Brandon breaks down each individual exercise, rep, movement, day and body part that lee does check out the full routine, and download the free pdf by using the links below. He finishes by honing his martial arts techniques with punches and kicks — and focusing on control. Chet yorton workout routine , Imagine a simple routine that you could do anytime, anywhere, from your bedroom, hotel room.
Bruce lee died with a mystery, his death still has more than a couple of stories telling how he died. This particular routine he performed with 5 sets per exercise rather than three. Tao of jeet kune do by bruce lee. However, after winning a duel with wong jack man in , he decided to reconsider his training methods. John grimek power and bulk routine , Perceived, resulting from the use of this information.
A look into his exercises, stretches, and techniques. And so they became the core of the his routine. Bruce lee believed the most important thing was to train his core because it transferred energy through the entire body. Bruce lee's sequence training routine for total fitness bruce lee performed his sequence training six days a week, alternating between two programs. This momentous event, then, was the impetus for the evolution of jeet kune do and the birth of his new training regime.
Let me emphasize that, to my or just about anybody else's observation, in early Bruce appeared to be in superb physical condition.
Growing up in Hong Kong, Bruce was not an espe, cially genetically gifted youngster. In fact, his mother recounted to me that Bruce was a skinny little kid whose schedule of attending school in the day and often working on films late into the night did not foster a healthy lifestyle.
However, from the age of thirteen, when he began to study Wing Chun under Master Yip Man, Bruce trained continuously and arduously on a daily basis, so that when I met him in he appeared to be in great shape. After the Oakland con, frontation, this was not good enough for Bruce-he knew he had to do more and better to be prepared to realize his dreams when the opportunity arose. For Bruce, it was not simply a matter of running extra miles, doing more reps, or increasing poundage in his weight training.
He approached the resolution of the "problem" in a scientific manner: 1 Set new goals for fitness and health, 2 research the best ways to accomplish the desired changes, and 3 implement the new methods using a scientific approach, recording progress and modifying the approach when necessary. There was nothing haphazard about Bruce's training regime, neither was he particularly "lucky" in having started out with natural physical gifts.
The greatest talents that Bruce brought to realizing his dreams were intelligence and curiosity hand in hand, a powerful combination , dedication and perseverance stick,to,itive, ness even in the face of intervening obstacles , and focus enjoying the journey as much as the destination.
Sometimes I am asked, How did he have the time to do so much training? The answer is simple-that was how he decided to spend his time. The choices he made in each of his 24,hour days included devoting several hours to training his body and mind in order to be the best that he could be. This is also where the wealth of his imagination came into play.
In addition to reg, ularly scheduled training times, it was "normal" for Bruce to be involved in several things at the same time: reading a book, curling a dumbbell, and stretching a leg, for example; or playing some I ' kind of physical game with the children; or doing isometric, type exercises while driving his car. As a child he was nicknamed, "Never Sits Still"; he was the same as an adult.
The process that Bruce undertook to achieve his goal of superior fitness forms the contents of The Art of Expressing the Human Body, the title of which was so aptly coined by Bruce in describing his way of martial art.
Bruce's martial art, jeet kune do, which is an all, encompassing approach to living life at the pinnacle of developed potential, naturally includes training the physical body to achieve its peak performance.
A fitting description of Bruce's devotion to his art is to say that he attained the apex of functional beauty. When reading this volume, it is more important that the reader recognize the process Bruce employed rather than dwell on the specific exercises and daily schedules.
Bruce would have immersed himself in the new research and would encourage you to do likewise. In other words, the means were as important as the goal, which was to be prepared when the opportunity arose to share his "art of expressing the human body. Throughout our lives together he was my teacher as well as husband, friend, and father of my children. I continue to rely on his example for daily motivation. Now, in the form of this book, an opportunity arises for the reader to share in Bruce's art and inspiration.
It will become evident to the reader that Bruce had a thorough knowledge of fitness and training. So, therefore, these people are coming in and asking me to teach them, not so much how to defend themselves or how to do somebody in. Rather, they want to learn to express themselves through some movement, be it anger, be it determination or whatever.
