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Improve Your Flexibility In Just 15 Minutes with Weightlifting Champion Jerzy Gregorek - E86
39 Plays1 month ago
Realising we’re losing flexibility as we age is often when we feel our oldest. Feeling stiff, sluggish, and limited, it’s one of the major signs that our body isn’t what it used to be.
The constant pull of work, stress, and old injuries keeps most from regaining true freedom of movement, and even daily stretching often fails to deliver lasting results. Progress happens only when you commit to the right kind of practice - quick, consistent, and grounded in both research and lifelong experience.
In this episode, you'll learn how to unlock mobility and strength in just 15 minutes a day, avoiding all the short-term fixes and fads. You'll hear from a four-time World Weightlifting Champion, who has dedicated his to create a routine that works for everyone, and allows for powerful, pain-free living
Jerzy Gregorek is a four-time World Weightlifting Champion, poet, and co-author of ‘The Happy Body’. A former political exile and recovering alcoholic, he rebuilt his life through discipline, developing a program that blends mindful exercise, micro progression, and emotional intelligence to reverse aging and restore vitality. Featured on The Tim Ferriss Show and other platforms, Jerzy now mentors globally, helping people embrace strength, balance, and longevity.
“So the wisdom here in life is to focus on the weakest link, make it focus, right? And then work on it and wait until everything else catches up.” - Jerzy Gregorek
In this episode you will learn:
- Why the Happy Body method is seen as athletic lifestyle medicine, not just a tool to fix problems.
- How daily routines build compound gains for strength, mobility, and vitality.
- The importance of flexibility and mobility for lasting health and real agility.
- What exercise ratios teach us about safe and balanced movement.
- How to use the Happy Body daily, even with other sports or routines.
- Tips for lasting motivation and reclaiming health at any age.
Resources
- Connect with Jerzy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jerzygregorek
- Buy Jerzy’s book, ‘The Happy Body’: https://www.amazon.com/Happy-Body-Nutrition-Exercise-Relaxation/dp/0982403828/
- Learn more about The Happy Body programme and guide: https://thehappybody.com/
This podcast was produced by the team at Zapods Podcast Agency:
Find the products, practices, and routines discussed on the Alively website:
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Transcript
Introduction to Happy Body & Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
It becomes the tool that the person loves to have and also understands that this really helped. I have clients that they were coming back, like they stopped the happy body and came back.
00:00:12
Speaker
And when they came back, everyone said the same thing. I've never felt better than when I was doing the happy body.
00:00:23
Speaker
This is the Home of Healthspan podcast, where we profile health and wellness role models, sharing their stories and the tools, practices, and routines they use to live a lively life.
00:00:37
Speaker
Jersey, this is a particular honor to have you on today. i am a longtime follower of your book and practitioner of
Meet Jersey: Mentor & Coach
00:00:46
Speaker
your exercise. But before we get into what that is and the whole happy body methodology, how would you describe yourself?
00:00:55
Speaker
I'm a lively and mentor, coach, um happy husband, um devoted to
00:01:07
Speaker
father, dad. um I love people and I love finding solutions for problems, whatever we have.
00:01:21
Speaker
And I am crazy with finding those solutions and getting more knowledge, getting more experience, getting practice and developing different better habits.
00:01:39
Speaker
Good. That's probably it. I think it's also a beautiful illustration of Arthur Brooks talks about our resume traits or our resume kind of bullets and descriptors versus our eulogy descriptors. And I noticed you did not put in four-time world champion, ah world record holder, any of those things in defining who you are as a person.
00:02:07
Speaker
right These are things you have done, but your identity it is tied to this impact on the world as well. So I find that just the way you did that was was beautiful.
00:02:19
Speaker
i I think that the biggest story is to be the inspiration, be motivation to the world, to people. care for the planet.
00:02:31
Speaker
So, you know, achievements are great things, but these are the helpers, I would say, with how to do what is the hardest.
00:02:44
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I see behind you the hard choices, easy life, easy choices, hard life. right like Yeah, that's bigger than anything,
Philosophy & Practice of Happy Body
00:02:52
Speaker
right? Because this is how um had to live life.
