The HLP Cueing System

Human beings learn movement by moving.

That sounds obvious, but much of traditional Pilates cueing is built around the opposite assumption. We often behave as though people need to understand movement before they can perform it.

As a result, many instructors:

• Over-explain

• Over-demonstrate

• Over-correct

• Interrupt flow

• Create cognitive overload

The result is often less movement, not better movement.

The Heath Lander Pilates Cueing System works from a different premise.

 

Rather than trying to explain movement into existence, we create the conditions that allow movement to emerge successfully.

The purpose of cueing is not to describe movement.

The purpose of cueing is to create successful movement experiences.

This system evolved from two influences:

1. Modern motor learning principles and our understanding of how people acquire movement skills.

2. The practical realities of teaching group Reformer classes, where demonstrations can interrupt flow and create unnecessary dependency on the instructor.

The framework is intentionally simple.

Every cue we give should serve one of five purposes:

1. Set up the equipment.

2. Get people into position.

3. Get people moving.

4. Improve the movement.

5. Adjust the challenge.

Everything else is secondary.

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The Problem With Traditional Cueing

Many instructors attempt to teach movement by explaining movement.

They explain every detail of the final shape before movement begins. They ask clients to understand concepts before clients have experienced them. They provide five cues when one would suffice. They stop classes to demonstrate movements that could have been learned through action.

The problem is not that these cues are wrong. The problem is that they often arrive too early.

Movement is the teacher. The body learns through experience.

The role of the instructor is to create successful experiences that allow clients to discover and refine movement through doing.

The Heath Lander Pilates Cueing System follows a simple progression:

1. Create a successful start position.

2. Create movement immediately.

3. Refine movement while it is happening.

4. Increase challenge when appropriate.

Movement comes first.

Understanding follows.

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The Five Parts of the Cueing System

Each category answers a specific teaching question.

 

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1. Equipment Settings

Where can everyone start successfully?

The first decision in any exercise is selecting an equipment setting that allows everyone to participate.

This is what we call the Meat and Potatoes setting.

The goal is not to find the hardest version. The goal is to find the version that everybody can perform successfully.

A useful question is: Can everyone in the room perform approximately twenty quality repetitions at this setting?

If the answer is yes, you have a workable starting point.

The strongest person in the room may not yet be challenged and that is acceptable. Challenge comes later through layering and load progression.

The purpose of the starting layer is inclusion.

Everyone rides together.

Nobody sits out.

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2. Start Position

How do I organise the room quickly?

Before movement can begin, people need to get organised.

The longer this process takes, the less time people spend moving.

For this reason we play a mastery game called: Three To Get Ready

The challenge is simple: Can you get the entire room into the start position using three clear action statements?

You will not always achieve it. That is not the point. The point is that striving for three forces simplicity.

Instead of explaining every detail of an ideal position, we focus on the smallest number of instructions required to get movement started.

For example:

“Hands on the rails.”

“Knees against the shoulder pads.”

“Hands under shoulders.”

Simple instructions create fast organisation. Fast organisation creates more movement. More movement creates more learning.

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3. Basic Movement

How do I get people moving immediately?

Once people are organised, they need a simple task.

Many instructors try to teach the complete exercise before movement begins. 

The cueing system takes the opposite approach. Movement first. Details second.

The mastery game is: One To Go

The question becomes: What is the simplest possible instruction that gets the movement started?

Examples include:

• Push the bed out.

• Bring the bed back.

• Peel your hips up.

• Peel your hips down.

• Slide the bed out.

• Slide the bed in.

The goal is not perfection. The goal is participation.

Once movement exists, refinement becomes possible.

Without movement, refinement is impossible.

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4. Refinement

How do I improve what already exists?

Refinement only occurs after movement has been established.

This is where we help clients express the movement more completely.

The mastery game for refinement is: As Much As Possible

The question becomes: What instruction creates the greatest improvement with the fewest words?

Examples might include:

• Lift your hips as high as possible.

• Reach as far as possible.

• Pull the bed into the stopper.

• Keep your thighs off the bed.

Strong refinement cues solve multiple problems at once.

Rather than telling clients exactly which muscles to activate or which joints to organise, we give them a meaningful task. The task allows the body to self-organise.

The best refinement cues often improve several aspects of the movement simultaneously.

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The Role of Holds

Most refinements become more effective when paired with a hold. Movement creates momentum.

A hold creates awareness.

When people pause:

• They can feel the position.

• They can explore the refinement.

• They can compare effort levels.

• They can express the shape more completely.

For this reason, holds are often where the richest teaching occurs.

Not because the hold itself is special. Because the hold gives the refinement time to land.

When we really want to “suck the juice out of a shape,” a hold is often the most effective teaching tool available.

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5. Load

How do I create the right challenge?

Load is one of the most important variables available to a Reformer teacher.

It determines:

• Challenge

• Fatigue

• Strength adaptation

• Exercise tolerance

• Pain management

The central principle is simple:

Load management is ability management.

People do not necessarily need different exercises. More often, they need different levels of challenge.

The ability to manipulate load effectively is one of the defining characteristics of an advanced teacher.

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The Law of the Spring

One of the foundational ideas within the system is what we call the Law of the Spring.

As the carriage travels further away from the stopper: Spring tension increases.

This is always true.

However, how that increase affects the body depends on both the movement and the person performing it.

A heavier spring is not automatically harder. A lighter spring is not automatically easier.

Different spring tensions often shift:

• Which muscles contribute most

• Which ranges of motion become challenging

• Which skills are being developed

This means the same movement can become a completely different experience simply by changing the spring setting.

Understanding these relationships allows us to use the Reformer as more than resistance equipment.

It becomes a teaching tool.

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What Is Missing?

You may notice that this system contains very little discussion of:

• Breathing patterns

• Neutral spine

• Core activation

• Muscle engagement cues

• Long lists of anatomical instructions

That is intentional.

These ideas may have value. However, they are not the foundation of effective teaching.

The foundation is appropriate challenge.

When equipment settings, movement selection, refinements and load are organised appropriately, many of the outcomes instructors seek through excessive cueing emerge naturally.

 

Rather than overwhelming clients with information, we focus on:

1. Appropriate equipment settings.

2. Clear start positions.

3. Simple movement instructions.

4. Effective refinements.

5. Intelligent load management.

Everything else sits on top of those foundations.

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Putting It All Together

Every exercise follows the same sequence:

1. Set the equipment - Meat and Potatoes

2. Establish the start position - 3 to get ready

3. Basic movement - 1 to go

4. Refine the movement - As much as possible (holds)

5. Adjust the layer - Movement layers, Law of the spring

 

The framework is deliberately simple.

Simple systems are easier to remember.

Simple systems are easier to apply.

Simple systems create consistency.

And consistency allows us to deliver classes where everyone rides together, nobody sits out, and every participant can work at their own version of “as much as possible.”

Ultimately, the Heath Lander Pilates Cueing System is not a collection of cues. It is a way of thinking.

A way of organising movement.

A way of teaching that prioritises action over explanation, experience over instruction, and successful movement over perfect movement.

Because people do not learn movement by hearing about movement. They learn movement by moving.