So, in other words, they're paying me to show them, in combative form, the art of expressing the human body. As Lee himself once said, "There is no such thing as an effective segment of a totality. Certainly he wasn't born with such a body, nor with such awesome physical ability. He must have created it- but how?
And this clearly was not the case. Pictures of Lee when he was in his teens and early twenties reveal that his body wasn't always so well developed-that is, it wasn't simply a genetic fluke. He had to have built it. Again, the question of "how? And again, no answer was forthcoming. The one field where I expected to find the answer-martial art-contained scores of magazine articles and even books written supposedly about Lee's "training methods," but they revealed nothing of substance about how he built his body.
Any information they did reveal was vague and I later learned misleading. People who knew Lee and even claimed to have trained with him revealed contradictory information, at best. One student recalled that Lee was "a five,mile,a,day runner" he wasn't , while another indicated that Lee seldom ran more than "two miles a day. For years the popular notion has been that Lee advocated the use of extremely high repetitions i. Further, none of these so,called authorities seemed able to explain or clarify exactly what it was that Lee did to become what some have called "the fittest man on the planet.
How could such a response which was pretty much the word of the authorities prove helpful to the individual interested in following Lee's conditioning methods? After all, such an answer is really no answer unless the "how" and "what" are addressed: How did Bruce Lee lift weights? What exercises did he employ? How many sets did he perform? How many reps did he perform? How many days per week did he train? And, most importantly, did Bruce Lee have any special training routines?
Finally, the answers are forthcoming. Twenty,five years after Lee's death, his widow Linda Lee Cadwell graciously opened the door to a heretofore unknown world of Bruce Lee.
In addition, Lee's papers, which frame The Art of Expressing the Human Body, finally allow us to view the exact methods that Bruce Lee employed to build, develop, and condition his incredible body.
Some individuals believe that unless you possess Bruce Lee's physical attributes, attempting his workouts and training methods is futile. I can only respond that this directly opposes Lee's own beliefs and, indeed, the laws of human physiology. The stimulus that resulted in a bigger, more defined, faster, and stronger muscle in Bruce Lee is the exact same stimulus that will bring about a similar response in you-such is the nature of human physiology.
Anatomically and physiologically every human being is essentially the same-something Bruce Lee was keenly aware of during his lifetime, and that is reflected in both his martial art and his personal training beliefs.
And, while it's true that certain anatomical and physiological features may vary among individuals, such variations exist within a very limited and quantifiable range, without altering the fact that the basic governing principles are the same, and without altering the essence of our own distinctly human physiology.
All you have to do is be willing to take the knowledge made available to you in this book and actually make use of it on a regular basis. As Bruce Lee did. Indeed, don't expect Bruce Lee-like results unless you're willing to put in Bruce Lee-like hours to achieve them. As Lee himself said, "Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do. I've finally been able to obtain answers to questions that I'd long ago assumed would go unanswered.
Fortunately for my own curiosity and for posterity, Bruce Lee was very meticulous about not only his training but his life, philosophy, and martial art. Each chapter contains material provided, not through hearsay or for, getful colleagues and self styled "gurus," but rather by Bruce Lee himself, as revealed through his writings, reading annotations, letters, diaries, and interviews.
Only in instances when there have been gaps in Lee's narrative have I found it helpful to appeal to those "who were there" or who trained alongside him and, even in these instances, I have solicited recollections only from those who spent the most time with Lee.
Where such recollections have been supported unanimously, I have given them credence. Where they have fallen short, they have been omitted. The book's thesis is the acquisition of muscle and the strengthening of the body and all of its subsystems in order to cultivate a condition of total health and fitness. Since muscle is the engine that moves the body, it is crucial for individuals martial artists in particular to build as much of it as possible.
Do not misunderstand this statement to imply that we all need to look like competitive bodybuilders, however, as this is not the case.
