Bruce Lee's Weight Training program
david garcia
a few months ago on Bruce Lee (The Martial Atist) and his weight traning regimine
can anybody tell me about it and get me the magazines name, month, aothor of
the article and maybe where to get incontact with him. Thanks in advance for
any info on this matter?
David
David J. Wilson
have missed something.
Dave Wilson
RC6879
think he lifted weights seriously. His weightlifting program is probably
useless.
David J. Wilson
recall that he put himself into the hospital by deciding to add good
mornings to his workout. Apparently he wasn't aware of how important it
is to approach that exercise "carefully", and used a significant weight
on the very first attempt. As I recall, his weight training was very
specifially tailored to improving his martial arts performance. He was
not interested in bodybuilding per se.
mchm...@uhura.cc.rochester.edu
>I read an article describing Bruces' workouts, he trained hard and was
>incredibly strong. His amazing bodyparts were his forearms, abs and back.
>Dan
This is false. Bruce lee was so skinny. Lean and ripped, but
very skinny. In his movie "Dragon", they showed him using the
electronic muscle stimulants that hospital patients use for
physical therapy. Now how strong can he possibly be?
Don't let camera tricks fool you.
Matt
.
dngrdan
Jeffrey T Chiou
|> In <3pjd6m$3...@falcon.ns.net> dngrdan <du...@ns.net> writes:
|>
|> very skinny. In his movie "Dragon", they showed him using the
|> electronic muscle stimulants that hospital patients use for
|> physical therapy. Now how strong can he possibly be?
|>
|> Don't let camera tricks fool you.
|>
|> Matt
|> .
5'7", 145 lbs (though I read that sometimes he got
as low as 125 lbs). The man was extremely strong. I
think I read the same article as Dan (Muscle and
Fitness). Bruce was able to hold a barbell out in
front of him loaded with over 100 lbs for 10 sec (I
think the article may have stated 30 s...it's been a
while since I've read it). That is not easy. "Flag"
situps are practically impossible also. And 2-fingered
one-arm pushups?
The electrical muscle stimulation was something that
Bruce was trying out. It was shown to illustrate how
much of a training maniac he was...he was using them
to try and supplement, not substitute, for a regular
workout program (yes, he did benches...and quite a bit
for his bodyweight.)
I totally agree with Dan. There are a lot of people
who don't look like bodybuilders who are damn strong.
I'll try and find that article and post some stuff from
it.
Jeff
dngrdan
with it. A person can be thin and still be very strong by the way.
Jeffrey T Chiou
In article <1995May20....@galileo.cc.rochester.edu>, mchm...@uhura.cc.rochester.edu () writes:
|> In <3pjd6m$3...@falcon.ns.net> dngrdan <du...@ns.net> writes:
|>
|> >I read an article describing Bruces' workouts, he trained hard and was
|> >incredibly strong. His amazing bodyparts were his forearms, abs and back.
|>
|> >Dan
|>
|> This is false. Bruce lee was so skinny. Lean and ripped, but
|> very skinny. In his movie "Dragon", they showed him using the
|> electronic muscle stimulants that hospital patients use for
|> physical therapy. Now how strong can he possibly be?
|>
|> Don't let camera tricks fool you.
|>
|> Matt
|> .
Fitness article on Bruce Lee (March 1994, beginning p 130).
I agree with Dan, and I think that most people would after
reading the following.
Jeff
(from p 134)
Lee's feats of strength are the stuff of legend. According to
Jhoon Rhee, who is considered the father of American tae kwon
do: "Bruce was really gifted. Pound for pound, I've never seen
anyone as strong as he was. He used to do push-ups with one
finger - one one hand! I can't even do it with four fingers!"
Joe Lewis, a student of Lee's and the man who "owned" full-contact
karate in this country during the 1970s, remembers Bruce as being
"incredibly strong for his size. He could take a 75 pound
barbell and, from a standing position with the barbell held flush
against his chest, he could slowly stick his arms straight out,
lock them and hold the barbell there for 20 seconds - that's pretty
damn good for a guy who at the time weighed only 138 pounds! I
know 200-pound weightlifters who can't do that!"
[Dan] Inosanto says he saw Lee better that feat: "Bruce had
tremendous strenght in holding a weight out horizontally from a
standing position. I know because I've seen it. He'd take a
125-pound barbell and hold it straight out!"
Jesse Glover, Lee's first student in the United States, recalls
that Lee would do a similar stunt with a 70-pound dumbell.
"Bruce would take hold of a 70-pound dumbell with one arm and
raise it to a lateral position - level with his shoulder - and then
he'd hold the contraction for a few seconds. Nobody else I knew
could even get it up there, let alone hold it up there!"
Brucce also had some other nifty little habits, like thrusting
his fingers through unopened cans of Coca-Cola (back in the pre-
aluminum days), or exploding 100-pound bags with a simple side
kick.