00:02:58
Speaker
Like Naval Ravikant said, you know, Jersey gave me four words. Hard choice is your life. And he told me how to live life. Yeah, it's, uh, and Naval, it was actually, mean, I originally learned about happy bodies from Tim Ferriss as I think so many things in my life, I learned about it.
00:03:18
Speaker
And as soon as he said, Hey, you know, this is the thing i I really need to get back to more. I always, my body feels better. I'm happier when I do it. And so I bought the book immediately and started doing it. And then it was Naval's brother, I think also references you in his book.
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah. um And so you've, you've definitely impacted some of the people who have impacted other people as well. So as a mentor, you know, you think about your coaching tree. It's it's pretty incredible. Yeah, but then there is the Havivade, you know, like yeah the Havivade is something that exists, like has its existential presence.
00:03:53
Speaker
And it really doesn't care about me at all. So ah I need to practice too. So I practice this every day. So if I don't practice, I really don't get the benefits of it. So it's to is there something that's there, like yoga is there.
00:04:09
Speaker
bad If you practice yoga, you get the benefits of yoga. So the happy body is that way. It's like ah you know it's like ah the practice is there, the wisdom is there, the the plan is there, strategies are there, tactics and so on.
00:04:27
Speaker
And it's really up to us whether we practice that or not. And then how to get to that message. actually to get the message that it's a good thing to practice it.
00:04:41
Speaker
Well, that's the first message really that needs to be somehow delivered if we care for people. And then the next message is, you know, how to actually make it happen, and how to motivate yourself on a daily basis, how to like something that you repeat over and over and why.
00:05:01
Speaker
So the the why is important here because once we deliver the why than people bear anyhow.
00:05:12
Speaker
They're okay, that is hard choices, but they have to understand why we are doing it. And from the certain perspective, that is, em embraceable On that, I mean, when we talk about the happy body methodology and principles, can you define that? I mean, obviously, you know, as someone who owns a book and does it, it's clear to me. But for our listeners, can you just introduce the the concepts, please?
00:05:38
Speaker
I yeah recently think about it as athletic lifestyle medicine. So why I like it that way?
00:05:50
Speaker
Because it is medicine because it helps us to heal, it helps us to get better, and it is lifestyle because it is respond to the lifestyle ah conditions, problems, chronic problems.
00:06:08
Speaker
And because the chronic problems are usually lifestyle causes. So um we need lifestyle solution for that.
00:06:21
Speaker
So he said in a way what Einstein said, insanity is to keep doing the same and except expect different results. So we get stuck in that. And so we need a different lifestyle.
00:06:33
Speaker
So the happy body is just respond to to people's problems and to people's chronic problems of pain and and degradation and and body breaking.
00:06:51
Speaker
So would they can heal, they can get better. But that's not really enough. You know, for a while i thought about that the happy body is a lifestyle medicine, but it is not because it also makes us better than ever.
00:07:07
Speaker
And that is a kind of athletic pursuit, something that has that compound interest built in. in the development of skills and and improvement.
00:07:19
Speaker
So I like it to call it athletic ah lifestyle medicine. Yeah, I like that because i if I understand the distinction you're making, I mean, when it's just lifestyle medicine, especially in Western culture where medicine, the thought is, hey, we treat sickness.
00:07:37
Speaker
So when it's just lifestyle medicine, the idea is, hey, we're treating what's already gone wrong in the body just to get back to land, right? Like just to this low level base, that's the ceiling.
00:07:48
Speaker
And you're saying, no no, no, this unlocks this new potential that is thriving. These bodies meant to move and be strong and feel great and energetic. And that's truly what you're delivering.
00:07:59
Speaker
Yeah, so it's improvement that is based on doing over and over the same thing, but also accumulating something. too To understand that, I like to explain the idea of investing money.
Exercise Techniques & Their Impact
00:08:17
Speaker
So if you have $5 and invest every day, and after about 30, 40 years, you have $70,000, let's say.
00:08:26
Speaker
But if you invest this money with 10% interest, then compound interest creates almost $1 million after the same period of time.
00:08:39
Speaker
So that's clear that 10% is a good thing. Now, the 10% is yeah something that is... dangerous too, because if you engage yourself in 10%, you can lose money if you don't know how to really invest money.