Muscles such as those that comprised the physique of Bruce Lee are the result of training for a functional purpose. That they also happen to look quite impressive is simply a side benefit. By way of contrast, muscles that are developed solely for the sake of appearance are seldom functional, aside from the training required to maintain their existence.
So, unless your walk of life requires you to pick up heavy objects repeatedly for "sets" and "reps" and then strike a pose, it is unlikely that you'll want to invest the time required to train "for show" as opposed to "go. You'll feel better, have tremendous energy, achieve a state of total fitness, and look great. And, on a personal level, I'm delighted to say that it should forever put to rest the misbegotten notion that Bruce Lee was somehow a "natural" who didn't have to work-and work hard and often-to obtain every ounce of muscle he developed.
I hope to make it obvious that Lee had to research and apply a tremendously vast body of knowledge in order for him to have advanced to the level of conditioning that he did.
The thousands of hours that Bruce Lee spent training alone set an example that reveals to us the potential we all have to become better and more fully functional human beings. Moreover, it has endured beyond his passing.
It has lived on through his written words, photographs, and the memory of his actions. Or, as Linda Lee Cadwell more succinctly put it in the inscription that is inlaid in a special book that resides at the foot of his headstone: Your inspiration continues to guide us toward our personal liberation. It is with the profoundest respect for the memory of Bruce Lee and what he accomplished in the world of physical fitness that I have undertaken the writing of this book. Many of them simply do not believe it when I explain that Bruce built up his outstanding physique through sheer application and willpower; through intense training.
He had very little body fat. And I think that's why he looked so believable. There's a lot of people that do all those moves and they do have the skill, but they don't look visually as believable or as impressive as Bruce Lee did. He was one of a kind. He was an idol for so many. The great thing about someone like Bruce Lee is that he inspires so many millions and millions of kids out there who want to follow in his footsteps.
They want to become martial artists, they want to go and be in movies. And so what they do is that they go out and they train every day for hours and hours. Someone like Bruce Lee provides a tremendous inspiration, which helps so many kids around the world.
He had a profound and tremendous impact worldwide, and I think that he will be therefore admired for a long time. He was very strong and the weight that he did have was all muscle. He was in very keen shape; very sharp. It seems that Mrs. Clouse had ventured onto the set of the film and was absolutely mesmerized by Lee's incredible muscularity as she watched him, stripped to the waist and perspiring heav, ily in the hot and humid Hong Kong climate, immersed in choreographing the film's fighting sequences.
When Lee took a brief respite, she ven, tured over to the young superstar and asked if she could "feel his biceps. I say "fascinating" only in relation to the context of our Western culture, where our standard for a great physique has typically been some steroid,bloated linebacker who stands well over six feet and weighs in at nearly pounds.
Even more fascinating is the fact that almost everyone con, tinues to derive something different from their encounters with Bruce Lee, whether in person or through the mediums of film, print, and video. Martial artists continue to revere his physical dexterity, power, and speed, as well as the genius he displayed in bringing science to bear on the world of unarmed combat; moviegoers are impressed with the man's animal magnetism and the fact that he single,handedly created a new genre of action film, opening the door for the Sylvester Stallones and Arnold Schwarzeneggers who followed in his footsteps.
It's equally fascinating-and ironic-that, while Bruce Lee never considered himself a bodybuilder in the classic sense of the term, his physique continues to be revered by bodybuilders and athletes on numerous continents as one of the most inspirational of all time. Bodybuilders young and old know from a quick glance at his physique exactly how much labor went into its creation, and they are very impressed. Even Schwarzenegger was suitably impressed with the quality of Lee's muscularity to tell me recently: "Bruce Lee had a very-I mean a very-defined physique.
I mean, he probably had one of the lowest body fat counts of any athlete around. And I think that's why he looked so believable [in his films]. There's a lot of people that do all those [martial art] moves, and they do have the skill, but they don't look visually as believable or as impressive as Bruce Lee did. Some may find this hard to believe. After all, by North American standards, Lee was not a physically imposing man.
