- [Interviewer] Hey Alex.
It's "Men's Health."
- Hello, "Men's Health."
(hip hop music) (bell dinging)
You're here to see my fridge and gym.
Come on. - Let's head
to the kitchen.
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- All right, here's my fridge.
- [Interviewer] What staples do you keep in there?
- Always plenty of water.
Sparkling, but not too much.
And my eggs, salad.
My fruit, always very important.
Bananas, apples, some oranges.
- [Interviewer] Has your diet changed much since retiring?
- During my 25 year career, I ate a lot more.
I used to eat six times a day.
A lot of steak, a lot of potatoes,
a lot of rice, beans.
But you're burning so much calorie when you play 162 games.
Today, I probably have three or four meals.
I mix in a shake.
I stopped drinking pop soda about five years ago.
But I have a lot of friends that drink pop sodas.
- [Interviewer] What would we always see in an Arod fridge?
- Blueberry are a must.
Always fresh, organic.
Have some strawberries.
(sniffs) Love the smell of strawberries.
Always plenty of greens. Salads, broccoli.
Little hummus for a little late night snack.
- [Interviewer] What would we never see in your fridge?
- Liver. You'll never see liver.
So for breakfast, it always has to have eggs,
some oatmeal, put in some bacon,
maybe a little glass of orange juice,
plenty of water.
For lunches, usually some salad, chicken, fish.
Love great salad.
Put always with a balsamic vinegarette.
For dinners, either a steak, salmon.
Love a sweet potato fries.
Any type of fries, actually.
Pretty simple.
- [Interviewer] Are you cooking any of those meals?
- I'm not making anything,
'cause if I try to cook in my kitchen,
it would probably set a fire up in here.
- [Interviewer] What's the toughest diet you've tried?
- Toughest diet I ever tried.
Really none. I love to eat.
I have a great relationship with food.
Usually I would overeat
back when I was playing 'cause I needed to.
I needed the fuel.
Today, I probably under eat, which is not good.
I need to eat more.
Especially some healthy proteins.
More fruit, more water, more fuel.
- [Interviewer] What was your favorite pre-game meal?
- Yeah, my favorite pre-game meal
when I played with Yankees
was usually a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
with some barbecue chips
and two of these waters.
- [Interviewer] How did you celebrate the big wins?
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- Either two things.
I always like a big steak
with a nice sweet potato.
Or some good sushi.
- [Interviewer] What's your go-to comfort food?
- I'm Dominican, so a little rice and beans.
Platano maduros are always good. Solid.
And Dominican staple, Tostones.
- [Interviewer] What's your go-to burger order?
- A double whopper with cheese.
Whopper from Burger King,
but I like the fries from McDonald's.
- [Interviewer] You drink coffee?
- [Aaron] Drink plenty of coffee.
Nothing on it, just black.
And I have probably...
Seven, eight cups a day.
- [Interviewer] There are a lot of weird food trends
going around on TikTok.
Is there anything weird that you eat?
- I like peanut butter, jelly, turkey sandwich.
That's a very unique Arod special.
- [Interviewer] That is definitely unique.
Now I'm curious what you reach for
at 2:00 AM when you're hungry.
- [Interviewer] Well I'm probably not grabbing anything
from the fridge for a late night snack,
so I'll show you what I usually do.
I did it last night.
I'm a chips expert.
So I have barbecue,
Doritos,
Cheetos,
Tostitos, a little nuts, cashews,
a little bit of everything.
This is where I do my best work.
2:00 AM.
- [Interviewer] Do you take those snacks to bed?
- [Aaron] Oh yeah, I definitely eat in the bed.
- [Interviewer] What's your go-to ballpark food?
- Ballpark, hot dog, like a Dodger dog, is awesome.
I also like a great pretzel.
Nice and warm and big.
- [Interviewer] Do you drink protein shakes?
- I love protein shakes.
Usually at least 30 grams of protein.
Strawberries, berries, bananas, little peanut butter.
Let her rip.
- [Interviewer] Besides the protein powder,
do you take any other supplements?
- I'll take some vitamin C, a multivitamin,
and to sleep, a little magnesium.
- [Interviewer] How about a little pre-workout?
- Right before the gym, I go for a little bit of energy,
so a little Celsius.
"Peach Vibe."
Ready? Let's go down.
- [Interviewer] Let's see the gym.
- [Aaron] My fitness goals are to feel good every day.
Working out is such an important part of my life.
I've been doing it for 40 years.
So many great benefits.
All right, welcome to my home gym.
It is a very simple home gym.
My favorite part is we have a sauna and a steam room,
and I do that every day for at least 30 minutes.
And then you have a basic bench,
not too heavy weights.
I don't play anymore.
Then, you have a treadmill.
I hate treadmill, but sometimes I just
like to go outside and walk or run.
And then I have some light dumbbells, some medicine balls,
some mats, stretch it out.
Pretty simple.
- [Interviewer] Nice set up.
How often do you get down here to work out?
- So I try to work out seven days a week.
And that sounds crazy, but you know,
not every day is gonna be super intense.
- [Interviewer] What's your morning routine?