(from p 140)
When Lee wasn't training with weights in his martial arts
workouts or during one of his three designated whole-body
training sessions, he was busy pumping a dumbell that he kept
in his house. "He was always useing that dumbell" says Linda
[Lee]. "He has the unique ability to do several things at once.
It wasn't at all unusual for me to find him watching a boxing
match on TV, while simultaneously performing full side splits,
reading a book in one hand and pumping the dumbell up and down
with the other."
(from page 142)
"He was a fanatic about ab training," says Linda. "He was always
doing situps, crunches, roman chair movements, leg raises and
V-ups."
Chuck Norris remembers visiting the Lee household and seeing Bruce
bouncing his little boy, Brandon, on his abdomen while simultaneously
performing leg raises and dumbell flyes!
...
Lee also devised a particular difficult exercise that he called
"the flag." While lying on a bench, he would grasp the uprights
attached to the bench with both hands and raise himself off the
bench, supported only by his shoulders. Then with his knees
locked straight and his lower back raised off the bench, he'd
perform leg raises!
(from p 143)
As a result, Lee was an enthusiastic advocate of cardiovascular
workouts (which he would perform in conjunction with his
weight-training sessions) long before they became fashionable in
bodybuilding. His typical aerobics program consisted of running
anywhere from 2-6 miles in 15-45 minutes.
According to Bob Wall [one of Bruce's students; plays a bad
guy in "Chinese Connection", "Return of the Dragon" and
"Enter the Dragon"]: "Bruce was pretty much of a five-mile
runner, but then Bruce was one of those guys who just challenged
the heck out of himself. He ran backwards; he ran wind sprints
where he'd run a mile, walk a mile, run a mile. Whenever I ran
with Bruce, it was always a different kind of run. Bruce was
one of those total athletes. It wasn't easy training with him!
He pushed you beyond where you wanted to go - and then some!"
(from p 246)
Wall says that by this time Lee's bodybuilding program consisted
of "lifting weights on a two-days-on, two-days-off type of program.
However, I
also know that he changed things around a lot. Generally, his
program consisted of three sets per eexercise and usually about
15 reps. He was doing a lot of cable work at the time, where he'd
pull one way and then the other way - he was into angles and he'd
never do the exact same angle twice in a single workout. He was always
trying to do things in a slightly different way."
Ted Wong, one of Lee's original Jeet Kune Do students, remembers that
Bruce would do "a lot of different type of sit-ups and bench presses.
He was also using a technique like the Weider Heavy/Light Principle -
working up to 160 pounds in the bench press for three sets of 10 on
his heavy days and then repping out for 20-30 reps with 100 pounds
on his light days."
(from p 139)
[contents of a photo from Lee's personal training log book, circa 1970]
[Note that I tried to reproduce what the photo showed as accurately
as possible...I do not know what a lot of these exercises are, and
there is no explanation in the text, either]
Training schedule
1) stomach and waist - (everyday)
a) sit-up d) flag
b) side bend e) twist
c) leg raises f) back bend
2) Flexibility (everyday)
a) front stretch d) sit stretch
b) side stretch e) sliding stretch
c) hurdle stretch f) front pulley stretch
3) Weight-Training (TUES THURS SAT)
a) clean and press-2 sets of 8 d) bench press-2 sets of 6
b) squat - 2 sets of 12 e) good mornings-2 sets of 8
c) pull over - 2 sets of 8 f) curl - 2 sets of 8
1) clean & Press - 4 sets of 6 5) Curl - 4 sets of 6
2) Squat - 4 sets of 6
3) good morning - 4 sets of 6
4) Bench Press - " " " 5
(from p 140)
[Another log book page]
<1> STOMACH EXERCISES
1) waist twists..................4 sets of 70
2) sit up twist..................4 sets of 20
3) leg raises....................4 sets of 20
4) leaning twist.................4 sets of 50
5) frog kick.....................4 sets of
<2> FOREARM EXERCISES
1) underhand wrist curl..........4 sets of 17
2) overhand wrist curl...........4 sets of 12
3) leverage bar curl (A).........4 sets of 15
4) " " " (B)........." " " "
5) reverse curl.................." " " 6
6) wrist rollar..................4 complete windings
7) leverage bar twist............3 sets of 10
<3> PUNCHING EXERCISES
1) straight punch with weight....3 sets of
2) glove straight-punching.......2 sets of
3) ENTERING " " .........." " "
4) glove elbowing................" " "
5) glove hooking.................3 sets of
<4> STAMINA/AGILITY TRAINING
1) alternate splits..............3 sets of 20
2) jumping squat.................3 sets of 10
3) skip rope.....................3 sets of min each
<5> GRIP TRAINING
every chance-daily
(from p 137....another log book page. This is really
cryptic; I don't know why there are two exercises
associated with every set/rep/wt scheme)
HAK KEUNG GYMNASIUM
Exercise List
Name: Bruce Lee Sex: M Date: May 27 1965
Exercise Sets Lbs Times Exercise
1 Squat 3 95 10 Squat
French Press 1 4 64 6 French Press
2 Incline Curl 4 35 6 French Press
French Press 2 4 64 6 Push Up
3 "Con" Curl 4 35 6 Tricep Stretch
Push Up 3 70-80 10 Incline Curl
4 Two Hand Curl 3 70-80 8 "Con" Curl
5 Tricep Stretch 3 3 8(6) Two Hand Curl
Dumbell Circle 4 16 inf. Reverse Curl
6 Reverse Curl 4 x64 6 Dumbell Circle
7 Wrist Curl 1 4 64 inf. Wrist Curl
Wrist Curl 2 4 10 inf. Wrist Curl
Sit up 5 B.W. 12 Sit Up
Calf Raise 5 B.W. 20 Calf Raise
Please do not take it away
dngrdan
Regards,
Dan
Armando L. Caro Jr
<mchm...@uhura.cc.rochester.edu> wrote:
>In <3pnq96$8...@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU> jch...@athena.mit.edu (Jeffrey T Chiou) writes:
>>working up to 160 pounds in the bench press for three sets of 10 on
>>his heavy days and then repping out for 20-30 reps with 100 pounds
>>on his light days."
