(upbeat music)
- [Interviewer] Hey, Paul,
we're here to see your gym and fridge.
- Hey everyone.
Come on in.
- [Announcer] Number 99, Paul Rabil.
- [Interviewer] Alright, let's see that gym.
- Alright. This is my sanctuary.
It's an outdoor gym. It was perfect during the pandemic.
- [Interviewer] How often do you workout?
- [Paul] I work out about four times a week.
Each of my workouts changes depending on
how I feel physically after the game.
To start the week, you want to work out really hard
so you can deal with the soreness.
And then you taper back your workout on Thursday and Friday.
- [Interviewer] What are your fitness goals?
- They change depending on the time of the year
and the stage of my career I'm in.
So when I'm in my off season,
that's when I'm really hammering
and like buckling down, trying to build strength
and speed that I didn't have from the previous year.
When I'm in season my training workouts change.
They're really about maintaining and injury prevention.
Well, since announcing my retirement,
one of the things that I'm actually low key excited about
post retirement, I don't have to push myself
as hard as I did when I was a pro athlete
looking to win a championship every season.
So I get to enjoy the workouts a little bit more
and have more fun and not constantly be
challenged by guilt trips of like gotta do one more set.
- [Interviewer] What was one thing you enjoyed
during your last professional season?
- Something that I really enjoyed this last season
was training in a sports bra.
It got a ton of flare up on social media.
Oh, you're wearing a sports bra. How could you?
And I like running up against
overly toxic masculinity in sports
and embracing the rise of gender equality in sports.
And sometimes my nipples chafe.
- [Interviewer] What's your favorite workout?
- I will say that when I was younger,
I liked doing upper body work more
because it was more visible.
And then as I got smarter and wanted to actually
accomplish my goals in lacrosse,
which was be the greatest player of all time
and win as many championships and MVPs as possible.
It was like, oh no, it's actually about
your foundation, your legs, your lower body.
So I turned what I didn't like into something that I loved.
Now as we talked about goals, I'm going to share one
that I'm working on with you as part of my retirement.
It's called Goals for Greatness.
Not necessarily about access to sticks,
it's about the access to the game.
If a young girl, boy, or even adult
wants to play lacrosse, they should be able to do that.
Like there are basketball courts
and baseball diamonds at every park and rec.
Increasing that accessibility will
increase the visibility and awareness of lacrosse.
- [Interviewer] What's the furthest
you've ever thrown a lacrosse ball?
- I do have a YouTube video of me throwing a lacrosse ball,
the distance of a home run at Citi Field.
So where the New York Mets play.
I think the distance would then be 340 or 350 feet?
Cleared it no problem.
- [Interviewer] Alright, show us your fridge.
(upbeat music)
- Welcome to my kitchen.
I have my cold brews up top,
have a drink called Koia, which is plant-based protein.
I keep these yogurts, these are my favorite brands.
I know how important hydration is,
but I have a difficult time just consuming water.
So I do like sparkling water. this brand called bubbly.
My Gatorade's for post workouts.
This is my favorite type of Gatorade.
It's called Glacier Freeze. I think it tastes great,
but I also love the color blue. So,
and then I have an egg carton
pasture raised and hand selected.
If there's something that I've learned
to invest in as a 35 year old athlete,
it is your nutrition and your sleep.
I have a kick-ass mattress downstairs that helps me sleep
well. And I always invest a little bit more in my food.
Eggs is a good place to do that.
- [Interviewer] How has your diet changed over the years?
- For two years, I was vegan.
And the reason I jumped into veganism
is that I have herniated discs in my lower back
and I was getting epidurals and all this medical treatment
to try to figure out how I could put my socks on
without pain every morning.
It was really difficult, couldn't find solutions.
So I focused on my nutrition.
If I couldn't do anything about my protruding disc,
that were pinching my nerve.
What I could do is try to adopt a diet
that lowered inflammation in my body.
Going vegan eliminated a lot of that muscular inflammation.
And in three weeks I felt better.
- [Interviewer] What do you always have in your fridge?
- I grew up on tofu and kale.
We were doing kale before it was popular and tofu.
I have my plant-based meat.
It's actually fantastic and it's the future.
It saves water. It saves animals on the planet.
I also have tried this just egg. It's really good.
So it's fake egg but it tastes like real egg.
So,
beets. I don't particularly love beets,
but I know they're really good for me.
So, I try to have them a couple times a week.
I love having cilantro in my fridge.
I'm not a great cook, but when I do cook,
it feels like the magic sav.
Not sure about this recipe here,
throw some cilantro on it and everyone's happy.
- [Interviewer] What will we never see in your fridge?
- If you were to have seen my fridge 10 years ago,
it would have been steak and chicken.
I am an athlete that over-consumed meat-based protein.
And so I grew up watching Arnold Schwarzenegger
and all these guys and saying,
Hey, I can eat as much protein as possible.
If my body can't handle it, it'll shed it.
So now when I do integrate a steak once a week or chicken,
I think I experience a lot of the effects
that it's intended for.
- [Interviewer] How does your diet change
when you're on the road?
- So if you're an athlete like me
or an entrepreneur, that's always on the road,
sometimes sticking to a diet like vegan
may not be the best food that you can have
in an airport in the middle of the country.
It just may not be available.
But what's really important is that you just get
what's best on the menu, if it doesn't work for your diet,
rather than not eating at all.
- [Interviewer] What's your snack strategy?
- I love peanut butter and almond butter as a snack.
I will grab a banana and just spread
the peanut butter on it. Great source of potassium.
I try to have an avocado every day and then sweet potatoes.
This is the best traveling carbohydrate source
on the planet. When I'm playing during season,
I'll throw one of the aluminum foil wrapped sweet potatoes
in my bag before or after lunch.
And it gives you that refuel.
- [Interviewer] What does your cheat day look like?
- I'll tell you something about cheat days.
Dwayne Johnson, if you're watching this big fan,
don't believe in cheat days.
Having a big day where you kind of reset the system,
actually had more detriment in my career
because of the inconsistency of my week to week.
If there was more of a stable athlete say played in the NFL,
I could time everything that I had Sunday games,
but for me and my life and all the travel that I do,
timing cheat days were a big risk for me.
- [Interviewer] Alright, it's rapid fire time.
Workout time, 7:00 AM or 7:00 PM?
- 7:00 AM.
- [Interviewer] Squat or deadlift?
- [Paul] Squat.
- [Interviewer] Favorite song on playlist?
- I always want to give a good one for that.
Let's just not include it.
- [Interviewer] CrossFit. Yay or nay?
- Yay.
- [Interviewer] Pull-ups or chin-ups?
- [Paul] Pull-ups.
- [Interviewer] Dumb bells or kettle bells?
- [Paul] Kettle bells.
- [Interviewer] Run on the treadmill or the great outdoors?
- Outside.
- [Interviewer] Cardio or weights?
- Cardio.
- [Interviewer] Big legs or big arms?
- Big legs.
- [Interviewer] Biggest compliment.
Jacked, cut, ripped or swoll?
- I think they're all pretty good, but jacked.
- [Interviewer] If you could work out with
anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be?
- Dwayne Johnson. Dwayne comment below.
Okay guys, hopefully you enjoyed
my refrigerator and this outdoor gym.
Let's just be honest. I'm not really sweating
and I've been talking about sweating.
I haven't done the workout yet.
I'm going to do it. You can stick around for that,
but I heard the crews got to go.
See ya.
(upbeat music)