00:08:57
Speaker
The same if you exercise wrongly, you you injure yourself. So if you meditate wrongly, also you can have problems with how you create anxiety during the meditation.
00:09:13
Speaker
With food it's the same thing. So there is a certain compound interest building the happy body. So you practice it and you get better over time and over time more, more, more. And you create this athletic or artistic practice, let's say playing piano and the compound interest happens, you get better and better.
00:09:39
Speaker
To also understand it from a different perspective, perspective let look at all athletes, let's say track and field athletes. They do. They are all different.
00:09:50
Speaker
Some of them, they jump. Some of them, they run very fast. Some of them throw things. But they are like a pole vaulter. Pole vaulter practice over and over and over the same. One thing only.
00:10:04
Speaker
And because of that one thing, that whole water becomes this incredible ah specimen of you know power, flexibility, strength, and beauty, and on and on and on.
00:10:18
Speaker
But we know, we look at the same way on the long jump or, you know, like a jubilee, and then we see the same thing. so I understood that people bo need to have the compound interest, do over and over the same, and add certain things peripherally to whatever they do, and then they will get that compound interest eventually.
00:10:45
Speaker
If they change, they will never get it. So if they jump between the skills, they do a little bit yoga for two years, and they shift to the happy body for two years, and then shift again to something else, they will never really experience the compound interest after five years.
00:11:03
Speaker
And that is an amazing specimen because, you know, to create an athlete takes about five to 10 years. And we need that. But we need that also for the compound interest and that feeling of power after this kind of improvement.
00:11:23
Speaker
Well, it's power, but it's also strength and mobility. That's one of the things I really like about the program. It's not just about loading more weight. A lot of it is expanding the mobility, at least for me, right? Like the, especially on squats and the overhead squats at much more limited range. I could go technically like do a back squat and do heavier weight, but I didn't have the range that happy bodies helped me build up. And so it's not just, not just the power, maybe it's the same thing, but power is,
00:11:51
Speaker
in a wider range of motion and in movement and flexibility. Well, the first is the capability of the body to deliver the skill. So if you ask, let's say, a person to do the snatch, but the body is not capable actually to do because of the flexibility, so you need to develop first flexibility so that the hobby body is focusing first on where is flexibility, where is limitation,
00:12:22
Speaker
and how to start the improvement of flexibility to the perfection, to the place where actually a person can do overhead squat freely, go down, press, stand up.
00:12:34
Speaker
And that is a final flexibility test for starting, let's say, Olympic weightlifting or improvement of the strength and speed within that if somebody doesn't want Olympic weightlifting.
00:12:48
Speaker
Flexibility is just the capability of the muscle to stretch and permit the movement. their mobility is is The mobility is the movement of the bones without obstruction.
00:13:01
Speaker
So mobility is different than flexibility. So if you have obstruction, let's say in the joint, the bone spares or something, so there is more there is no mobility. You can be flexible, but not mobile.
00:13:15
Speaker
or you can be mobile, but if you don't have flexibility, you will not move. So i mean we need the those two in order to create agility.
00:13:27
Speaker
Another you know thing that actually flexibility and mobility works together and we actually can move in every direction and so on So the happy body first focuses on flexibility, mobility, and then once we have it we can actually do complex movement.
00:13:48
Speaker
That makes a lot of sense. I didn't realize those distinctions, the flexibility, mobility to lead to agility. And then that's that's the ah athleticism, I guess, that you're referencing.
00:13:59
Speaker
Right. So if you don't have agility, you need to look into flexibility and mobility that is there. And then if the flexibility and mobility is there, then you can start in improving the strength and the speed of the movement and then creating power.
00:14:16
Speaker
I mean, I dig ah your background, right? World record holder, four-time world champion and in this specialization, right? Yeah. 10 years, a decade of just like focused, very specialist.
00:14:28
Speaker
And then this transition to athletic lifestyle medicine, right? for For people of, hey, I'm going to specialize you for a strong, vital life.
00:14:40
Speaker
and And what... when you were moving from one to the other of like, Hey, I want to eat enable and give people this capability. How did you identify the exercises that go in? I mean, technically, I guess it's 18, but there are a lot that are kind of built on each other. So I don't know it from the book. Right.
00:15:02
Speaker
It's kind of three sets of six, but some are very similar to each other, kind of built up. How did you pick the ones that comprise? Well, what made it in there?