>
>and still look like the way he does? (skinny).
>Okay, perhaps this is the point-- Bruce can do all these superhuman
>exercises and still not gain muscle mass. He must have a high concentration
>of mitochondria and ATP in his cells.....just like Michael Jordan
>probably has in his legs....
>
>Although this is possible, it sounds too superhuman to be true.
>
>What I am trying to say is, I am really skeptical about many of the
>reports, although some are very plausible.
>
>His own accounts do not depict a superhuman, nor does his physique.
>
You don't have to be bulky or muscular to be strong. If you might have
noticed, many of the power lifters are not big at all. I myself am about
5'7" and weigh about 145 Lbs, and I can bench 160 ten times. I can also
do 20-30 reps with 100 pounds. With my size and abilities (I don't even
train for power!) it is very easy to see that Bruce Lee could perform these
tasks. I just wish I could get as cut as Bruce Lee.
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Armando L. Caro Jr.
ac...@chopin.udel.edu
University of Delaware
mchm...@uhura.cc.rochester.edu
>working up to 160 pounds in the bench press for three sets of 10 on
>his heavy days and then repping out for 20-30 reps with 100 pounds
>on his light days."
How can someone with Bruce's proportions perform the above exercises
and still look like the way he does? (skinny).
Okay, perhaps this is the point-- Bruce can do all these superhuman
exercises and still not gain muscle mass. He must have a high concentration
of mitochondria and ATP in his cells.....just like Michael Jordan
probably has in his legs....
If the above exercises were true, then what would Bruce look like
if he had NOT worked out? 5'7" 95 lbs?
Although this is possible, it sounds too superhuman to be true.
The reports about one-finger push-ups are plausible, all you need is
very stong bones-- I have personally witnessed martial artists in
Taiwan Using the back of their fists to hammer a nail into really hard wood
(I tested the same nails and wood personally as part of the live audience).
Sounds feaky, but it is true.
What I am trying to say is, I am really skeptical about many of the
reports, although some are very plausible.
There is no doubt that Bruce Lee was a strong person, but I think he is not
as strong as people claim he is. The claims written about him describe
a super human. The same is true for his movies.
His own accounts do not depict a superhuman, nor does his physique.
Someone mentioned that there is more to martial arts than sheer
strength, and I agree with this 100%. Many of Jeet Kun Do (and other
martial arts forms) are based on strikes to vulnerable human parts.
I don't care if you are Shaq O'Neil, a good blow to the throat is likely
to knock you out-- does that mean that I am stronger than Shaq?
Bob Morris
>Bruce also had some other nifty little habits, like exploding 100-pound
>bags with a simple side kick.
Yow. A kick that strong would probably kill most people if they were
hit in the head or even the midsection. And would certainly break
something if it connected to the knee.
Thanks for posting a fascinating article.
Max (aka WhyD)
lot of stretching. These are important in a workout routine. Bruce was
definitely cut.
max
Max (aka WhyD)
deifnitely the most fit martial artist ever to have lived.
max
Neal Lao
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>From: bmo...@netcom.com (Bob Morris)
>Subject: Re: Bruce Lee's Weight Training program
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> <3pjd6m$3...@falcon.ns.net> <1995May20....@galileo.cc.rochester.edu>
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>Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 16:07:06 GMT
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>>Bruce also had some other nifty little habits, like exploding 100-pound
>>bags with a simple side kick.
>Yow. A kick that strong would probably kill most people if they were
>hit in the head or even the midsection. And would certainly break
>something if it connected to the knee.
>Thanks for posting a fascinating article.
Actually, I don't see what the weight of the bag has to do with how hard it is
to "explode"it.
And a sidekick may be "simple" but it is one of the most powerful kicks a
martial artist can do. Could break ribs, skulls, etc. real easily.