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Yoga teachers have three ways to instruct students how to do each pose: demonstrations, hands-on adjustments, and verbal cues. Each has its place, but verbal cues are often the best way to communicate with a group class. Use this guide to make your cues more effective, keep your students safe, and find your authentic teaching voice.
What Makes a Good Yoga Cue?
Good yoga cues clearly explain how to get into the pose, make self-adjustments to improve alignment, and exit the pose.
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Use your experience as a student and yogi to give your class the tools to make the connection between hearing an instruction and feeling it in their bodies.
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Remember cues that made things click for you.
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Try combining anatomical descriptions with more metaphorical language to reach as many different types of learners as possible
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Evaluate your audience and adjust accordingly. A class of beginners may be overwhelmed by detailed alignment instruction, while a more advanced group may love it.
Types of Yoga Cues
Some yoga cues are very literal, while others use more figurative language to convey the way a pose feels in the body. Giving multiple different kinds of cues allows students to connect with your teaching on different levels of detail.
Direction Cues
These cues get students in and out of poses and set up their alignment for success. They are the macro-level cues you use to teach each pose.
Direction cues include things like:
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Step your right foot forward
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Lift your hips
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Press your palms flat
Alignment Cues
These cues fine-tune the alignment of each pose, allowing students to develop body awareness and learn to self-adjust. You might give a lot of these cues the first time you teach a pose in a given class, particularly if it’s a longer hold, and then pare it back if you repeat the pose. These cues tend to use more yoga-specific vocabulary.
Alignment cues are things like:
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Stack your knee over your ankle
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Square your hips to the front of the mat
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Keep your arms parallel to the floor
Anatomical Cues
If you have more experienced students, it can be helpful to also give them anatomical cues with specific muscular or skeletal references.
Anatomical cues could include:
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Engage your quadriceps
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Extend the thoracic spine
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Rotate your pelvis over your femurs
Energetic Cues
Use these cues to encourage students to engage the imaginative parts of their brains in addition to the analytical. They may refer to the subtle body (chakras, nadis, etc) or use metaphors to connect poses to the energic forces in the body that transcend anatomy.
For example:
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Imagine your spine as a string of beads connected to the ceiling
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Open your heart center
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Send your breath into your fingertips
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Key Yoga Cueing Techniques
Learning to give effective yoga cues is part of the process of finding your voice as a teacher. It’s something you’ll pick up on the job, so expect some trial and error.
Keep it Simple
When you are teaching a flow class, there’s no time to overload the students with verbal cues. Keep your directions short and actionable, using verbs like press, lift, reach, and extend. If you are keeping students in a longer hold, you can be more expansive, but you don’t have to fill every moment with talk.
Go from the Ground Up
If you’re not sure where to start, work from the ground up in any pose. Starting with the feet makes sense and establishes each pose’s foundation and alignment.
Be Descriptive
Good teaching isn’t about being as generic as possible. Adding your own special flair makes your classes more enjoyable and memorable for your students. Don’t be afraid to put your spin on things, whether you repeat a particularly great cue that you’ve heard or come up with something totally unique.
Example: Draw your shoulder blades together as if you are squeezing a grape between them.
Be Inclusive
When giving the option to use props, avoid using words like “necessary” or “needed” that can make people feel judged.
For example, saying “If your hand doesn’t reach the floor, take a block under it,” rather than “Use a block if you need it,” correctly identifies the issue as mechanical rather than psychological.
Take it Easy on Yourself
New teachers often worry about keeping track of the left and right sides and mixing up the order of the flow, but making a mistake now and again is not the end of the world. We’re doing yoga here; it’s not that serious. If you do make a blooper, try to laugh it off and keep things light.
Watch and Learn
As you teach, observe how your cues are landing. Are they achieving the effects you intend? If not, try something different the next time.
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Common Yoga Cues
You’ve probably noticed that your teachers pull from the same bank of cues over and over again. Some of these are used across many types of yoga, while others may be original creations. As you begin to build your own bank, use the cues that have made a particularly strong impression on you. You can always credit your source, saying “as one of my favorite teachers says...”
Grounding Cues
Ground down into all four corners of your feet
Press into your fingertips to dome your palms
Engagement Cues
Activate your feet
Hug your muscle to the bone
Draw your navel toward your spine
Space & Extension Cues
Release your shoulders away from your ears
Slide your shoulder blades down your back
Alignment Cues
Draw your left hip forward and your right hip back
Stack your knee over your ankle
Align your front heel with your back arch
Relaxation Cues
Melt into the floor
Relax the space between your eyebrows
Notice your breath without changing anything
How to Improve Your Yoga Cues
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Observe your teachers. Take some classes in which you pay special attention to the cuing strategies that work for you.
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Be yourself. Don’t be afraid to bring your personality when you stand at the front of the room. This is what students connect to and what keeps them coming back.
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Ask for feedback. Recruit a teacher friend to take your class and give you a constructive critique.
Cue and A
Giving good cues comes down to being observant and becoming more comfortable in your teaching role. As a student, you know what kind of cues work, connecting mind and body and communicating clearly. The more you teach, the more you’ll be able to integrate everything you know into your classes.
FAQs About Yoga Cues
What is a yoga cue?
A yoga cue is a verbal directive that a teacher uses to instruct how to do each pose for maximum benefit and minimum risk.
What is the 3-cue rule in yoga teaching?
Yoga teaching expert Sage Roundtree coined this phrase to describe a methodology that delivers key information without overwhelming students. The idea is to give only three cues on the first side of any pose. You can use the second side to expand your directions if necessary.
What is the best way to cue in yoga?
A lot of factors go into effective cueing, but one overarching theme is to start with simple, directive cues and expand them as time and level of student experience allows.
How do I stop over-cueing in yoga class?
Try using the three-cue rule!
How do I make my yoga cues more inclusive?
Try to avoid using the phrase “if you need it” when introducing props. This can make students feel like it’s a mental weakness to use the props, when it’s actually a physical benefit. If you demonstrate a pose, do it with props rather than going for maximum wow factor.
Can beginner yoga teachers use imagery and somatic cues?
It’s a good idea for teachers of all levels to use a variety of cues. Lay down a foundation with more literal cues, but if figurative language comes easily to you, absolutely include that in your teaching. Being authentic to yourself makes you the best teacher you can be.