00:15:13
Speaker
The most powerful exercise on the planet is a snatch. So if you can perform that, ah you have capabilities of improvement of any power and skills of any sport.
00:15:28
Speaker
So now if you think about the snatch is a kind of a statistic, a static movement would be squat press.
00:15:39
Speaker
So you will squat with the bar, press stand up, very difficult, right? It's very hard. That's by far the hardest in the program. That exercise became the focus of the happy body and the focus on actually ah deliver possibility to actually do that before we do Olympic weightlifting.
00:16:01
Speaker
So as I coached people for 40 years and they wanted, you know, different thanks They wanted to either be beautiful, strong, pain-free body, capable, ah aging powerfully.
00:16:17
Speaker
So there were different reasons. But if I follow that and the power, if I follow the flexibility, mobility, agility, and so on, they were getting better and everything was happening.
00:16:33
Speaker
So day the focus became more on the snatch and capability of the snatch eventually. This is like a one power. But the happy body ends on the squat press.
00:16:46
Speaker
It's a overhead squat press. And that is the king of the happy body. All the 17 exercises. are there for that one to happen.
00:16:57
Speaker
So that one challenges every inch of the body system. So ah you have to be flexible in the ankles, in the knees, in the hips, the whole spine has to be really flexible back and forth and the shoulders, the elbows, the wrists, everything has to be flexible in order to, and mobile, in order to create that movement.
00:17:24
Speaker
So when you when a person practices the happy body, finds limitations. I cannot squat all the way down, but I can squat to 17 inches.
00:17:36
Speaker
Okay, I see the problem here. I see resistance.
Daily Practice & Long-term Benefits
00:17:40
Speaker
So I practice it. I practice it for two weeks. Oh, I feel better. there You know, the whole detention vanished.
00:17:48
Speaker
So now I can go to 16 and a half inches. And that opens the possibility for micro progression. Right. And then you go every two weeks, three weeks, you go half an inch down, down, down, down. down And eventually, you know, you end up.
00:18:04
Speaker
without any box, any limitations, you are free to perform the movement. And as you perform the movement of the overhead squat press, then that creates the possibility for the strength and power and so on. If you want to stay and practice that one and 17 others,
00:18:28
Speaker
You create for yu yourself the music to repeat. It's beautiful music music, capability of getting stronger within that movement and doing quicker even the exercises that creates the power.
00:18:46
Speaker
And yeah because it's the The compound interest after 10 years or 20 years, the body really loves the music. The body really and that it likes to practice it.
00:19:00
Speaker
So when you are 90 and when you wake up and you may, you might be stiff or something, if you go and over through the happy body,
00:19:11
Speaker
within 10, 15 minutes, it will restore any stiffness or tightness that could be developed because of of you being in bed, been sleeping certain way or whatever it is.
00:19:25
Speaker
So restores you for the day. And that this familiarity of that also creates that possibility for the person when you actually do that, find out where the soreness is, where the tension is, something new happened there and release that. That's the medicine of the oh to happy body.
00:19:47
Speaker
yeah The body is is because of the data accumulated over long periods of time, The person knows the body and knows when the body loses limitation, loses that it faces limitation and that limitation was not yesterday, but it is today, or the soreness is there, or something that happens, that obstruction.
00:20:13
Speaker
And then the person can release that because of the happy body. Within two, three minutes, it's gone. But if that was something that would not be tested on a daily basis, it could hang on for a week or two and become the problem and not in the body.
00:20:35
Speaker
That could take weeks or months to heal. So, you know, you reference yoga and people might have a yoga practice. They say, Hey, look, I need, I need this, whether it's mentally, physically X times a week, or they may love cycling or running or swimming, or they're training for a triathlon where they may have a a weightlifting practice and they have a routine there.
00:20:58
Speaker
What is the frequency that you suggest people do happy body? I mean, is it you need to to get the benefit? It's a minimum of this many times a week. Is it you need to do it every day? and Realistically, with trying to fold it into other things they have, what what is that cadence?
00:21:17
Speaker
So if you um don't have any other sports, you just live life and have the happy body, then you do it every day.
00:21:27
Speaker
and you do it in a way that ah practice to actually become better over time. So that compound interest, you learn how to really engage.
