also their stagecraft.
The Vilnius School Created Not Only Physiques, but Stage Art
Specialists of the Vilnius School of Bodybuilding carefully studied the experience of other sports. They analyzed routines from artistic gymnastics and figure skating, examining their structure, artistry, musicality and judging principles.
This experience was then adapted to bodybuilding.
As a result, Lithuania produced an entire generation of athletes for whom the stage was just as important as the training hall.
Among them were Pranas Murauskas, Jevgenijus Gorelikas, Jevgenijus Žurcevas, Rišardas Krinickis, Vytautas Pleckevičius, Saulius Misevičius, Vladas Kapcevičius, Viačeslavas Chleborodovas and many other athletes of that era.
Their performances were not simply demonstrations of poses.
They were performances.
What Happened to Bodybuilding Today?
Today, free posing routines are no longer evaluated in many bodybuilding competitions.
And this creates one of the fundamental problems.
If posing skill has no impact on the final result, why should an athlete spend hundreds of hours developing it?
Perfecting posing requires time. It requires coaching, specialized knowledge, stage experience, musical awareness and countless rehearsals.
As a result, athletes naturally focus on the elements that directly influence their competitive results.
The result is increasing uniformity.
The same movements. The same poses. The same stage solutions.
The athlete walks onto the stage, displays his physique and walks off.
But where has the individuality gone? Where is the personality of the performance? Where is the moment when spectators are waiting not only to see what kind of physique an athlete has brought to the competition, but how he will present it?
Is Bodybuilding Losing Its Stage Identity?
Bodybuilding has always been unique because it brought together sport and stage performance.
Muscle was only one part of the equation.
The other was the ability to present it.
When the artistic component disappears from the judging system, competitions become increasingly uniform. And the more uniform they become, the fewer reasons spectators have to look forward to the next athlete’s performance.
Perhaps this is why it is time to look again at something that was once considered an essential part of bodybuilding.
2027 Could Become a Year of Change
The WFF-WBBF Federation has announced plans to reintroduce the evaluation of free posing routines for professional bodybuilders starting in 2027.
This would represent an attempt to bring back an element that once encouraged athletes to become not only physically powerful, but also true stage performers.
Will this change bodybuilding?
The answer will depend on how the judging criteria are formulated and how the idea is received by athletes, coaches and judges.
But one thing is clear:
Bodybuilding cannot be reduced to a display of muscles.
An athlete on stage should not simply stand there.
He should perform.
This will be one of the key subjects discussed on September 27, 2026, in Klaipėda at the International Seminar for Coaches and Judges.
Perhaps it is time to remember that bodybuilding does not begin when an athlete steps onto the stage.
It begins when an athlete learns how to tell the story of his physique on stage.
More information about the seminar: www.worldfitness.lt
RE: World Fitness Federation (WFF-International) - WFF/WBBF Secretary - 09-21-2026
IN THE WEST – F.I.H.C., N.A.B.B.A. AND I.F.B.B..
IN THE EAST – US. THE SITUATION HAS NOT CHANGED TO THIS DAY.
Looking back through the prism of the previous century, the key foundations of world bodybuilding history become increasingly clear.
For a long time, political circumstances divided the world into two parts – the “capitalist” West and the “socialist” East. The two worlds were isolated from one another, and bodybuilding, like many other sports, developed along separate and largely independent paths.
In the West, officially recognized bodybuilding was led from 1947 to 1969 by the international weightlifting federation F.I.H.C. (Fédération Internationale Haltérophile et Culturiste), under the significant influence of American Bob Hoffman (Robert Collins Hoffman, 1898–1985). Later, from 1971 to 1998, the leading role was assumed by I.F.B.B. (International Federation of Body Builders).
The unofficial, internationally unrecognized bodybuilding movement in the West was represented by N.A.B.B.A. (National Amateur Body-Builders' Association), established in Great Britain in 1950.
THE BEGINNING
In the socialist world, attempts were made to organize bodybuilding through F.I.H.C. In 1963, a bodybuilding organization – an athletic gymnastics commission – was established within the USSR Weightlifting Federation.
This was the first international-type bodybuilding organization in the socialist world. At the time, however, bodybuilding in the USSR was still in its infancy. The Weightlifting Federation had little interest in actively developing what was essentially a new sport introduced from above, and the organization gradually faded away.
In 1968, in Kaunas, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet bodybuilding enthusiasts established a new USSR bodybuilding organization (commission). It remained active until 1973, when bodybuilding was banned and persecuted in the USSR and other socialist countries.
During this period, the organization managed to hold two USSR bodybuilding championships and establish a tradition of international competitions – the “Amber Prix” in Lithuania and the “Georg Tenno Memorial” in Estonia.
THE YEARS OF THE BODYBUILDING BAN
After bodybuilding was banned in 1973, a period of confusion and uncertainty followed. The former USSR bodybuilding organization was largely forgotten. Official competitions were discontinued, but the bodybuilding movement did not disappear.
In 1974, DSc. Edmundas Daubaras illegally organized the “Amber Prix” tournament in a bomb shelter belonging to the Klaipėda Seaport. That same year, Estonian Inaras Mardo organized the “Georg Tenno Memorial” in Tallinn.
In Estonia, the tournament was held semi-legally. The authorities were persuaded that, given Estonia's long and internationally renowned tradition of strongmen, bodybuilding could be regarded as a distinctive part of the country's national sporting heritage.
These two tournaments – Lithuania's “Amber Prix” and Estonia's “Georg Tenno Memorial” – became the most important symbols of continuity in the bodybuilding tradition of the socialist world. Despite bans and persecution, they continued to be organized.
THE USSR BODYBUILDING FEDERATION OF 1987
During the period of perestroika, the greater freedoms emerging in public life made it possible for bodybuilding to organize more openly again.
