If Anyone Knows the Good that Yoga Can Do, Val Sklar Does

WILLIAM CAMPBELL
Pasadena Weekly
March 4, 1999

First off, grab another look at the picture of Val Sklar over there.

Hard to believe this is a woman who in 1996 was listening to a doctor's prognosis that she would need hip replacement surgery--and soon.

But the fact of the matter was that Sklar, who broke her right hip when she was 13, developed degenerative arthritis in it 14 years later. X-rays and an MRI confirmed the deteriorating cartilage, and her orthopedist said it would continue "until the pain became unbearable." Her only option, it seemed, was to eventually go under the knife, then make her way through a long period of recovery.

That was tough news to take. With a job that consisted largely of standing and doing promotional events, "My future seemed to hang in limbo," she said.

When she asked about exercise, the doctor advised, "If it hurts, don't do it." Prescribing Naprosin, an anti-inflammatory, he told her to keep in touch.

The following fall, while visiting friends in Denver and telling them about her hip, they recommended she attend a Bikram yoga class. Though skeptical, she did, and enjoyed it. Back in L.A.--and still skeptical--she found a Bikram yoga class near her and started going.

"The classes were difficult at first," she said. A lot of postures hurt her hip, but she didn't give up, aided by Bikram himself, who showed her how to ease into the more uncomfortable postures. "Starting that day, my arthritis started to get better," she said.

Soon after, she had reduced her intake of Naprosin from two per day to none, and over the six months that followed, she said the pain in her hip declined 90% and her range of motion improved as well.

Astonished by her own healing, and fully inspired, Sklar decided to stop climbing the corporate ladder in order to teach this yoga discipline to others.

After attending Bikram's intensive teacher training in the spring of 1998, she opened her studio, Bikram's Yoga College of India, Pasadena, last November.

Bikram yoga is a demanding, 26-pose series designed to work deep into muscles, tendons and ligaments. Sklar's 90-minute classes are geared toward everyone from first-time students to experienced practitioners.

"But be prepared to work hard and sweat," says Sklar.

And if you don't think it pays off, grab yourself another look at her--and her right hip.

Copyright © 1999 Pasadena Weekly. Used with permission.

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