00:21:40
Speaker
If you have other sports, and like I do Olympic weightlifting, somebody can do skiing or right like you said, you run a marathon whatever it is that you do. dead I do the happy body only 15 minutes.
00:22:01
Speaker
after the after whatever I do Olympic weightlifting. And I do is for me to have the body's internal massage, but not only, but it's also a tool to decode or discover problems that I could accumulate during my training.
00:22:20
Speaker
So let's say I find the shoulders and I'm stretching and I say, well, it was not there yesterday, but it's today. after cycling, let's say somebody for two hours, doesn't know that the back is ah in pain.
00:22:38
Speaker
But once the person does the happy body, finds the limitation, tension, pain of the back or whatever, and through the movement can release it.
00:22:48
Speaker
So the happy body works like this internal massage and It becomes this daily medicine to release any problems that could be accumulated during the practice and training of the sport that somebody does.
00:23:08
Speaker
And so when you say you do it for 15 minutes every day, so after after other things you're doing, you throw this... Yes, right away when I do Olympic weightlifting, I go on there through these 18 exercises, only three repetition each one, and that that helps me to know whether I accumulated something or I didn't.
00:23:31
Speaker
If I did, then I focus to release it. he said If I didn't, then it's fine. That's what it ends. It can be even 10 minutes that I go through.
00:23:42
Speaker
It's like you know you would do the stretches, after the finishing your your training or before that. the happy body helps me to know that no problems no problems are there in the body after the training.
00:23:59
Speaker
It's six reps of each of the 18 exercises three times through. And you were able to get through that in 15 minutes. that i no i don't have new goal I do only one round only.
00:24:09
Speaker
Oh, okay. i understand. This takes me way longer. No, no. For people that really... you know, for athletes that they use the happy body, they use it only for record to, to find out whether something is wrong. Okay.
00:24:26
Speaker
Okay. So I go on the three repetitions, every exercise and I finish. So if i if let's say I go standing tall and nothing is there, then I go to another one, three repetitions, every one. If I find something, then I work on it. I could stay with that exercise a little bit longer, do six repetitions or take a break and do another six to ah release, to find out how to release that.
00:24:55
Speaker
There's some problems that accumulated in my body during the training. Yeah, it's, ah you know, my my daughter's nine and she comes to the gym with me each week for one day. And because the other day she does football. So she's playing a ton of that. She had gotten into long jumping and high jumping. And so we had gotten...
00:25:17
Speaker
exercises on YouTube on, okay, for a track and field, like these are explosive or jumping, but I'm wondering if something like this would make a lot more sense foundational, but also the power of doing the same thing instead of it changing each week, whatever we're doing, having something that she can see herself get better, get stronger, get more flexible. Do you,
00:25:38
Speaker
i I know on the cover you have, i want to say your granddaughter, like, do you have an age that you say, Hey, you shouldn't really be doing these movements before. Is this like, look, it's a happy body for any age. You could do these movements. You just don't necessarily weight load them.
00:25:51
Speaker
Well, you know I have a wooden bars that I created for ah girls that do gymnastics and they are three years old. So three years old already.
00:26:03
Speaker
and do the happy body or they can do the snatches. And it's actually amazing to to see the body that can perform.
00:26:14
Speaker
But, you know, there can be five year olds that already lost flexibility. Yeah. So, um and if If flexibility is not sustained, then we lose it.
00:26:28
Speaker
And um I see when I go sometimes to elementary school and see six, seven, eight year old, and Many of them, they cannot bend down and touch the floor and cannot sit without raising the heels. They are already inflexible.
00:26:46
Speaker
They are already stiff. So it's not like old people are stiff. Kids are stiff too. and We don't have the lifestyle. you see that We don't have the lifestyle of supporting agility or mobility or you know flexibility.
00:27:02
Speaker
If anything, it seems to be getting worse. I mean, in the sense of sitting was always a problem, right? Chairs are not natural. When we, if you go to Asia, other parts of the world, they squat. So everybody, an 80 year old can do heel to butt squat because they have to, to go to the toilet and everything. Like do you have that. Yeah, yeah yes but it's not, they are starting removing those things and and people lose this capability when You know, you practice it and how you can daily practice something. It has to be daily. That's why we decided that the happy body is a daily practice, like brushing your teeth. And ah if you if a person can do it on a daily basis, then ah the person needs only to find how to practice it and enjoy it.
