The Commercial Appeal Interviews Rick Pollan
Great Work Rick! One of our long time members and now new instructor was recently interviewed and featured in a success story article in The Commercial Appeal. Click here for the full article.
Here are excerpts:
As Rick Pollan settled into his adult life, he also settled into his sofa every night after work and ate whatever he could get his hands on until bedtime. Topping off at 5-foot-5, the 47-year-old weighed in at 200 pounds, was borderline diabetic and suffered from acid reflux and high blood pressure.
“I really felt like I was dying. I couldn’t tie my shoes without having to hold my breath,” said the Cordova resident.
Instead of undergoing surgery to correct his acid reflux, he decided it was time to make a change.
“I didn’t want to have to resort to surgery, so I made up my mind to try to do something to get the weight off,” said Pollan, the owner of Pollan Electric Co.
At first he was successful working out at home and watching what he ate, but after losing 20 pounds he found it difficult to drop any more weight.
That’s when he found Mid-South Krav Maga, a martial arts studio on Poplar that specializes in Israeli self-defense.
“I’ve always been interested in martial arts. Krav Maga is hand-to-hand combat, real self-defense for real situations in the real world, where you may have guns, sticks or multiple attackers,” Pollan said. “It’s not a lot of mumbo-jumbo with fancy kicks, and you don’t wear uniforms with fancy belts.”
He also liked the idea of having a different place to go after work rather than his home with the call of the sofa looming over him.
Pollan began training for one hour five times a week at the studio near the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, and “the weight just started to fall off.”
Eventually he was able to bump it up to two-hour training sessions, and after close to four months, Pollan got down to a lean 145 pounds.
“I was very serious about getting the weight off,” he said.
So serious that he also cut his calorie intake to 1,200 calories a day.
“I laid off the Cokes and pizza, and ate a lot of (Kelloggs) Special K cereal, Egg Beaters, drank a lot of water and ate a lot of Ezekiel bread because it doesn’t have any flour,” he said.
That wasn’t the hardest part.
Describing himself as someone who always wants to take it to the next level, Pollan committed to becoming a trainer, and for one week he trained for eight hours a day, seven days a week.
“That’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he said.
Since earning his certification in February, Pollan feels like the effort has already paid off.
“I like to help people achieve what I achieved,” he said. “People who are struggling with their weight or who have no idea how to defend themselves, I get to watch them transform. I see their confidence level really come up, and I can sympathize with them.”
“I really think Krav Maga saved my life,” he said.
Rick Pollan
Age: 47
Hometown: Cordova
Workout choice: Krav Maga, an Israeli self-defense system.
Gym: Mid-South Krav Maga, 2869 Poplar, 327-0297, midsouthkravmaga.com
Advice: “Get off the couch. Stay active. Eat to live; don’t live to eat.”
by: Lesley Young/Special to The Commercial Appeal
Rick Pollan (left), 47, went from 200 pounds to 145 thanks to Krav Maga self-defense at Mid-South Krav Maga on Poplar Avenue.