The answer, in a word, is quality. We have seldom seen-shy of a jungle cat-such a combination of excellent lines, pleasing shape, and chiseled definition on a male physique.
He was hypnotic in movement, and poised, even elegant, in repose. And '.. Lee's physique, by way of contrast, was always tight, compact, tasteful, refined, and defined-both at rest and in motion. One of the reasons for the difference in musculature between the typical bodybuilder and Bruce Lee was that Lee's muscles were not built simply for the purpose of show, as were many bodybuilders'. To quote his first student in the United States, Seattle's Jesse Glover, Lee was "above all else concerned with function.
The fact that he created an extraordinary suit of muscles as well was nice, but was never the primary objective behind his training. Furthermore, his physique was balanced and symmetrical, and while not everyone admires the massive musculature of a Mr. Universe contender, most everyone I've spoken to- from Mr. Universe contenders to the average man or woman on the street-seems to admire the total package that Bruce Lee's physique represents.
The fact that he influenced so many champion bodybuilders is no small accomplishment when you consider that Lee never entered a physique contest in his life. He was never interested in becoming massively muscled.
As Ted Wong, one of Lee's closest friends and most dedicated students, recalled, "Bruce trained primarily for strength and speed. He looked like a damn cobra when he did thatl" Functional Fitness and Extraordinary Strength Dan Inosanto, another close friend of Lee's and the man he chose to assist him in teaching his martial art curriculum to students at Lee's Los Angeles school from to , added that Lee was only interested in strength that could be readily converted to power. He said, 'Yeah, he's big-but is he powerful?
Can he use that extra muscle efficiently? Strength and its acquisition were Lee's primary concerns in his weight training.
Lee's Road to Bodybuilding Lee's studious research into human physiology and kinesiology allowed him to quickly discern a useful exercise from an unproductive one, which meant that he never wasted time in his workouts and that they were geared to produce specific results.
Lee believed that the student of exercise science should aim at nothing less than physical perfection, including great strength, quickness, and skill, exuberant health, and the beauty of muscular form that distinguishes a physically perfect human being. Lee realized early on that in order for us to fulfill our physical potential, we had to approach our exercise endeavors progressively and fight against the desire to pack it all in and retire to the sofa and the television, where we could escape from our "duty" of self,actualiza, tion by partaking in its opposite-that is, shutting off our minds and allowing our muscles to atrophy.
Lee wanted to learn as much about his mind and body as possible. He wanted to know what he was truly capable of, rather than settling for what he already knew he could accomplish.
To this end, he viewed each training session as a learning experience, an opportunity for improvement to take him, self to a new leveL As a result, he had a keen eye for spot' ting people who were selling themselves short by either slacking off in their training or by underestimating what their true capabilities were.
Stirling Silliphant a student of Lee's relates an interesting story that perfectly embodies Lee's attitude toward progressive resistance in cardiovascular training, as well as his refusal to let a person-in this case Silliphant-underestimate his own physical potential: Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We'd run the three miles in twenty, one or twenty, two minutes.
Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in , Lee would get his time down to six,and,a,half minutes per mile]. So this morning he said to me "We're going to go five.
I'm a helluva lot older than you are, and I can't do five. I'm tired, my heart's pounding, I can't go any more and so I say to him, "Bruce if I run any more, "-and we're still running-"if I run any more I'm liable to have a heart attack and die.
Afterward I went to the shower and then I want, ed to talk to him about it. I said, you know, '''Why did you say that? Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or any, thing else, it'll spread over into the rest of your life. It'll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.
Lee once wrote a letter to American tae kwon do pioneer Jhoon Rhee, in which Lee cautioned that "Low aim is the worst crime a man has," further underscoring his view of self imposed limitations-in exercise and in all areas of life. Bruce Lee was persistent in his quest to express the full potential of his body. However, it would take a violent encounter to bring home the merits of a regular and dedicated approach to "pumping iron. Though Lee had many virtues, he did not suffer fools patiently.
