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Yoga cues might be tricky.

Communicating complex concepts to students quickly is as much art as science, especially in a category with an array of people that vary in how they interpret our words and navigate their bodies. And we teachers don’t all the time get it right.

I’ll try almost any verbal cue that effectively communicates what I mean, even when it’s not technically accurate. I’m an anatomy teacher yet I haven’t any qualms telling students to “breathe into your belly” if I believe it’ll help, though I’m quite aware that students breathe into their lungs.

There’s simply no such thing as an ideal solution to verbally guide all students right into a pose. But there’s one verbal cue that I don’t, haven’t, and won’t ever use. And that’s telling someone to take the “full expression” of a pose. Not only is the language  imprecise and unhelpful, however it’s potentially alienating to some students.

It’s commonplace for various teachers and schools of yoga to practice asanas in other ways. For instance, Triangle Pose in Ashtanga requires grasping the large toe of your front foot whereas most styles rest the hand on the mat, your shin, or a block. So the actions represented by the phrase “full expression” depend on the context of the category. A student educated in a single method, cued to seek out “full expression” by a teacher of one other method, is more likely to be working toward different alignment or actions.

But more importantly, even when the identical iteration of a pose is understood, who defines its “full expression?” We’re each unique, not only in our fingerprints and our DNA but additionally in our bony proportions, our joint shapes, our movement patterns, and our life experiences. How can a teacher know a student’s “full” capability?

A student with longer arms is probably going to seek out it easier to return into an arm bind than a student with shorter arms or a broader torso. A student with shallower and more outward-oriented hip sockets is probably going to seek out Padmasana (Lotus Pose) than a student with deeper or more forward-facing hip sockets.

In each example, one student’s full capability—and potential “full expression”—differs markedly from the opposite through no lack of effort or experience, and in ways in which will not be all the time seen from the skin.

We must also factor into that equation an understanding that every time a student involves the yoga mat, their experience is influenced by their previous activity levels, hydration, nutrition, stress, fatigue, sleep, and countless other aspects. What constitutes an individual’s fullest or 100% expression will differ from everyday and practice to practice.

Perhaps most crucially, using the phrase “full expression” is more likely to be as demotivating to some students because it is inspiring to others. As social creatures, we’re programmed to reply to expectation and subtext as much as spoken words. When a teacher implies that one—and just one—variation of a pose constitutes the “full” expression, we’d consider our ability to do the rest as lower than or inferior.

Telling students to seek out their “full expression” shouldn’t be only vague, it threatens to negate the advantages of a practice that is meant to liberate us and remind us of our inherent completeness. I might assert that saying those words to students is unkind and avoiding it to be an act of decency. And within the words of Aesop, “No act of kindness, regardless of how small, is ever wasted.”

RELATED: 7 Ways to Exponentially Improve Your Cues If You Teach Yoga

About Our Contributor

Rachel Land is a Yoga Medicine instructor offering group and one-on-one yoga sessions in Queenstown Latest Zealand, in addition to on-demand at practice.yogamedicine.com. Obsessed with the real-world application of her studies in anatomy and alignment, Rachel uses yoga to assist her students create strength, stability, and clarity of mind. Rachel also co-hosts the brand new Yoga Medicine Podcast.