Rob Gronkowski wants to live to be a hundred years old. Well, who wouldn’t? In Gronk’s case, though, that may prove a tough ask, considering all those hits his body endured during his years as an NFL tight end, which may have knocked a few years off. And his party habits probably didn’t help matters either. But then he seems to have a plan up his sleeve.
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He wants to jet off to Japan. But not to take in the lights of Tokyo, or take the bullet train to Kyoto, or do any of the normal, touristy things. No, sir. Gronk wants to visit a “Blue Zone”, a geographic region that is home to some of the world’s oldest people.
But there is a Blue Zone in the USA as well. So why Japan? Well, Gronk seems to have a fascination for the Oriental culture. Gronkowski’s surprising admission came on the latest episode of the Dudes on Dudes podcast.
He and Julian Edelman were answering a fan’s voicemail that asked where in Asia they’d want to visit. Edelman listed South Korea and China alongside Japan, but Gronkowski has his heart set solely on the land where people have a life expectancy of over 100 years.
“I want to go to a Blue Zone in Japan… where the people like all live over a hundred years old. [It’s known] for a very healthy environment. I just want to pick up their skills and traits… what they do and what type of lifestyle they live. And why they live for so long,” he confessed.
According to healthline.com, Blue Zone refers to “geographic areas in which people have low rates of chronic disease and live longer than anywhere else.” Explorer Dan Buettner coined the phrase, identifying five Blue Zones across the world, including one in Japan. And there is one in California!
The zones are in Icaria (Greece), Ogliastra, Sardinia (Italy), Okinawa (Japan), Nicoya Peninsula (Costa Rica), and Loma Linda in California (USA).
Diet forms an important factor in the life expectancy of people in the Blue Zone. Gronkowski has practiced Tom Brady’s TB12 diet before and still follows most of its principles to this day. “Just learning from him (Tom Brady) and how to take care of your body is just a great process. It’s unreal to learn from him,” Gronk said in October 2019 about why he decided to choose the TB12 way of living.
Edelman, on the other hand, hasn’t ever followed the notorious plan. He’d rather go somewhere that “still trains Samurais.” This means he and Gronkowski can plan a joint trip and tick at least one item off the bucket list this offseason.