Lee decided to accept the challenge rather than bow to the dictates of racists. Later that week, at the appointed time, a group of Chinese martial artists led by a man who was their best fighter and designated leader arrived at Lee's Oakland school. Linda, who was eight months pregnant with Brandon, the couple's first child, and Lee's student James Yimm Lee were witnesses to what happened next.
After considerable leg work, Lee had thrown the man to the floor and extracted a submission from him. He then tossed the entire group off the premises. To his dismay, however, Lee discovered that he'd expended a tremendous amount of energy in the altercation. He felt inordinately winded afterward. He ordered courses out of the magazines and tested their claims and training theories in the laboratory that was his body, in addition to frequenting secondhand book stores to purchase books on bodybuilding and strength training, including ones written prior to the turn of the century such as Strength and How to Obtain It by Eugen Sandow-originally published in !
Lee's hunger for knowledge was so great that he purchased anything he could get his hands on, from hot,off,the,press training courses, to back,listed classics in the field of exercise physiol, ogy.
Once applied, this knowledge resulted in increased strength, speed, power, and endurance. The results of Lee's comprehensive research are revealed in the chapters that follow. They address, specifically, how Lee trained to develop each and every muscle group of his body, the type of training system he found to be most effective, the training principles he incorporated, and the programs he gave to his students.
Two appendixes provide information on Lee's vital statistics and his exercise machine. The material in the book is created from Lee's own writ' ings-not from the misguided interpretations of accumulated myth that surround his legacy. At long last, readers can learn about the process that resulted in a level of muscularity that would set physique standards and be talked about for decades. You must use it to support your techniques.
Techniques alone are no good if you don't support them with strength and flexibility. It occurs when Kien's character, the evil Han, is taking John Saxon's character, Roper, on a small tour of his "museum" of feudal weaponry. As they walk, Han says: It is difficult to associate these horrors with the proud civilizations that created them. Sparta, Rome, the knights of Europe, the Samurai. Nothing survives without it. Who knows what delicate wonders have died out of the world for want of the strength to survive?
Although excised from the final print, in Bruce Lee's copy of the script, Han's peripatetic continues: Civilizations highest ideas-Justice-could not exist without strong men to enforce it. Indeed, what is civilization but simply the honor of strong men?
Today, the young are taught nothing of honor. The sense of life as epic, of life as big, of life as something for which one learns to fight- this is foolish to them.
To them, grandeur is irrelevant. The young no longer dream. That is, he makes a wonderful apology for why our species has so ardently pursued the acquisition of strength throughout the centuries. The pursuit of strength is by no means something antiquated; it is still revered today, albeit in its many different forms: strength of character, strength of will, strength of resolve, strength in the face of adversity, strength of patience, strength of belief, and of course, physical strength.
In all of these realms, there is much to learn from Bruce Lee. This book reveals the methods Lee employed to develop such legendary physical strength. While most of his contemporaries considered training to be simply the performance of their martial art techniques, Bruce Lee's regimen involved all the components of total fitness. Apart from his daily martial art training, Lee engaged in supplemental training to improve his speed, endurance, strength, flexibility, coordination, rhythm, sensitivity, and timing.
In fact, in a book published by one of his students, Dan Inosanto, the author lists no less than forty, one dif, ferent types of training made use of by practitioners of Lee's art of jeet kune do. Lee learned early on that the role strength played in the overall scheme of things was of vital importance, not only for its own sake in building stronger muscles, tendons, and ligaments , but also because an increase in muscular strength brings with it greater mastery of striking tech, niques, increased speed and en, durance, better,toned muscles, and improved body function.
However, Lee did not regard weight training as the "open sesame" to athletic success. He recognized it for exactly what it was: an important facet of total fitness that had to be integrated into one's workout schedule along with other exercises to im, prove one's technique, speed, agility, and so on.
Increased Speed Through Strength Training Lee was particularly impressed with the fact that strength training, which typically involved weight training, could increase one's speed and endurance capacities.