In 1987, the USSR Bodybuilding Federation was established in Kubinka, RSFSR. The traditional international competitions of the socialist world – the “Georg Tenno Memorial” and the “Amber Prix” – continued to be held.
It appeared that bodybuilding had finally broken free and would soon merge with the Western sporting system. Caught up in a kind of euphoria, the bodybuilding community of the socialist world immersed itself in the Western sport it had discovered through heavily promoted bodybuilding magazines and long admired from afar.
Yet it soon became clear that reality was considerably more complicated.
AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF THE USSR
In 1991, the USSR collapsed, and the bodybuilding forces of the former socialist world also fragmented. National federations and organizations emerged in the newly independent states, while sports organizers continued to develop, drawing knowledge and experience from the West.
Over time, however, as this interpretation of bodybuilding history maintains, another side of the picture became apparent. Western bodybuilding was not as advanced in every respect as it had appeared from a distance. In the socialist world, distinctive approaches to athletic preparation and sports organization had been developed over decades, and these traditions remained alive.
These differences also became apparent in the activities of international bodybuilding organizations.
WORLD FITNESS FEDERATION
In opposition to the growing trend toward bodybuilding gigantism, in 1995 DSc. Edmundas Daubaras and German Klaus P. J. Hoffmann took the initiative to establish an international organization – the World Fitness Federation (W.F.F. – International).
In 1996, the federation's founding meeting was held in Stuttgart. Austrian Peter Papula and Greek Anargiros Tsopouridis also participated.
Klaus Hoffmann relied on representatives of N.A.B.B.A. member countries, while Edmundas Daubaras relied on countries of the former socialist world. The aim was to create an international organization that would continue the distinctive bodybuilding traditions of Eastern Europe and the former socialist world.
Over the decades, a kind of international bodybuilding system had emerged: I.F.B.B. for athletes prepared to accept stricter anti-doping controls, N.A.B.B.A. for bodybuilders committed to its traditional approach without doping control, and W.F.F. for an organization whose roots were connected with the bodybuilding tradition of the former socialist world.
THE “AMBER PRIX” AND THE “GEORG TENNO MEMORIAL”
Today, viewed from a historical perspective, one may argue that one of the most important foundations of bodybuilding in the socialist world was not a single institution, but a living tradition of international competitions.
Its most prominent symbols were the “Amber Prix” tournament in the Lithuanian SSR and the “Georg Tenno Memorial” in the Estonian SSR.
These tournaments survived political bans, organizational changes and the collapse of the USSR. Their history reflects a distinct path of bodybuilding development that, for decades, evolved separately from the Western bodybuilding system.
Therefore, the history of world bodybuilding should not be viewed solely through the activities of Western organizations such as F.I.H.C., N.A.B.B.A. and I.F.B.B. Alongside them existed an independently developed Eastern bodybuilding tradition, built on people, organizations and, above all, a competition tradition that continued for decades without interruption.
More about this history, its people, organizations and key events will be presented in forthcoming articles.
Follow the international website: www.wff.lt
RE: World Fitness Federation (WFF-International) - WFF/WBBF Secretary - 09-23-2026
The WFF-WBBF Professional “World Grand Prix” Held at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic
The history of the World WFF-WBBF Federation includes many remarkable international events, but one of the most memorable took place in 2012. That year, the professional “World Grand Prix” was organized at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Moscow—an exceptional occasion in the history of world bodybuilding, as a major international professional championship was hosted on the premises of a diplomatic mission.
The venue offered ideal conditions for such an event. The Slovak Cultural Center, owned by the Embassy, included a hotel and a modern concert hall, allowing athletes’ accommodation, the competition, and official ceremonies to be held in one location.
The WFF-WBBF amateur “World Grand Prix” tournaments have been organized since 1990, while the professional series began in 2010. Over the years, these competitions have become one of the Federation’s most prestigious international projects, bringing together leading athletes from different countries.
The 2012 tournament was organized by Dr. Edmundas Daubaras, President of the World WFF-WBBF Federation, Federation Vice President Andrej Basov, and Slovak patron of sport Štefan Hrčka. In recognition of his contribution to the development of the sport, the event was officially named the “Stefan Hrcka Pro World Grand Prix.”
Participation was by personal invitation only. Thirty-six professional athletes representing Iran, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Estonia, and Lithuania competed in two weight categories for a total prize fund of 30,000 US dollars. At the time, this was already the fourth WFF-WBBF professional tournament held in 2012 with the same substantial prize fund.
Winners
Up to 90 kg
1. Mikhail Malek (Russia)
2. Shahram Hassankhani (Iran)
3. David Tukhtayev (Russia)
Over 90 kg
1. Abolfazi Aghakhani (Iran)
2. Mehdi Aghababaei (Iran)
3. Aleksandr Shevtsov (Estonia)
Following the competition, an international press conference was held to present the activities of the World WFF-WBBF Federation and the official results of the professional championship. The press conference was organized by multiple “Universe” champion, official WFF-WBBF representative in the United States, Hollywood actor, producer, and director Alexander Nevsky.
Conclusions
The 2012 “Stefan Hrcka Pro World Grand Prix” became one of the most distinctive events in the history of the World WFF-WBBF Federation. Hosting the championship at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Moscow demonstrated not only an exceptional organizational standard but also the Federation’s growing international reputation and its close cooperation with diplomatic and public institutions.
The substantial prize fund, invitation-only participation, and international media coverage reflected the increasing prestige of professional bodybuilding within the WFF-WBBF movement. More than a decade later, this championship remains one of the Federation’s most unique and representative international professional events, highlighting its commitment to promoting bodybuilding on a truly global stage.
More information is on international site www.wff.lt