00:27:53
Speaker
So all of it has to be done the way that you really like to stretch, you know, to connect to the movement and like to move and and stretch and feel good because of it.
00:28:07
Speaker
Now, once a person finds it, then the person wants to go back. and And, you know, once the person gets the idea of the flexibility, how great it is, like how we feel When everything is free, there we don't have pain, we don't have stiffness, the body is mobile everywhere, in every direction. That's a good life.
00:28:31
Speaker
I do think it's a real missed opportunity for a lot of people because the thing is, it unless it's a a serious injury...
00:28:42
Speaker
Right. it It doesn't happen overnight. It's not an inflection point. And so it's, it's this long time building an 10 year old who's lost mobility and flexibility doesn't remember what she could do it to.
00:28:54
Speaker
And her flexibility, she just, it happened day by day, just the tiniest bit. And so it's just, this is normal. And then especially you get to your thirties, forties, fifties, you say, well, I feel fine. Cause it's how you remember feeling every day.
00:29:08
Speaker
And you don't realize, wait there's this whole other feeling of getting out of bed and feeling energized and excited to take on and unlocking this vitality that is there in ours for the taking if we do the right things.
00:29:24
Speaker
Yeah, when you get there to that to the place, the body craves their happy body. craves to go and move and unlock itself, right, if something is not right. Let's say foggy brain, you know, that kind of tired and exhausted. But when you... ah When you go to the gym and after 10 minutes you release the foggy brain, then you know, the person knows that, oh, I go to the gym, and my foggy brain is gone.
00:29:55
Speaker
So then it builds up. So then also motivates strongly a person. OK, I know, yeah I go to the happy body, all will be gone. The same with the shoulder pains, the back pains, and all the problems of the body that they take can be released.
00:30:12
Speaker
And the person develops the data. Once the person develops the data, this kind of a data, that person is motivated and loves the habit, loves the routine, because then goes to the gym and moves and can release problems, can also improve over time.
00:30:32
Speaker
So it becomes the tool that the person loves to have and also understands the compound interest and understands that this really helps.
00:30:44
Speaker
i I have clients that they were coming back like they stopped the happy birthday and came back. And when they came back, they said everyone said the same thing. I've never felt better than when I was doing the happy birthday.
00:30:58
Speaker
It is a funny thing that the most important lessons in life aren't the new ones we learn. It's the ones we've learned and forgot and we have to relearn. Right. So, so many things we we know and then we lose it over a time. We get back like, oh yeah, this, this was way better. Why why did I stop doing this? This is so great. And this a good thing. It's a message, right? So once you get, get the message that you were doing something and you felt good, then you want to go back.
00:31:26
Speaker
And that is already a great experience. Because you know that something works from experience point of view, not the idea of point of view that, oh, it's a good thing to do the happy body. If you've never done the happy body, then it's an idea, right? But it' once once you practice the happy body and you ah come to the point that the body likes it,
00:31:51
Speaker
You feel
Independence in Practice & Mastery
00:31:52
Speaker
good. And then you get bored, right? And then you stop it. It's boring doing the same thing, thatha da, da, da. But after a year or two, you get worse.
00:32:02
Speaker
And you just think, well, I felt so good when I was doing the Ivy Valley. So you, OK, you go back and you have a different perspective now. You have a perspective of the one that appreciates the happy body.
00:32:15
Speaker
You have now you appreciate the movement, the patterns, and you start learning a a different perspective. You become the master, the owner of your own improvement, your own practice. It's yours now.
00:32:32
Speaker
It's not Jersey anymore. It's you, yours. And that's why, you know, the happy body purpose is independence. it's a It's something that anybody can take and create this fantastic ah lifestyle for themselves.
00:32:49
Speaker
And that's the beauty of it, that, you know, and focus on practice, focus on improvement, become the independent from everything else.
00:32:59
Speaker
and experience this music, this music playing over time every day and become like a pianist that, you know, get better and better and you get better and better. in it And your body is the piano, is the instrument.