The popular belief at the time was that weight training contributed to nothing but the development of big, "bulky" mus, des. Clarke, who was then the director of graduate studies at Springfield College. He pored over many scien, tific papers and books and came away convinced that strength was a prerequisite to all physical activity and that it played a vital role in many of his martial art movements.
On the Value of Strength Training Bruce Lee's belief that a martial artist must engage in training methods apart from the techniques and movements of the art he or she has been trained in was based on purely scien, tific grounds.
For example, one study that caught Lee's eye regarding the subject of supplemen, tal training involved the training methods of competitive swimmers. During the early s American swimming coaches, particularly those at Yale University, found that the muscles used for swimming did not increase their strength enough during actual swimming training because the resistance applied to the muscles from the water was not great enough.
To correct this, weight training was introduced. The coaches wisely ignored the objection that their swimmers would become muscle,bound by engaging in weight training, and quickly learned that the weight, training exercises, far from producing negative effects on their swimmers, produced huge increases in strength in their upper arms, shoulders, and back, allowing the swimmers to make great improvements in their performance.
Lee immediately saw a parallel between the swim, mers in the water and the "dryland" martial art training in which he was engaged where he typ' ically performed kicks and punches in the air with no resistance.
Lee noted that such movements were a form of calisthenics, which have value but are limited in their results because they lack any progressive resistance for the muscles to overcome and thus become stronger. Lee's conclusion was the same as that of the Yale swimming coaches: It was time to incorporate weight training into his workouts.
The Advantage of Resistance Exercise Lee liked the fact that the training motions used with barbells and dumbbells were natural body motions that could be adapted to strengthen any positioning or movement of the limbs. The ex, ercises to be performed with barbells were basically simple movements that required little if any skill or learning. Lee further found that barbell and dumbbell exercises were perfectly adaptable to all muscle groups, resulting in improvement in mechanical efficiency.
Further, resistance exercises could be measured and increased by adding weight, sets, or repetitions, according to one's own innate adaptability to exercise. In addition, Lee found that strength training was also an activity he could continue with great benefit throughout the remainder of his life. To this end, Lee found it beneficial to occasionally ignore adding repetitions or weight, and concentrate instead on working to reduce the overall performance time of his workout.
Lee would carefully time his workouts, striving to execute each repetition as quickly as possible. The recovery period between muscle groups was also timed and, if increased stamina was one of his goals during a particular workout, an effort would be made to reduce the length of his recovery periods between sets.
It is always important to keep the various physical factors in their true perspective in order to fully appreciate the benefits derived from a program of strength training. Note that I say "less value. The old adage of "a stronger athlete is a better athlete" comes to mind here. In short, the development of muscle and strength cannot be carried far without the intelligent use of the strength acquired. The Role of Overload in Strength Training Excluding physical defects and some pathological conditions, your present physical condition is not static or fixed.
Your physical condition merely reflects the specific adaptation of your body to your everyday life. Changes in the state of your physical condition are possible, however. Muscles can be strengthened through strength training. Your heart can become more efficient through endurance training, and usually the range of motion of joints can be improved by incorporating a sound flexibility program. Whichever procedure is decided on, the overload should be gradual to permit adaptation to take place without undue strain on the body.
Excessive muscle soreness and fatigue due to overwork is unnecessary. However, it is normal to have some muscle soreness and fatigue at the start of training. In fact, muscle sore, ness may reflect the effectiveness of the training. As an example, consider the man who lifts a maximum of 60 pounds in his daily work.
If he wishes to in, crease the strength of the mus, cles used in that movement without undue soreness, he should start training by lifting 70 or 75 pounds, not or pounds, even though his rate of improvement would be faster with the heavier load. If an unconditioned individual who can do a maximum of ten push, ups with extreme effort wishes to train to do more, he or she should start below his or her maximal level until some conditioning for that activity is attained.
