CUEING
CUEING
Cueing is instructing the “where” and “when” you want their bodies to be in space. Cueing is about providing specific, timely instructions or reminders to help someone make a quick adjustment or execute a particular part of the movement. Cueing is about giving clear, simple, immediate instructions during the workout. Cueing helps with technique, timing, and safety. It's often reactive and moment-to-moment.
People want to do what are you saying and will follow you. If cues are too quick, too complicated, it will make clients feel unsuccessful. Cueing makes people feel supported so they have the space to push themselves in both modifications and progressions, they will trust you in the most challenging moments and will follow you into leveling up. Cueing is what holds the room up and together. Cueing a class to move correctly creates the energy in the room.
INTERNAL CUES
Internal cueing emphasizes focus on internal structures such as muscular utilization, joint position, and/or sensory feedback. Tell clients what muscles they should be engaging and feeling. There is always space to cue to the mechanics of an exercise. This creates mind to muscle connection. In every move, you should be telling the what muscle they are working and how they can max tension in that particular muscle.
“pull the belly button back as you keep upper body behind the hips”
“push your elbow out as far as you can without the hips dropping to keep those upper abs engaged.”
“keep you knee right above your ankle, to take pressure off the knee and more tension in the glute.”
EXTERNAL CUES
External cues focus on things outside of the body and the interaction of a client and their environment.
“drive your heel down like you are stomping through the floor”
“hips should be lifting almost like there is a fire underneath you”
“your lower back should be imprinted into the carriage like you are squeezing out air bubbles”
TIMING
COUNTDOWNS
Countdown clients correctly. Make sure your 4 seconds is actually 4 seconds. We always count by time and not for reps so timing is important to make clients feel successful and gives them the space to push themselves to level up within every move and every rep. Correctly cueing countdowns builds trust. Ex: If you cue a 15 second variation and make them hold for 30 seconds, you will lose their trust. or if you don’t tell them it’s their last seconds or last reps, you rob them of the opportunity to push themselves.
PROGRESS WITH TIMESTAMPS
Use time stamps to motivate class. You must tell class when they have reached:
-Half way through class
-Last 10 minutes
-Last minute-The last few minutes of class especially the last minute, are some of the most important, they are the minutes that people will remember the most. Make the end of class like an event. Lean away from cueing and max out your coaching. Even if someone has a shitty class, the last few minutes can turn it around. Send everyone out on the biggest high, and their best moments.
TEMPO FOR VARIATIONS
Variations are the only time in class when clients will move together and on the beat. Get everyone to max tension at the same time by counting down by 4 seconds. This ensure no matter where people are in the move they have enough time to get to max tension at the same time. Then instruct the variation and use the beat to cue the pace of that particular variation.
BREATHWORK
Cue which part of the exercise they will be inhaling and exhale so that clients can properly use their breath to assist in moves.
CUES TO AVOID
“I want” or “i need”. Instead use, “you want” or “we want” or take out the phrase entirely.
“on my cue”, or any filler statements before cues.
Adding filler words between counts.
Cueing for towel and water. If people need water or towel they will take it.
Cueing too often or without reason. Let your cues be clean and concise.
“active recovery”
avoid cueing from the negative like “don’t lean back” use “lean one inch forward by engaging the abs”
COACHING
Coaching is the “how” to get there. Coaching goes deeper than cueing, offering guidance, feedback, motivation, and correction. It’s often personalized, builds understanding, confidence, and long-term improvement. Coaching is about the whole learning process, from understanding the fundamentals to refining technique and building a mental connection to the movement and the work. Effective coaching includes using appropriate cueing to reinforce the principles and techniques being taught.
Coaching is the most important reason that you are in that room. People have the option to take a million different workout classes, both in person and online, so you coaching is what will keep them coming back to you. Coaching is what will get them to their goal.