- I'm on this mission to at least get 30 minutes
of breaking a sweat, feeling good.
But usually in the morning before 12,
I take one body part per day.
So Monday I'll do chest,
Tuesday I'll do arms,
Wednesday I'll do legs,
Thursday I'll do back,
so on and so forth.
Mix in 30 minutes, at least, of cardio every day.
Some stretching, maybe a little swim.
And then I always end with a little sauna
and a little steam room to get a good sweat in.
And then, I'm usually at the office by noon.
- [Interviewer] What's your favorite part of working out?
- My favorite part of working out is just,
you know, releasing endorphins,
getting through a good workout,
feel excited and energized for the rest of your day.
- [Interviewer] How was your workout
when you were playing for the Yankees?
- My workouts were a lot more intense,
heavier, squatting 400 pounds,
bench pressing 300 pounds,
lifting heavy shoulder, 60 pounds, dumbbells over my head.
A lot of sprint work, hundreds, two hundreds,
burpees, all kind of non fun things.
- [Interviewer] What's your fitness goal now?
- Today, my workouts are a lot more normal.
Not as intense. I'm not running sprints.
I can't.
So I had two hip surgeries,
one on my right, one on my left.
And what I do now is I try to keep my weight down,
do a lot of stretching, Pilates, yoga,
anything to elongate my muscles.
Do some bench press, but nothing too heavy.
- [Interviewer] How often do you
change up your workout routine?
- You know, I'm pretty routine when it comes to my workouts.
I like consistency,
so I don't mix it up too much.
I don't mix up my diet.
I don't mix up my training.
Every once in a while,
you wanna shuffle the deck a little bit.
But I'm a consistent guy.
- [Interviewer] What keeps you motivated to stay fit?
- I stay motivated 'cause I have young girls,
two daughters, Natasha and Ella,
and I wanna have a healthy life.
Especially as you get into your fifties and sixties,
and you want to- gotta age gracefully.
- [Interviewer] Which exercise do you love
and which do you hate?
- So the exercise that I absolutely hate the most
has to be burpees 'cause I suck at them.
I'm usually- I'm really tall.
And my favorite, a good deadlift,
get them glutes firing
and get them nice and juicy.
- [Interviewer] Do you work out with anyone else?
- [Aaron] I sometimes work with my girlfriend, Jac,
who has been a big influence in my life.
I've lost 35 pounds since I've been working out with her.
I'm one of her elite clients, she calls me.
- [Interviewer] Which current players
would you like to work out with?
- One of two people.
Either Aaron Judge, 'cause he's a beast,
maybe Ohtani
because he's a world-class pitcher and hitter.
And I'm in awe.
- [Interviewer] Ever hit the gym with Big Papi and Jeter?
- Big Papi and Jeter,
I know they do a lot of working out,
but we've never worked out together.
- [Interviewer] How do you keep your mind fit?
- I keep my mind healthy by working out every day,
breaking a sweat, doing a little sauna,
little steam room, meditating.
But just trying to slow down
so then you can speed up.
- [Interviewer] Do you have any scars?
- I have two scars, one hip surgery,
and I have another scar right here with another hip surgery.
But I think because I've kept my weight down,
I work on mobility, flexibility.
I talked about Pilates and yoga,
my hips are in great shape.
- [Interviewer] You were recently diagnosed
with gum disease.
How are you managing that?
- I've taken a very proactive approach.
It is not just brushing your teeth and flossing.
It's actually going into your local dentist
and getting treatment,
and I'm doing that four times a year.
I'm excited that we were able to find it early.
And so far so good. I'm in good shape.
- [Interviewer] What music do you listen to
when you work out?
- I like 80s rock.
Journey, Coldplay, Jay-Z, little Sinatra.
Depending on the mood, depending on the day.
- [Interviewer] What's your most meaningful tattoo?
- [Aaron] "Don't have it.
It'll never happen."
Because my mom will kill me.
She would kill me.
- [Interviewer] So no matching tattoos,
but how about some rapid fire questions?
- Rapid fire questions. Bring it.
- All right, Arod, choose your exercise.
Workout time, 7:00 AM or 7:00 PM.
- Oh, 7:00 AM for sure.
- Squat or deadlift? - Deadlift.
- [Interviewer] Favorite song on your workout playlist.
- "Onto the Next One," Jay-Z.
- [Interviewer] CrossFit, yay or nay.
- Yay.
- [Interviewer] Pull-ups or chin-ups?
- Pull-ups.
- [Interviewer] Run on the treadmill
or in the great outdoors?
- Outdoors for sure.
- [Interviewer] Cardio or weights?
- [Aaron] Weights.
- [Interviewer] Big legs or big arms?
- Big legs and a big ass.
- [Interviewer] Biggest compliment,
jacked, ripped, cut, or swole?
- Ripped.
- [Interviewer] If you could work out
with anyone in the world, dead or alive,
who would it be?
- Babe Ruth.
'Cause what I really wanna do
is go have a cocktail with him afterwards.
- Let's go.
- All right, that's a wrap.
Thank you guys for coming.
I gotta head to the office.
See ya.
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