Background, and getting started

Looking for a sustainable baseline exercise routine you can do at home, and when traveling without a gym (where you can do the exercises without dumbbells)? If so, I highly recommend The Happy Body program, created by Aniela & Jerzy Gregorek—both multiple winners of World Weightlifting Championships. 2/3 of the exercises use dumbbells, and 1/3 are floor exercises without weights. The program is done 7 days a week, for 30 minutes. To keep it sustainable, do it early (before breakfast).

The program is used to improve and maintain flexibility, posture, and strength—and in the process, reduce inflammation. You leave your session feeling good, and energized.

You customize the dumbbell weight sets for your abilities (the goal is not massive weight lifting), and there are different forms of the exercises depending on your ability, and you then increase the dumbbell weights and do the more advanced forms of the exercises as you progress. The program is meant to be doable and joyful.

There are also nutritional and aspects of the program, and a life philosophy of: “Hard Choices, Easy Life. Easy Choices, Hard Life.”

Simply doing the program daily brings tangible benefits, and you can do other work in addition if you wish (other forms of stretching/yoga; Tai Chi, Qigong, etc.; resistance training; high intensity interval training (HIIT); cardio; walking/biking/hiking/sports, etc.)

The main book can be purchased here. This, and other product links, are Amazon affiliate links of mine, and I earn a (quite) small commission for any sales, which helps pay for my web services. The cost of the book through the link is the same as buying it without the link.

Equipment

If traveling, you can do the program with no equipment at all—just use your hands as dumbbells (or use gym dumbbells if your hotel has a gym). You’ll need dumbbells for your home; the rest of the equipment listed here can be useful, but you can add it if/as you find the need.

• Minimal equipment needed: Four sets of dumbbells (of different weights) for the program. Here’s one of the sets I bought (there are other brands, of course), but before you buy, you’ll need to determine (from the book) which weights sets you’ll need as a starter set.
• Yoga or exercise mat can be nice to have for the floor exercises, especially if you are exercising on a hard floor.
• Besides the stackable blocks shown in the book for alternative forms of the Tower exercises (that involve squatting) and Rocking Trunk, a collapsible stool can be useful.
• Sturdy stand to elevate and support all your weights allows you to easily pick up and set down weights (without having them on the ground) when starting and finishing exercises that use weights.
• Jump box to do standing stretches where you lean forward holding dumbbells, and lower your arms outside of the box below your feet. This requires advanced flexibility, so don’t buy a box for this purpose unless/until you have that. And be careful to not fall off the box.
• “The Happy Body” poster (photos of the parts of all the exercises) can be purchased through The Happy Body site (see following), and hung on a wall for reference, when doing the program.

The Happy Body site is where to go if curious about the program, or want to find related learning resources, equipment, etc. A good (although long) (YouTube) video explaining the program is here.

Additional resources

A May 14, 2026 podcast episode on The Tim Ferris Show, “The Most Incredible Transformation I’ve Ever Seen — Jerzy Gregorek on Cerebral Palsy and Coaching”, and includes a link to a Cerebral Palsy Research Project: “… a potential research project inspired by Prisoner No More and the work of Olympic weightlifting coach Jerzy Gregorek.”