One mark of a very great yoga teacher is great cueing. Creative yoga cues can connect the dots for college students in recent ways, even in the event that they’ve been practicing yoga for years.
It’s easy, after we’re recent to teaching yoga, to echo what we’ve heard our teachers say when getting students into and out of postures. If we’ve been teaching yoga for a very long time, we are able to cruise in auto-pilot through a lot of our cues for yoga poses.
Cueing takes practice.
Yoga cues which can be inappropriate on your students, or outdated with our newer, accessible understanding of the human body, could cause muscular imbalances, pain or shame for our students. They might feel like they aren’t doing the pose “right” or they might not understand what they’re speculated to be doing in any respect.
6 Yoga Cues to Re-Evaluate in Your Teaching:
Listed below are just a few familiar yoga cues which may be value re-evaluating in your teaching.
For a limited time, beYogi is offering YouAligned.com readers $30 off your annual premium, dropping the annual cost to $149. Learn more here.
1. “Scoop Your Tailbone”
The rationale this yoga cue exists is to create length through the spine, aka protect the low back and encourage muscular support of the core.
Nonetheless, over “scooping” or “tucking” your tailbone forward can result in posterior pelvic tilt, when the bowl of the pelvis spills towards the back. This will cause the upper back and shoulders to compensate, ultimately rippling misalignment throughout the body.
As an alternative of “scooping” or “tucking” your tailbone, an ideal cue is to assume a weight like an anchor hanging out of your tailbone. This encourages the tailbone all the way down to reduce compression within the low back without risking over-scooping. An awesome addition is to deal with core recruitment.
“Imagine an anchor hanging out of your tailbone and squeeze your lower abdominals like a counterbalance.”
Scooping and tucking aren’t the one confusing yoga cues! “Knit My Ribs?” 6 Often Confusing Yoga Cues Explained
2. Yoga Cues Referring to “Thighs,” “Belly,” “Booty” or Other Common Trauma-Holding Spaces
Individuals are coming to yoga with all styles of trauma, each physical and emotional. Yoga is an incredible tool to bring awareness back into the body, feel empowered and robust, and open up musculature which may be chronically closed and tight.
While you may’t know what is going to trigger a trauma reminder, it’s of the utmost importance to be sensitive to trauma-holding spaces. At all times seek advice from body parts with awareness and respect, and all the time offer alternatives to hyper-sexual or vulnerable movements.
Consider more neutral ways to seek advice from these body parts. “Thighs,” for instance, can easily be “upper leg” or a particular muscle group.
When prompting the category to, “Rest each hands in your belly,” you may provide a chance for consent and reasoning behind the hands-on cue. Offer, “If it feels okay, bring each hands to rest in your stomach so you may feel your breath.”
3. Passive Yoga Cues
That is one which might be tricky, especially once you’re first starting out. A passive yoga cue can sound like a narrative and takes authority out of the teacher’s voice. As an alternative of instructing a student to do something, a passive voice suggests something is occurring, as if by itself.
Notice when your teachers use indirect yoga cues, and see in the event you can practice articulating them more simply.
It’s best described in an example. “Reaching your right leg to the sky, inhale, feeling your hands pressing into the mat…” What’s reaching the best leg? Are you feeling your hands or pressing them?
An lively cue sounds much stronger: “Reach your right leg to the sky, inhale, press your hands into the mat.”
4. “Shine Your Heart”
What does it really mean to “shine” your heart? Flowery language like that is one reason why people may find yoga inaccessible. At all times use plain language, or offer plain language with a creative cue.
Shining your heart forward might be more directly described as “Bring your lower shoulder blades together and press your heart forward.”
5. “Let Your Body Completely Loosen up”
Weight-bearing passive stretches, like Pigeon Pose, can really open up muscles and connective tissue. Nonetheless, in case your student has a bent to over-stretch, telling them to loosen up in pigeon may unintentionally create pain for them later.
As an alternative, make sure that the supporting muscles of joints are lively or there are props supporting someone who could also be liable to over-stretching.
In Pigeon Pose, you could instruct the coed to press their legs gently into the ground, which wakes up the muscles surrounding their hips, after which have them loosen up from there in a supported way.
6. “Feet Together on the Top of Your Mat”
Larger bodies or individuals with flat feet may feel more supported with some space between their big toes. Not only can balance be a problem, but anatomically, big toes touching may stress the outer legs, knees or hips and cause muscular imbalances throughout the body.
As an alternative, invite your students to bring their feet close together in a way they feel tall and supported. From there, you could wish to draw attention to certain muscles to create the total expression of Tadasana.
Want more cuing inspiration? Listed below are 10 Effective Yoga Teaching Cues to Empower Your Students
Elevate Your Teaching and Enhance Your Student’s Experience With These Recent Yoga Cues
The perfect teachers cue appropriately for the situation and level of their students. Cueing takes practice, so learn what yoga cues feel authentic to your teaching voice and spot once they appear to land especially well.
One great method to craft truthful yoga cues is by experiencing the flow in your personal body. The subsequent time you are taking a category, notice which cues really resonate.
One other wonderful means is to practice saying yoga cues aloud if you end up practicing privately. Mess around with authentic and recent ways to explain the sensations you are feeling in your body, and spot how your body responds as you speak them.
Ultimately, you need to enhance the experience for the coed and ensure they feel secure of their body as they move through the postures. Namaste!
For a limited time, beYogi is offering YouAligned.com readers $30 off your annual premium, dropping the annual cost to $149. Learn more here.
0——34—————October 18, 2022