5 Outdated Yoga Cues It Is Time to Retire

Okay, confession time: every single one of us has said a cue we did not fully mean. You are up there teaching, half DJ, half public speaker, half physical demo (that is three halves, I am aware, that is how much is going on), and sometimes a phrase just... falls out of your mouth. You have heard it a thousand times, so it lives in there somewhere, and out it comes. No judgment. I have absolutely done it. If you go dig up some of my decade-old classes floating around the internet, I promise you will catch me saying a few of these.

So this is not a scolding. It is more of a gentle spring cleaning (I did the same long-form deep dive on the whole knees-past-toes panic if you want exactly this energy stretched over one myth). When you know better, you do better, and here are five very well-worn yoga cues that are mostly myth, misapplied, or just plain past their expiration date (plus what is actually going on underneath them).

1. "Square your hips"

Ah, the greatest hits opener. Square your hips. Said everywhere, in everything, forever.

Is it always wrong? No. In some specific postures, for some specific bodies, for a specific aim, squaring the hips is a perfectly lovely, useful thing to ask for. But as a blanket cue slapped onto every twist and every standing pose all the livelong day? We really have to let that one go.

Think about Warrior One with the back heel down. Between the hip extension, the rotation, and the dorsiflexion happening in that back leg, asking the pelvis to also square perfectly to the front of the mat is asking a whole lot, and for a lot of people it just piles torque onto the back knee and ankle. It might be part of someone's journey. It is very often not their destination (today, tomorrow, or possibly this lifetime), and that is completely fine.

2. "Tuck your tailbone"

There are absolutely times you want a posterior tilt and a tucked tailbone. That time is just... not all the time.

Here is the wrinkle (I promised no "here's the thing," so, the wrinkle): if someone already lives in a tucked-under, curled-under, sitting-on-their-tail default, and then they walk into class and hear "tuck your tailbone," well... how much further do you really think that tailbone is going? My bet: not far, and not usefully. Ideally we want access to both directions, an anterior tilt and a posterior one and every shade in between, depending on what we are actually trying to do. One instruction for every pelvis is how we end up cueing people right past the thing we wanted.

3. "Pull your shoulders away from your ears"

This one is a relic of the old arms-overhead-now-yank-the-shoulders-down era. It usually comes from a sweet place (you look tense, relax, drop those shoulders), but it can quietly interrupt the very natural, very healthy rhythm your shoulder blades are supposed to have when your arms travel overhead.

And can we retire the idea that strong traps are somehow a fashion crime? I once had a teacher tell me you do not want "traps like a linebacker." Reader, sometimes people do want traps like a linebacker (they are useful! they help! healthy, functional traps are a gift in overhead shoulder work!). If you want to invite a little ease, there are gentler ways to get there, think length and levity up through the crown of the head, rather than cranking the shoulders down and overriding the mechanics.

4. "Relax your glutes"

Oh, this one. I really do hope it is on its way out, but just in case: you do not need to relax your glutes in your backbends.

This cue came from an old worry that firing the glutes in a backbend would hurt your low back or compress the SI joints. Except (and your anatomy nerds already see where this is going) the glutes do not even cross the SI joint. So when you are in a bridge, a wheel, a dropback, and your body wants to use its major hip extensors to, you know, extend the hips, let it. I am a card-carrying teacher's pet who loves following directions, and this is one cue I very politely ignore every single time.

5. "Belly button to spine"

The classic vague "engage your core," except somehow even sneakier. Most people hear "belly button to spine" and immediately do one of two things: crunch, or suck in.

That sucking-in habit is one a lot of us (women especially) have been quietly trained into for our entire lives, and it does not actually recruit the deep stability you think it does. It can leave the rib flare, the pelvic floor, and the diaphragm completely out of the conversation while feeling very productive. And I would gently steer you away from any cue whose main job is to make the teacher feel productive, because productive is not the same as effective. Not even close.

So what do you say instead?

Here is my actual ask, and it is almost annoyingly simple: before a cue leaves your mouth, know why you are saying it. What are you trying to create in the body? What are you trying to prevent? What action, what sensation, what shape?

Sometimes what you are going for is right but the cue is just slightly off. Sometimes what you are going for does not actually hold up anatomically, and it is worth noticing that too. And sometimes (this is the freeing part) you genuinely do not have a reason, and that is your sign to just... not say it. Silence is allowed. Come back to the breath. You do not have to narrate every second. If you cannot name the reason, skip the cue.

Frequently asked questions

What are some outdated yoga cues to stop using? Common ones worth rethinking include "square your hips," "tuck your tailbone," "pull your shoulders away from your ears," "relax your glutes," and "belly button to spine." Each can be useful in a specific context, but none works as a universal, every-body, every-pose rule.

Is "square your hips" wrong? Not always. In certain postures and for certain aims it is helpful, but applied to every standing pose and twist it often adds strain (for example, torque on the back knee in Warrior One) without serving the student.

Should you engage or relax your glutes in backbends? For most people it is fine, and often preferable, to use the glutes in backbends. They are primary hip extensors and do not cross the SI joint, so the old "relax your glutes" caution does not hold up for general practice.

What should I say instead of "belly button to spine"? Cue for the specific action you actually want. Get clear on whether you are after deep core stability, breath support, or a particular shape, and name that, rather than a vague instruction that often just leads to sucking in.

How do I know if a yoga cue is worth keeping? Ask why you are saying it and what it is meant to create or prevent in the body. If you can name a clear, anatomically sound reason, keep it. If you cannot, let it go. Silence is a perfectly good cue.

Want to teach from the why, not the habit?

This is basically my favorite thing to nerd out about (retiring the cues we inherited and replacing them with actual understanding). If that lights you up too, it is the whole spine of my anatomy training for teachers, and the teach like you mean it. podcast keeps chipping away at these questions one at a time.