00:33:15
Speaker
And it's also getting better because of the playing it. Yeah. On, on, you referenced the data. And one of the things I find interesting in the program is the, the specific ratios you have of, Hey, you have a base level weight and then use half that weight for this exercise and 1.25 or 1.5 for this and 2 X for this.
00:33:38
Speaker
How did you determine the ratios of weights for the different exercises? Yeah. Well, it's the balance of the strength of different muscle groups.
00:33:52
Speaker
So let's say the the shoulders, the shoulder the press is, let's say, in order to and do the a clean and jerk, you have to have a 58% power to press the bar behind the neck, right?
00:34:09
Speaker
So then ah that capability has to be developed before. So when you imagine snatch, let's say, then there are a lot of different exercises supporting that.
00:34:23
Speaker
squat, presses, deadlifts, and so on. And those exercises, they have percentages. how What is the percentage, let's say, of cleaner ja clean and jerk versus the squat? it Well, it's 127%.
00:34:41
Speaker
So Olympic weightlifters' data already found that you need 127% of the clean and jerk in order to approach clean and jerk, right? So let's say if you if you want to clean and jerk 100 pounds, you should be able to squat on 127 pounds.
00:35:00
Speaker
And the same goes with pools and everything else. Everything is percentages and develop over 100 years of practicing Olympic weightlifting. So coaches know that.
00:35:11
Speaker
So they have to we achieve every percentage percentage is in different pools and presses and squats before they actually permit the lifter to attack directly.
00:35:27
Speaker
So it has to be ready. The flexibility is also element that needs to be there. So there are exercises for flexibility, there are exercises from agility, and you you can imagine a sprinter. Let's say a sprinter is getting to break the personal record, but the personal record has to include flexibility that supporting the improvement of speed.
00:35:55
Speaker
If it's not there, the sprinter can pull the hamstring or Achilles. So the coach has to know how much flexibility that sprinter needs before that sprinter goes 100% in the competition and possibly breaks the record.
00:36:17
Speaker
So it's it's a very balance of many things around that a coach needs to have complete this imagination of everything, how everything works.
00:36:31
Speaker
And for an individual, right? So someone coming in new to this, it may have had a program before and have imbalances, right? Maybe they they don't have the the mobility and flexibility and they can't do the squat, but they're really strong upper her body. They were just so focused.
00:36:45
Speaker
So they're trying to back out on their row weights or what they can do on the bicep or tricep or mountain. But then, whoa, they can't do the multiple of that first for some of the the squats in the overhead. Do you say go down to your weakest and use that as the base and go around? Or do you keep the higher weight and adjust the the mobility? So you say, hey, it's going to be 17 inches. We're not going down to 14, but keep the higher weight.
00:37:12
Speaker
How would you ah suggest people approach It's music, right? So you play piano, let's say, and one finger doesn't work. All right. So when you play, you wait for that finger to work.
00:37:24
Speaker
And the other pieces of music are not really getting better. You know, everything works and and waits for the finger to work, to get in. and So ah the pianist works and works until until the the weakest link becomes better and matches the links of the chain.
00:37:45
Speaker
So that and the wisdom is here in life is to focus on the weakest link, make it, focus, right? And then work on it and wait until everything else, you know, catches up.
00:38:03
Speaker
So coaches, when they find out that, let's say, squat is the weakest weak as exercise yeah in the athlete, and the athlete needs more strength than speed, focuses on the strength first.
00:38:18
Speaker
But then when the coach finds out that the speed is weak, then focus on on speed until everything matches itself. So in the heavy body,
00:38:30
Speaker
we There are many ways to approach. you can a A person can approach ah getting stronger within the certain limitations. Let's say squat press to the 17 inches, squat and press, but the flexibility only is permitted to the 17 inches.
00:38:48
Speaker
But the person can get stronger ah meantime before the flexibility improves in that. Between the exercises important because the body is the balance of many muscles and strength of the muscles. So it is important to follow the the percentages.
00:39:09
Speaker
Let's say if I do the opening wide, it's this one, I'm not going to be as strong as in this one, right? So it will be a certain percentage and that creates safety.
00:39:22
Speaker
ma Right. All the safety. So we don't progress too much. ah My experience ah about that was when I work in the gold gym in ah in North Hollywood, there was this weightlifter who loved to do tricep.