After this, the overload principle may be applied without undue stress. Regarding the nature of overload, it should be remembered that the strength of a muscle is determined by the use made of it in carrying on your daily activities. For example, if no supple, mentary exercises are taken and the maximum load placed on a muscle during your daily activities does not exceed 60 pounds, then this is the strength of that muscle. The muscle strength has adapted specifically to your needs. If greater strength is desired, it will be necessary to make that muscle contract against a greater load until it has adapted to the overload.
The essentials of training, therefore, are overload and adaptation. What Is Strength Training? What exactly is strength training? Does it mean struggling against tremendously heavy weights and seeing how much weight you can hoist overhead in a single,attempt lift? Not necessarily. Weight training is simply one aspect of strength training, which is broadly divided into four main activities: 1. Weight Lifting Weight lifting is a sport in its own right, in which competitors attempt to lift the maximum pos, sible weight in certain specifically defined techniques.
Bodybuilding In bodybuilding, lighter weights are used in a variety of exercises and in varying sets of repe, titions in order to develop the physique. The main objectives are usually to increase muscle size, remedy physical defects, or proportion, ately and harmoniously develop the body as a whole.
Weight Training Weight training is training with light weights, again in a variety of exercises and in varying sets of repetitions, but with more specific ob, jectives in view, such as improving your physi, cal condition or health or for the purpose of improving your performance in activities such as martial art.
Isometrics Isometrics is a mode of training without any weight. What is required is a maximal contraction of the muscles against a fixed or immovable resistance, such as a bar that has been placed through the appropriate holes in a power rack. Your Training Record No matter what forms of strength training you opt to incorporate into your total fitness routine, if increased strength is your goal, it is imperative to be systematic about it. Keep a note of your schedules and progressions, and ensure that you continually increase the amount of work you do.
Just as you should keep a training and performance book for your martial art and daily thoughts and discoveries, so too should you record your progress with strength training. You will find it most encouraging particularly with weight training and bodybuilding to note the steady increase in the weights you are handling. A convenient way to do so is on a record card, which is used in many weight, lifting clubs, such as the one that Bruce Lee used while in Hong Kong see Chapter 3. You will find it very useful for quick reference and guidance on the exact amount of work to be done during each session.
Bruce Lee himself utilized both day, timer diaries and notepads to keep track of his workouts and to note his progress. Application of Research Findings to Strength Training During his research into strength training, Lee learned that training with submaximalloads as little as two,thirds of maximum strength twice weekly, and maximal loads once weekly, would result in as much strength improvement as training maximally three times per week.
Granted, both methods of exercises do build strength. But there are differences in both their purpose and results. While isometrics firms and strengthens muscles rapidly, it makes little contribution to muscular endurance. Therefore, isometrics can never constitute a complete exercise program, but must be combined with aerobics and flexibility training. Weight training, on the other hand, leads to increased muscle size, which mayor may not be a desirable objective for the trainee.
Isometrics performed in the conventional manner-that is, without resistance-cannot be measured without the use of special equipment. More recently, with the creation of Power Factor Training, weight training can be measured in terms of the amount of work you perform over a given unit of time. Different combinations of weights and repetitions yield different types of benefits.
In other words, weight training can be adjusted from the extreme of strength building like isometrics to the extreme of building tone and endurance like calisthenics. The formula is simple: More weight with less repetitions equals strength; less weight with more repetitions equals tone and endurance. He studied them thoroughly, cut, ting through the hype and sales pitches to find subject matter that interested him or held particular relevance to his training objec, tives, such as gaining muscle mass, strengthening his forearms, or creating definition.
When he came across such an article, he would cut the article out and save it in an appropriate folder. And in his quest for strength, the first training theory that caught his attention was the then revolutionary method of isometric or static contractions.
Bruce Lee was a firm believer in isometrics training and uti, lized it extensively throughout the mid, to late s. Isometrics had received a great deal of press, particularly in the weight, train, ing and bodybuilding publications coming out of York, Pennsylva, nia, which reported monthly on the spectacular results of competitive weight lifters who had incorporated this training technique into their programs. What the magazines failed to mention, however, was that most of these same athletes were incorporating pills known as anabolic steroids into their programs as well.
