Shining a Light on Cueing
I am a person who goes to exercise classes now. Believe me, this comes as much of a shock to me as it does to you.
My current favourite is the boxing class at Healthfit. Partly because Carl is often there too — which means I get to tell him to shut up repeatedly while Ruby (who takes the class) and I gang up on him — and partly because I get to indulge my fantasy of throwing these hands.
Past me is looking at 2025 me, deeply confused. Not only do I voluntarily exercise five or six times a week… I do it with other people? Where I might be perceived? Where people might actually see me finding something hard? Where I might appear to not be perfect? In public? Absolutely not.
And yet, here we are.
I’ve done boxing before in my life, so throwing a punch isn’t new. But I haven’t done it enough to build real muscle memory, so as we learn new combinations, new questions about what my body is doing keep popping up.
This week, every time I threw a particular punch, my foot kept popping off the ground like I was about to knee my partner in the groin. (NGL… tempting.) I tried to stop it and couldn’t, so I asked Ruby. We talked it through and wondered if maybe my brain was trying to protect my still-healing toes.
Then she said: “Stop thinking about your feet. Start thinking about punching with your hip.”
So I did — and suddenly I threw the most powerful punch of the whole session. Nothing about my technique changed. Everything about my intent did.
That sent me down a rabbit hole thinking about cues and how strange and important they are. I think of cues like spells — a magical phrase that unlocks something in the brain. A good cue doesn’t live in the thinking brain; it hits the lizard brain where the movement resides.
Something I didn’t mention last week, when I was talking about deadlifts: it took me close to a year to feel deadlifts in my glutes instead of my hamstrings or back. The cue that finally unlocked it? “Imagine there’s a flashlight in your butthole (sorry not sorry) and you’re trying to shine it against the back wall.”
Ridiculous. Also perfect.
Different cues work for different people. “Neutral spine” means nothing to me — what does that feel like? — but “chest up” clicks instantly. Same with squats: imagining an A3 sheet of paper under my feet that I’m trying to tear in half roots me down and engages everything from my toes upward.
If you’re lucky enough to work with a coach, brilliant. If not, this is the one place I think fitness influencers are actually useful. Ignore the supplement ads and listen to the cues. Try them. See which ones unlock something for you.
What I love is that as I discover more about my body, I’m also learning more about my brain and how they negotiate with each other. Cues aren’t instructions. They’re translations. The trick is finding the language your body speaks.
Which brings me to a question for Carl — and for anyone who coaches, teaches, or just loves nerding out about movement:
How can people cue themselves when they don’t have a coach watching them? How do you build that internal translator when you’re training alone?
Carl here - Firstly (I will get to the questions I promise!), the reason cues feel like spells is because, in a way, they are. Motor learning research shows that people can hold only a tiny amount of technical detail in their working memory while moving, usually 1–2 pieces of information at once. Any more, and performance actually drops. This is why long technical instructions (“retract your scapula, keep neutral spine, hinge at the hips, brace your core…”) turn into white noise when you’re mid-punch, mid-lift, or mid-anything.
So the nervous system relies on shortcuts. That’s what cues are: compressed packets of information that your brain and body can process instantly.
Two things matter in particular:
1. Internal vs external focus
Research is very consistent on this:
- Internal cues = focus on a body part or muscle (“brace your core”, “tighten your glutes”).
- External cues = focus on an outcome, an image, a direction, or an object outside your body (“drive the floor away”, “throw your hip through the target”, “shine the flashlight on the back wall”).
Most people perform better with external cues. They’re lighter on the brain, reduce overthinking, and tap into more automatic motor patterns, exactly the “lizard-brain zone” you described.
2. Individual relevance
The brain remembers what means something to you.
For example:
- “Neutral spine” = nothing.
- “Chest up” = instant clarity.
- “Flashlight in your butthole” = unforgettable (and biomechanically accurate, if we’re being honest).
A cue sticks when it creates a vivid, sensory-rich mental picture. Memory loves imagery, emotion, novelty, and humour, so the weird stuff works. And this is an opportunity to speak the language of your clients, or if you're cueing, of yourself.
Why one perfect cue can change everything
When Ruby told you to “punch with your hip,” she shifted your attention, not your technique. Changing attention can:
- recruit the right muscles,
- alter timing,
- improve force transfer,
- reduce movement restrictions, all without you consciously “fixing” anything.
That’s the power of a well-aimed cue: it changes the frame, and the body instantly reorganises itself to match that frame.
So… how can people cue themselves when training alone?
Here are practical, informed approaches that actually work:
1. Record yourself
This is the closest thing to having a coach. Watch the replay and ask:
- Where does the movement look 'off'?
- What part seems slow, weak, or disconnected?
Then create a simple cue that addresses the outcome, not the body part. Example: instead of “knees out,” try “push the floor apart.” Speak your language.
2. Use “if & then” statements
These reduce cognitive load:
- If I feel my back rounding, then I think “chest up.”
- If my foot lifts when I punch, then I think “hip through the target.”
3. Build a cue library
You already know some that work. Keep a running note in your phone:
- “Tear the paper in half.”
- “Flashlight to the back wall.”
- “Snap the bar in half.”
- “Throw your hip through the target.”
Over time, you expand your personal gym dictionary.
4. Use environment-based cues
Move an object or set up a constraint that naturally encourages the right technique. Examples:
- A box behind you to encourage hip-hinging.
- A light resistance band around the knees to initiate outward pressure.
- A line on the ground to keep your stance consistent.
The environment cues you automatically. This isn't a great long-term strategy, but it may help bring awareness and get you to ‘feel’ the new pattern. Then you would move past the environment-based cue.
5. Connect the cue to how it feels
Always ask yourself:
- What did it feel like when it was right? Then craft a cue that recreates that feeling, not the mechanics. This is important as it will help your nervous system learn this new pattern. Then, really steep yourself in the feeling and experience.
6. Stick to one cue at a time
Your brain will only remember one anyway, so choose the one that makes the biggest difference.
And finally: How do you build that internal translator?
You build it the same way you build strength: reps + reflection.
- Try a cue.
- See what changes.
- Keep what works and immerse yourself in how it felt.
- Throw away what doesn’t.
- Repeat.
Over time, you learn the “language” your nervous system responds to, and eventually, cueing becomes automatic, intuitive, and deeply personal.
Some people speak in imagery. Some in humour. Some in physics. Some in sass. The trick is finding your flavour and then it's on you to steep yourself in the experience to reinforce the learning. Give it a try and please let us know your favourites!
Some of Carl's favourite cues (minus the ones mentioned):
Keep the blueberry alive (imagine one under the arch of your foot)- one to keep the arch of the foot neutral.
- Stop weeze (yup) - one to engage the pelvic floor
- Crack a walnut between your shoulder blades - one to get your shoulder blades moving together
- Winning lotto ticket between your elbow and body - keeping your elbows tight during a shoulder external rotation exercise
- Hold a coin between your cheeks - keeping your glutes engaged in a glute bridge exercise
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Cool stuff we saw this week:
A new study argues that most injury-prevention research still treats women and girls as smaller men, and proposes a new framework (FAIR) to guide genuinely sex-specific, evidence-based injury-prevention strategies for female athletes.
https://womensagenda.com.au/life/sport/global-experts-call-for-mandatory-strength-warm-ups-to-protect-female-athletes/from UnitedHealthcare, nearly half do some form of strength training at least once a week to keep muscles strong.