Coaching is you providing motivation to your class. Think about what motivates you in a class. Start coaching with what motivates you, this will attract like minded people into your class again and again. Not motivating a class like how you like to be motivated is failing them and will also drain you as an instructor. The mind will give up before the body does. The brain subconsciously signals the muscles to stop when it's tired. This is when your coaching comes in. You have to coach someone past their breaking point. Cueing talking to the muscle, coaching is talking to someone’s mind, when you combine these 2 things you will get clients to their strongest, best reps, and it what sets DRIP apart. Cue in the beginning, then let your coaching come through when clients are at muscle breaking point-at the end of move, or in a variation. Push them past their limits when you see them breaking or fading.
The mind will always give up before the body. It is your role as an instructor to get people past that point. When people are closest to their breakthroughs physically, that is when they will want to quit. You must be the one that bridges that gap for them. You want to be able to help them talk themselves into doing those reps or moment that they couldn’t have done without you. That is what will make people return to your class, and as an instructor they are some of the most rewarding moments.
It is everyone’s goal is to show up as their very best no matter how they are feeling. YOU are the one that will get them this goal.
TYPES OF MOTIVATION
INTRINSIC
Motivation that comes from within the person. They work out because they enjoy it, value their health, or feel personally fulfilled. Example: A client keeps attending because they love the energy of the class, enjoy learning new moves, or feel more confident and mentally clear after working out.
ATTITUDE
The desire to improve one’s mindset, confidence, and emotional well-being through physical activity. It’s driven by how someone wants to feel, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.
LEARNING
Use anatomy, corrections, and context to teach clients about why you are having them do moves. Providing feedback on what they are doing in real time and helping them learn. People are motivated by learning new skills, it interests them and makes the workout more enjoyable. It also helps them better a better athlete everytime. They will take something they learned from you into other classes and even to other studios.
ACHIEVEMENT
It's the internal force that pushes individuals to pursue and persevere through challenging goals. No matter there experience or level, everyone is there to achieve something, praise them while they do it.
2. EXTRINSIC
Extrinsic motivation comes from outside the client.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Acknowledgement, being seen. You must say every client’s name at least twice in every class.
ACCOUNTABILITY
As a coach, you are there to hold everyone accountable. Even clients are holding each other accountable. Be supportive no matter how they are performing.
TEMPORARINESS
Giving guidance on they exertion level at a particular point and through out the class or move.
COACHING TO AVOID
Avoiding any motivation that includes how a body looks or calories.
Avoiding coaching in the negative. “You didn’t do x.” Instead “you’re strong, I bet you could do x”
Avoiding coaching that compares to others. “Don’t be the one that’s not amplifying”
CONTEXT
Coaching is giving context to your cues. Give clients context. This sets them up for success by allowing them to push themselves and to trust you as an instructor. They are more likely to listen to you if you are providing context. If I said to you, “put your hair up right now,” you would probably tell me reasons you didn’t want to and ask me why before you started to. If I said, “put your hair up right now because your hair is going to catch on fire,” you would put it up immediately and thank me. Sell people on what you are having them do!
“keep your toes down, so that we engage all 3 parts of our hamstrings”
“we’re just warming up and putting our minds into our body”
“this is your last minute, so give it everything you have left!”
“this is your heaviest we do today, can you go even heavier?”
“you only have 8 more seconds, can you go even slower?”
ANATOMY
Speak to the muscle clients are working in each move. Describe the mechanism, or the way the body can move to engage that particular muscle. Keep in mind that the human body can never just be using one muscle at a time. For every target muscle, clients will feel multiple muscle groups (secondary muscles). The core is active in every single move! When you feel like you have cue the target muscle enough, you can always remind clients about core engagement. When you hear the term, “engage your core” all it means is being aware of how your core is supporting you through an exercise. Breathwork is a very important part of core engagement. When clients are in center core/oblique moves, the body has the tendency to hold the breath due to their proximity to the lungs and their role in breathing. Combine cueing and coaching to deliver anatomy to each move.