Once this was discov, ered, the general response was to dismiss isometrics as a fad that only worked when performed in conjunction with synthetic testosterone. This may have been a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, however, as a very real case for the benefit of isometrics in building strength can be made. The most convincing defense of isometrics, and the one that won Bruce Lee over to incor, porating it into his total fitness program, came from Bob Hoffman, a man who admittedly made money from propagating the system but who was also no stranger to the realm of strength train, ing, having coached championship weight lifters from through He was named coach of the United States Olympic weight, lifting teams of and , both of which won the un, official team scoring.
Hoffman's position was, simply, that strength is the most important quality in every form of arhletic or physical endeavor. Endurance the ability to continue this strength over a long period , -oordination, control, balance, and judgment of space and distance, which come from strength,. Many people wonder how a single exercise without movement could produce results comparable or even superior to an exercise with movement. Let's consider movements such as the weight, lifting move, ments of the curl and press that Bruce Lee incorporated into his barbell workouts.
Only one or two seconds are required to take a curl from thigh level to chin height. The hardest part of the curl is not the start or the finish, but instead the middle of the curl, where leverage causes the greatest effort. Yet the muscles are in this position for only a fraction of a second. With isometric contraction, the muscles would be exerting full force in this position for twelve seconds, so, theoretically, one effort here could build as much strength as more than a dozen repetitions per, formed in the conventional fashion.
Hoffman advised that the trainee must be sure to continually and conscientiously exert all possible pressure upon the immovable bar. Since no actual movement is involved, no results are observable while doing an exercise, and easing off must be guarded against. Bruce Lee believed that percent effort at all times was necessary, so he concentrated fully on generating such effort while per, forming each movement. There are three basic positions in the conventional performance of isometric exercise: one about three inches above the starting position, one about three inches below the finishing position, and an intermediate position.
In a full, range barbell movement, the weight resistance is only in the most difficult position for a fraction of a second, but in the practice of isometric contraction, the resistance is applied with maximum force for nine to twelve seconds in the most difficult position. That is the chief reason for the rapid gains in strength that result from the practice of isometrics, and one of the reasons Bruce Lee thought so highly of it.
In addition to using his power rack, Lee also liked working with a portable isometric train, ing device made for him by one of his students, George Lee no relation. This piece of appara, tus allowed him to push, pull, press, and curl against an immovable object. The photograph on this page shows Lee adjusting the bar attached to a chain that, in turn, was attached to a block of wood upon which he stood, thus rendering it immovable.
Some Pointers on Performing Isometric Exercises 1. Do not do too much! One repetition in 8 different movements is plenty. You should be able to complete your isometric exercise routine in 15 to 20 minutes.
Be sure not to rest too long between movements. File Name: bruce lee workout routine muscle and fitness. We have created cards with the most common and efficient body weight exercises, ordered by level and worked muscle area, plus a quick access to variations of each exercise. To browse Academia. Skip to main content. By using our site, you agree to our collection of information through the use of cookies.
To learn more, view our Privacy Policy. How do you improve on perfection? Better yet how do you take someone as perfectly built as Bruce Lee and create a Bruce Lee workout worthy of his name.
Although he left us prematurely more than 40 years ago, there are few people today not familiar with the martial arts icon. I am convinced that as a result of the combination of current training methods and his progressive philosophy, he would have been even better today.
Training methods, like technology, have come a long way since. Martial Arts Training Bruce Lee, born on 27 November , was not just a legendary martial artist but also a renowned movie star, philosopher, and cultural icon. Lee captured everyones attention with his magnificent performance in the movie Enter the Dragon back in However, he tragically passed away the same year at the age of His approach to martial arts was broad-based, and he believed that creativity could only be achieved if you apply it without restrictions through freedom of mind.
Though he was originally trained in the traditional Kung Fu style Wing Chun by his grandmaster Yip Man, Lee progressed further and invented a new style of fighting, called Jeet Kune Do that is based on the philosophy Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless.
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