Granted, there’s the big picture shape of plank that students need to be guided into.
And there are cues that teach the general shape of the pose we’re looking for, like “place your hands shoulder-distance apart on the floor, push through your arms, and step your feet back.”
These cues are necessary and helpful!
Micromanaging, on the other hand, is when we over-specify the fine details of alignment in our poses.
The drive to micromanage in yoga often stems from the belief that the body doesn’t naturally do what it’s supposed to do when we move.
As a result, we must consciously check a long list of “alignment boxes,” in order to override our natural movement tendencies, so that we practice our poses correctly.
With that said, fine-tuning cues can certainly be helpful in some situations. For example…
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When a student is modifying due to an acute injury
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When a student is working around a painful issue experienced in a yoga pose
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For safety reasons in movement contexts where loads are very high (e.g., heavy weightlifting)