Example: If you have clients in a seated bicep curl, cues would be-you have 2 heads of that bicep helping you pull those cables towards the face, role the shoulders as you squeeze the biceps to keep tension in your arms instead of the neck. keep the elbows lifted, as the biceps get fatigue the elbows will try to lower. Use your breath in the movement, inhale as you release the cables, exhale through the mouth are you contract the bicep. What is your core doing right here? Can you pull the belly button back to spine as you exhale. The core supporting your body through the tension, so to amplify, can you move your upper body further behind your hips to light up that core even more.
CORRECTIONS
It should feel like you are giving each client a private session. Most of your talking during a move should be feedback from how clients are executing a move. You are always actively getting information from clients in class let that guide what you say to a class, that way it is less pressure on you to just remember cues and so that they are more targeted for the actual people you are instructing. This is also another reason you always want to be working on your own form. Example: in a plank crunch use the first minute to say all of your directional cues- use what you actually SEE. You will see clients keeping their lower back flat, knees coming in too far, hands gripping the platform, feet crossed. So in real time you able to give real effective cues and coach them how to do it correctly. These corrections will be aimed to the entire room. So you would cue, "pull the belly button back to spine, hollowing out the belly, feeling the rib cage and hip bones reaching for each other, stop the knees a inch before they are under the hips as this is max tension, hands are at pray or up to the ceiling so that all that tension goes to the core instead of the hands. Uncross the ankles, those ankles are trying to help you and taking tension out of the abs, if you feel the ankles crossing squeeze the glutes instead.” If you are actively watching clients instead of regurgitating information, you can improve and provide value to a client’s workout.
Your room will be a mix of beginners, intermediate, and advanced clients. If let someone continually do something incorrectly, you are letting them down. We know how it feels to be a beginner and how you want to be doing what the class is doing, you probably even remember the instructor that taught you how to do something. Everyone leveling up as a whole creates an entire next level energy in the room that everyone can feed off of. Do not be afraid to correct people, not only is helpful to you and the room, but also serves as an opportunity for connection that people are craving. Think of corrections as motivating for your clients.
Only one person could be doing a move wrong but you can still cue those directions to the whole class, it does not hurt those that are in good form to hear good form cues. It can be helpful to use a client that has great form as an example so people that need help can know how to mirror.
If a client is still not understanding, you go up next to them and model the position. If they are still not getting it, you can offer hands on corrections but moving your mic to the side and asking them, “can I touch you?”, with just a light tap where you want them to go.
INTENSITY
Your coaching determines the intensity of the class. There is a difference between hard and challenging. A very simple workout can feel very challenging if you have an instructor that is consistently making you better at the move each rep and making your mind push your body past limits. A “hard” programmed workout can feel like nothing if someone is checked out because of lack of accessibility or coaching. An accessible class does not mean an easy class. Through every move you should be offering amplification and modifications. This what makes every DRIP class open to every fitness level.
Example: High plank, on those palms and toes. Engage the abs and pull the belly button back to spine, shoulders and elbows stacked over palms. To get more time out of that high plank put your feet further apart to give you more support. If you have to drop down to your knees to finish the plank, drop down to forearms and re-engage the core. We are only here for thirty more seconds! If you are on those toes can you add in a pushup to finish. Last 15 seconds! Can you pop up to your toes one more time? Finish in your best seconds, past what you think you can hold, we all drop in 4,3,2,1.
Class being accessible to everyone does not make it less challegening for those that are doing the most amplified version. You have to remember you are coaching to every single person.
Cueing holds the room together.
Cueing is how you instruct the where and when of the body in space.
It is the clear, timely direction that allows clients to:
move safely
feel successful
stay connected to the work
and push themselves when it matters
Cueing is not storytelling.
Cueing is not filler.
Cueing is leadership in real time.
When cueing is clean, clients trust you.
When clients trust you, they level up.
