About

Jerzy Gregorek has lived one of the most extraordinary lives of any coach or philosopher. As a four-time world weightlifting champion, political refugee, poet, author, and co-founder of The Happy Body, he blends physical training with deeply philosophical thinking.

ABOUT THE HAPPY BODY:

The Happy Body’s mission is to end our culture of waste and to support communities and individuals of any age to create more pleasurable, youthful lives.

Aniela and Jerzy Gregorek came to the United States from Poland in 1986 as political refugees during the Solidarity Movement. As a professional athlete, Aniela has won five World Weightlifting Championships and established six world records. Jerzy has won four World Weightlifting Championships and established one world record. They have also been professional coaches and personal trainers since coming to the United States. In 2000, they founded the UCLA weightlifting team and became its head coaches.

Over the years, they have transformed hundreds of people, from housewives and physicians to athletes and celebrities, who came to them with every conceivable body shape and desire. Some wanted to improve their athletic performance; others had never trained before and wanted to lose weight and be attractive; still others just wanted to be able to get down on the floor and play with their grandchildren.

But regardless of the words they used to explain why they wanted coaching, there was a clear pattern in their motivations: Everyone wanted to be youthful. Aniela and Jerzy have devoted the last three decades of their lives to finding solutions to this universal goal. In the course of this search, they invented The Happy Body program.