Scott Anderson, Ph.D.

When I was a kid, I loved to take things apart. While I harbored high hopes of fixing broken stuff, like many kids, I rarely managed to fix any of the broken stuff that I took apart. Despite my shortcomings as a fix-it person, I would often get engrossed in the hows and whys of mechanical devices. How does this  thing work? Why was it built this way, and not another way? What kind of mind conceived of this thing? My love of taking things apart (and nominally reassembling them) extended to include learning about all manner of machines. Whether it was a car, bicycle, truck, backhoe or airplane, I was hungry to learn about how things worked. The fuel storage of an Airbus A380 I can still remember when I first read about how airplanes worked. All airplanes needed wings, and I had previously thought of the wings as those things that kept airplanes in the air. When I read about commercial jets, though, my world was shaken in a small way - the function of the wings extended to i...

I've long found the bony structures of the body interesting, and this interest in bones has been an ongoing influence in both my practice and teaching of yoga. As I mentioned in the previous blog, I believe that it's wisest to honor the body's structures in choosing the movements that we ask the body to make. For example, when the thigh is externally rotated, the hip socket is severely restricted in its capacity to extend. For that reason, I generally teach Warrior I with the back heel lifted to facilitate internal rotation of the thigh and consequently, to reduce stress on the hip labrum. My interest in bony structure has extended into my chosen form of bodywork. While I greatly admire hands-on work that addresses restrictions in muscle fibers and/or fascia, I've chosen to pursue Zero Balancing  (ZB) as my go-to modality. Zero Balancing focuses on releasing restrictions in the bony structures, and I've found ZB to be remarkably effective in releasing long-held ...

Early in 2015 I began presenting classes and seminars on joint laxity. Having taught Yoga for 27+ years, I found that many yoga practitioners seem to have some degree joint laxity. While many yoga enthusiasts experience their bodies as being tight, in actuality many yoga practitioners seem to have loose joints beneath their tight muscles. My experience is that the trait of joint laxity occurs commonly in the yoga world. JHS is an acronym for Joint Hypermobility Syndrome, and emerging research is suggesting at JHS may not solely be experienced in the joints of the body. The following statement is excerpted from  Mind-Body Interactions in Anxiety and Somatic Symptoms  by Mallorqui-Bague, et al. I have read this paper with a great deal of interest, and continue to explore the many studies that were cited in this paper. Importantly, JHS is overrepresented among people with anxiety—especially among the so-called endogenous anxiety disorders (panic, ...

As is the case for many graduate students, I am a Teaching Assistant (TA) for an undergraduate course. In my case, I'm TA-ing an undergraduate anatomy course. This TA assignment covers my bases financially (whew!) and also provides an excellent opportunity to deepen my personal understanding of anatomy. In the very first lecture in this class, the lecturer presented the fundamental principles of the course's approach to anatomy. What was the top of the list - the number one principle of the course? Function follows structure. This seemingly simple, three word sentence should be required reading for each and every yoga teacher. While its sentiment may seem like a no-brainer, I am sorry to report that the separation of function from structure remains all-too-common in the yoga community. Just last week I had a conversation with a student who has been nursing a yoga injury for the past year. When I asked for more details, he reported that he felt a pop during a class at ano...