WHAT GREAT CUEING DOES
Creates clarity in complex movement
Builds confidence in progressions and options
Keeps the room unified
Allows clients to focus on effort instead of confusion
If cues are too fast, too complicated, or poorly timed, clients feel unsuccessful — even if the workout is good.
Cueing is what creates energy in the room by getting bodies to move correctly, together.
INTERNAL CUES
What should they feel?
Internal cues direct attention inward — to muscles, joints, and alignment.
They build:
mind–muscle connection
better form
deeper tension
In every movement, you should be cueing:
what muscle is working
how to increase tension in that muscle
Examples
“Pull the belly button back as you keep your upper body behind the hips.”
“Push the elbow out without letting the hips drop to keep the upper abs engaged.”
“Stack your knee over your ankle to take pressure off the knee and load the glute.”
Internal cues are how clients learn how their body works.
EXTERNAL CUES
What should they do?
External cues reference the environment or an imagined action.
They are especially helpful when:
clients are fatigued
coordination is challenging
you need fast corrections
Examples
“Drive your heel down like you’re stomping through the floor.”
“Lift your hips like there’s a fire underneath you.”
“Imprint your lower back into the carriage like you’re squeezing out air bubbles.”
Great instructors use both internal and external cues, choosing what the moment requires.
TIMING STANDARDS
COUNTDOWNS
Countdowns must be accurate.
A 4-count is four real seconds.
A 15-second variation is 15 seconds, not 30.
Incorrect timing breaks trust.
If you don’t tell clients it’s their last reps or last seconds, you rob them of the chance to push harder.
Clear countdowns = confidence + effort.
PROGRESS THROUGH TIMESTAMPS
Use timestamps to motivate and orient the room.
You must clearly mark:
halfway through class
last 10 minutes
last minute
The final minutes of class matter most.
This is when you lean away from cueing and maximize coaching.
Even if someone struggled all class, the ending can redefine their experience.
TEMPO FOR VARIATIONS
Variations are the only time clients move fully together and on the beat.
Standard
Count clients down by 4 seconds to meet at max tension
Cue the variation
Use the music to dictate tempo
This ensures:
unity
rhythm
and successful execution
BREATHWORK
Cue breathing intentionally.
Tell clients:
when to inhale
when to exhale
Breath supports:
control
endurance
and deeper engagement
Breath cues should support the movement — not distract from it.
CUES TO AVOID
“I want” / “I need” → use “we want” or remove entirely
“On my cue” or filler before instructions
Extra words between counts
Cueing towel or water (clients will take it if needed)
Over-cueing or cueing without purpose
“Active recovery”
Negative cues (“don’t lean back”) — always cue what to do, not what not to do
THE STANDARD
Cueing is not about talking more.
It’s about saying the right thing, at the right time, in the cleanest way possible.
This is how you keep the room together.
CUEING — INSTRUCTOR RUBRIC
Score each category 1–5
(1 = missing | 3 = inconsistent | 5 = excellent)
1) Clarity of Cues ____ /5
Instructions are simple, direct, and immediately actionable.
2) Timing of Cues ____ /5
Cues are delivered at musically and physically appropriate moments.
3) Accuracy of Countdowns ____ /5
Countdowns match real time and build trust.
4) Internal Cueing ____ /5
Instructor clearly cues muscle engagement and alignment.
5) External Cueing ____ /5
Imagery and environmental cues are used effectively.
6) Balance of Cueing vs. Coaching ____ /5
Instructor cues when needed and leaves space when appropriate.
7) Variation Tempo Is Clear ____ /5
Clients meet at max tension together and move to the beat.
8) Breath Is Cued Intentionally ____ /5
Breath cues support control and endurance.
9) Language Avoids Disallowed Cues ____ /5
Instructor avoids filler, negatives, and unnecessary instructions.
10) Room Moves Together ____ /5
Cueing creates visible unity and confidence across the room.
TOTAL: ____ /50
Notes:
Coaching Focus for Next Class: