Bruce Lee's Training

**FingerorMoon?** · Posted On: 9/03/2003 8:12pm

The book TB Master has listed above -

"The Art of Expressing the Human Body"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0804831297/qid=1062637866/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-4347377-9569641?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

is the book you are talking about.
Written by John Little and taken from Lee's own notes and workout journals. Its a great book whether you view it as a 'how to training guide' or an indepth biography on how the guy actually got to look and move like that.

***TaeBo_Master*** · Posted On: 9/03/2003 8:41pm

Yeah. My only disappointment with the book was that it was almost ALL about his weight training, and very little about his actual MA training, which is what I was most interested in.

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If he scoots out too aggressively his body may go shooting out like a champaign cork and go flying into the audience, leaving a gingerbread man-shaped hole in the wall. -- Boyd

**travis** · Posted On: 9/04/2003 6:23pm

I don't know, the athletes that weight train I've seen are too big not very flexible and pretty slow, so I was trying to find out what would be best for increasing power without losing speed or while also gaining speed with using weights. I don't know if there are any books out there on this, or any info on the web about this but if there is please post something. Usually when reading articles for facts on weight training they only give good info for people overweight trying to burn fat and stuff. I'm kind of a skinny guy, though i have gained some weight recently, i weight 155 and am 5'10 or 11"

Edited by - travis on September 04 2003 18:26:11

**FingerorMoon?** · Posted On: 9/04/2003 6:37pm

Travis -
some recommend training weights at high speed to increase speed, but this has been shown to massively increase the chance of injury. It is not a good idea.

Athletes who are big and slow from weight training are like that because of a few reasons:

a) they aren't doing much cardio/fitness training, sticking mainly to weights

b) they are genetically bigger slower guys anyway. Weights help them get bigger, and obviously aren't going to help them get faster

c) they are training in a bodybuilding style method which is designed to put on large asthetic muscles

Weight training can only make you less flexible if you don't stretch. And yes, you may need to stretch more than if you weren't doing heavy weight work but thats your trade off.

If you want to use weights, use them to get stronger and if its you goal, bigger.

If you want to get faster do speed training, ie sprinting, plyometrics, etc...

***TaeBo_Master*** · Posted On: 9/04/2003 8:59pm

Weights help you get stronger. If you get stronger, you're capable of moving faster. The primary thing that hinders most strong people's speed is their lack of flexibility. If, as you're increasing muscle mass, you also improve your flexibility, your speed shouldn't suffer.

__________________________________________________ ___________________________
If he scoots out too aggressively his body may go shooting out like a champaign cork and go flying into the audience, leaving a gingerbread man-shaped hole in the wall. -- Boyd

**Dochter** · Posted On: 9/05/2003 10:42am

Martial arts and weight training have (theoretically) progressed greatly since Lee's days and the tendency to revere standouts of the past leads to focusing on perhaps less efficacious means of training. Whether or not Lee was indeed a world class athlete is irrelevant, today's mid-class athletes would typically outcompete the standouts of a quarter of a century ago.

In mentioning that Lee's leg strength I was referencing this one source, located at:

http://www.myodynamics.com/articles/bruce.html

This is a site that I'm sure at least Finger is familiar with. The following article presents well formatted arguments on numerous claims regarding Lee's status as a martial artist and perhaps present a counterbalancing argument for the reverence often shown toward Lee.

Selected portions regarding leg strength:

Numerous persons have stated that Bruce Lee possessed an incredible amount of strength. Based on his exercise program, it appears he was of below-average lower body strength. According to the strength training program Lee used during 1965 (Lee, 1989), he performed squats using 95 pounds with 10 repetitions. This would equate to an estimated 1 repetition maximum (1RM) of 130 pounds (Wathen, 1994), which would place him below the 25th percentile for the 121-140 pound weight class among adult males (Hatfield, 1993).

This type of estimation for the 1 repetition maximum is standard among athletic trainers to assess the strength level of a wide range of athletes, both professional and amateur.While some chart estimates may vary slightly from one to another, most are within approximately 10% of one another.

Some readers, who are accustomed to viewing Lee as possessing epic strength, may assert that Lee probably was not using his maximum ability at that time. It is therefore noted that this regime occurred prior to Lee's well-known back injury. Furthermore, if Lee was capable of performing the squat exercise with more than 95 pounds for 10 repetitions, one must question why this was part of his established routine or, alternatively, why he would be committing himself to a method of underachievement by using too low an amount of weight to stimulate the greatest strength gains possible.

While there are certain flaws in this argument it should be used to reasses the myth versus reality of the whole situation, as should this portion:

...while Funakoshi admonishes martial artists to render honor to their families before refining themselves, when Bruce Lee did refine himself physically it was not in a wholly honorable fashion. In addition to the prescription medications Cortisone and Dilantin, he is also reported to have used anabolic steroids and diuretics to achieve his physique (Beeckler, 1996).

As with any arguments flaws and evidence must be equally examined. The main problem with all of the arguments presented is that they are based on anecdotal reports (though these are ones typically given by Lee, Lee's family or Lee admirers). As has also been reported Lee himself resisted efforts to quantify his actual abilities.

**blankslate** · Posted On: 9/05/2003 11:16am

http://www.stadion.com/

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Stay in your center.
R. Masters

**Fisting Kittens** · Posted On: 9/05/2003 11:34am

This is like the 5th Bruce Lee thread in a week. Jesus Christ who fucking cares anymore?

**sentinel** · Posted On: 9/05/2003 1:57pm

Bruce Lee did a lot of isometrics and calistenics as well.

**FingerorMoon?** · Posted On: 9/07/2003 5:32pm

Dochter -
Yeah, I am familiar with the site although to be honest, I'd missed the Lee article on there. Thanks!

As for training having progressed in the last 25yrs, I think this is debatable. At the elite levels, I totally agree. But at the base level I think in a lot of ways its gone backwards, due to the heavy influence of bodybuilding and people blindly trying to apply its principles to sports training.

I had another look through the Lee book mentioned throughout this post last night, and it is amazing how far ahead of his time he was. The books is full of plyometric, interval, and circuit training. Its just that back then he had no fancy names for it (which we've joked about before here)