00:39:43
Speaker
And he was doing tricep weaving, 200 pounds. But he was not able to press 200 pounds. And pressing 200 pounds, should he should press more in the press than actually tricep and even less in the bicep.
00:39:58
Speaker
So then, but he loved the tricep. I said, hey, yeah you're going to injure yourself because your shoulders are not really matching the power. So the shoulders should have more power than the tricep.
00:40:11
Speaker
I said, yeah, I'd love to do this. i said And he got injured. He tore his, you know, shoulder, leg room, and, you know, got really um himself into the surgeries and so on.
00:40:24
Speaker
And I said, okay, did you get a message? Yeah, I got the message. And after half a year, I see him doing the same thing. He's like, I went to him and said, well, you didn't you didn't really learn from what you experienced before.
00:40:41
Speaker
ah yeah, it's it's going to work. yeah know It's going to be good. I love it And he introduced himself again. So, you see, there is a ah strength of every movement, and the strength of every movement has the certain percentages.
00:40:58
Speaker
It's like the body is and this machine, yeah but all the wheels and everything else has the certain strength, like in the engines. Certain wheels are smaller and bigger and so on, but everything works perfectly.
00:41:14
Speaker
And that's how the happy body was designed, to deliver the the the power everywhere, that the links are equal to each other, and the person can wait for one weak spot to to catch up with the others and create this beautiful all machine that works perfectly.
00:41:40
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the not a great analogy, but they say if you you want to go fast, go alone, right? So if you want to go fast, you get in big triceps, just like work the triceps. But if you want to go far and not get injured, you have to work together. You have to move as the slowest one. you Exactly. You have to be this 10% compound interest and and know when it's too much.
00:42:01
Speaker
And when it's not enough,
Further Resources & Conclusion
00:42:04
Speaker
right? Because you can you can exercise for 10 years and never get better. that's the whole compound interest idea. yeah Well, Jersey, this has been incredible junkia.
00:42:16
Speaker
ah This, ah the happy body, the symphony, everything playing in concert and making some beautiful athletic medicine therapy for life. It's a, it's a real gift of what you've provided to the world for anyone who wants to learn more about you, more about the happy body methodology and and how they can implement this in their own life. Where, where should they look and find you?
00:42:41
Speaker
Well, the website is the the best. Everything is there when, you know, the book is there and the videos are there and all the messages will be posting there.
00:42:53
Speaker
The other is the Facebook, the Happy Body also, or Jersey Gregorik Facebook. So this is the, you know, ah best, ah the beginning how to begin really a contact.
00:43:07
Speaker
You can send me email. it goes If you go to the webpage, it goes to me. So if people have questions or they want to create something more powerful than the Happy Body, I have also Happy Body Elite group that I coach.
00:43:25
Speaker
on a weekly basis for a year. so it's ah there is a way. also I'm using the balancing boards if people are bored. So i this is going to come, then I expand. So a lot of people really feel like the happy party is too easy.
00:43:48
Speaker
and in a way too easy is is more boring than easy because once you really get everything, it's not so easy. But standing on the balancing board creates a lot of more challenges and wakes up the nervous system and it's not easy and anymore at all.
00:44:07
Speaker
And it doesn't matter which exercise.
00:44:14
Speaker
some Some real goals, I guess, for me in 2026 to try to get to using the balancing board. Yeah, I use the balancing boards with athletes that are extreme in the speed and agility like hockey players, as skiers,
00:44:30
Speaker
and um what surfers, and all those you know people that need extreme balance and speed. It makes a lot of sense. Well, thank you. I mean, from the elite of the elite to the rest of us, the ability to tap into the happy body that's our vessel that we have the ability to access.
00:44:52
Speaker
I just want to thank you again for everything you've done. And I look forward to following this next phase and into the elite world as well. Thank you, Andrea, and appreciate to be here. And let's talk in a year and see how the practice goes, how the data is, and talk more about it, right?
00:45:11
Speaker
Sounds great. Thanks, Jersey. Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Home of Healthspan podcast. And remember, you can always find the products, practices, and routines mentioned by today's guests, as well as many other Healthspan role models on Alively.com.
00:45:26
Speaker
Enjoy a lively day.