Updated March 24, 2026 at 11:08 AM
When I started my yoga teacher training, I assumed that learning how to indicate poses would be the easy part. The talk seemed simple compared to learning alignment, memorizing anatomy, understanding sequencing, and passing on the history and philosophy of the practice. After all, I was listening Yoga teachers speak During the lesson for years. How hard is it?
Very difficult, as it turns out. Standing in front of the students while I tried to remember the names of the poses and share clear instructions on how to move their bodies was a struggle. Finally, I learned helpful yoga cues for different poses as well How to connect them together During a fast-paced semester. But I also learned that what teachers want to share with students is not always what students take away from the experience.
Yoga cues can literally mean the difference between someone leaving class feeling empowered or discouraged. So, over the past decade, I’ve explored different ways to keep cues useful—brief but compelling, informative, and interesting—in ways that help ensure that what students hear tracks more closely with what they mean.
How to dramatically improve your yoga cues
No matter what style of yoga you teach, the language you use impacts your students’ experience. Here’s how to make your words more supportive.
1. Don’t share all the signals
Just because you’ve memorized eight amazing gestures for Warrior 2 (Virabhadrasana II) doesn’t mean you need to share them every time you teach the pose. The “less is more” approach to teaching students gives them time to understand and act on your instructions before you bombard them with more information.
You want to make every word count. So start guiding students from A to Z. Focus first on foot placement for standing poses, and hand and shoulder placement for arm balance. Then engage no more than two or three additional signals running progressively upward along the body.
Compared to reviewing a list of instructions, this approach also leaves you room to adjust your next cues in response to what you observe in students. It can be as simple as a gentle reminder to breathe when you see students pushing for a difficult balance, twisting, or linking, or as detailed as using alternative language for a gesture that didn’t have the intended effect.
2. Make every word count
When moving students between poses in vinyasa style, there is not enough time to engage students in each pose. To do this efficiently, I use a simple structure in each of my signals that focuses on the most important information: first, measure the breath, then the body part, then the direction you want them to move. For example, “Inhale, arms raised” or “Exhale, left foot between hands.”
Leaving out unnecessary instructions, especially the second or third time through the repetitive flow, helps students focus on what matters and keep up with the practice of one breath per movement. It also creates space for the teacher to reconnect with your breath so you can sound (and feel) more consistently and consistently.
3. Create silence
It is not always easy for teachers to remain calm between signals. If you are in the habit of providing ongoing feedback from the beginning of the semester to SavasanaAllowing silence can be surprising, embarrassing, or even cold.
But remaining confidently silent is one of the most powerful things you can do as a yoga teacher. Anatomy and alignment tips, support and placement options, benefits of posture, references to yoga philosophy—it’s impossible to share them all every time you teach.
Instead, offer a thought or two that is relevant to your focus for the day. Then provide the space students need to absorb your words and act on them. This is what they need to make this practice their own. Sometimes it’s the things you leave out of a class that help shape its meaning and ideas.
4. Notice your filler words
See if you have a habit of stuffing your instructions with fillers such as “really,” “continue,” “next,” “um,” “actually,” and “so.” We tend to use these things all the time in informal conversations to bridge the delay between thought and speech. We also rely on them sometimes to make instructions less clear. But if too many filler words creep into your teaching, they waste your breath and your student’s valuable attention.
This verbal habit can also be so unconscious that it weakens our message without our awareness. It is helpful to film or record your lessons periodically to identify filler words or phrases that crop up frequently.
5. Choose active or passive words
when Change the way you communicate As your class gains heat compared to when it slows down, you can use cues to help you regulate the mood in the room.
So, when the pace is slower and the energy is lower, it can encourage your negative language. This includes the beginning and end of vinyasa classes as well as yin and restorative classes. In the faster middle part of vinyasa classes, your language can enhance the active approach.
For example, negative language could look like this:
- “Letting go,” “dropping,” and “releasing” are words that indicate ease and lack of stress. Including these and other similar verbs can encourage relaxation by indicating minimal muscular effort.
- “Feel your breath ebbing and flowing” or “Feel your shoulders melting down your back” and other sensory yoga cues help draw students’ attention inward so they can experience the pose differently.
- Create space for individual diversity in what your students may experience The language of advocacy. For example, “See if you can find the length along the back of your right leg” seems more comprehensive than “Find a deep stretch along the back of your right leg.” This is the rare time when including additional words can help soften your instructions.
- In more relaxed or passive positions that are held for an extended period, consider providing the basics of alignment and brace preparation. Then provide a question as a focal point for introspection. Depending on your class topic, it could be as simple as: “What can you leave here?” Or “What happens when you stay here?” In the resulting quiet, your question creates an anchor for wandering minds. It also supports your class topic in a more personal way.
More active methods of signaling include:
- Use language that encourages effort when a position requires muscle engagement, such as “push,” “squeeze,” “reach,” “squeeze,” “drive,” and “lift.”
- Rely on shorter, more important imperatives, such as “arrive” rather than “you want to arrive.”
- Focus on external objects as directional cues. These include “reach for the ceiling,” “press away from the floor,” and “push your raised heel into the wall behind you.” Likewise, using external references can make it clearer what action you want students to take, such as “push the back wall away” instead of “use your back leg.” Or “squeeze your legs together” instead of “activate your inner thighs.”
6. Expand your repertoire
It’s easy to throw away the same cues every time you bring students into a situation. Although this approach requires less thought and effort from you, it also requires less attention from your average students. Signals can become so well known that they become background noise.
To keep your students’ minds alert and their bodies active, sometimes mix up your language. This can include more imaginative ideas about basic movements. For example, in a class designed to promote motivation and discipline, you might spice up your cues by using language that suggests a person’s ferocity. Tapas. Maybe you’re trying to “feel the fire in your legs,” or “generate some heat in here,” or even “light up your eyes.”
But clear, simple and concise communication is still essential. Including the occasional creative reference does not mean having to create a detailed script for your classes. It’s about presenting instructions in a way they’ve heard hundreds of times before so they pay attention rather than going through the motions.
So, if you’re repeating the same cues you learned in teacher training, it’s time to acknowledge the power of learning to recognize your unique way of working with words.
