Hello, I am Cain from India, I am a really big fan of Bruce Lee, however I have a question about his training- From what I know Bruce used to do a lot of weight training, but still he managed to keep himself perfectly built and without looking like a mountain of meat, now my question is how did he manage to achieve this? Did he do isometric exercises [or polymetrics] OR did he handled the weights differently? If yes then how?
hi chain it's TkdWarrior from Delhi howdy buddy?Welcome here... chain u answered ur question urself... yup most of his excercises were based on plyometrics and one thing was he was always changing his ways of excercising techniques(acc to Linda lee)...if u need help with excercises then say so... sayin how he handled weights would be little tough... -TkdWarrior-
Hi Bruce Lee used regular weight training routines by today's standards. Nothing out of the ordinary - I have a lot of them written down. You must remember 2 key points.... 1. Just because "Bruce Lee did it" doesn't make it valid 30+ years later. Things progress - and he put himself in hospital with a back injury by doing weight training wrong 2. The results of his weight training that you speak of i.e lack of bulk, where a result if his genetics. The biggest lesson you can learn from Bruce Lee, and one I strive for as a JKD instructor, is to do what he did - ie. find YOUR path - don't just blindly follow his or anyone elses - or you will trap yourself in the very things he was aiming to free us from.
Hi Cain, and welome to the forums. I am also a die hard Bruce Lee fan TKD and Yoda, thanx for answering his question. I never thougt in depth about Bruce's weight training methods, but the input you guys gave was nice, and also something that I may be able to look into. Thanx for this thread
Thanx for the reply guys, I guess I should take yoda's suggestion seriously to be 'myself' rather than 'to be like' Bruce Lee. As for his weight training I have one more question, for which is more effective for strength? Holding a dumbell in a flexed position or doin' reps with it? will alternate dumbell exercisesbuild muscle mass or strength? Also can you help me with some plyometrics exercises for kicking? I would really appreciate it. and thanx again for the reply
From what I've read, Bruce Lee considered himself scrawny and was always trying to get more massive. But from today's weight training knowledge, do sets of 2-6 reps with as much weight as you can handle (with a good spotter, and after you've gotten used to weights with 10-14 rep sets) to build strength. To build mass, 8-10 rep sets, and focus on your negatives-the eccentric portion of the movement is where you can break down the most muscle. For speed, as you seem to know, plyometrics are good. Also, there's a novel approach to radically increasing your percentage of fast-twitch muscle fibers in an article on avantlabs.com http://www.mindandmuscle.net/magazine/i2strength.html Really great, check it out.
guys it was jus his genetics period. He was more than likly an ectomorph like me. I have a question how tall was he and how much did he weigh?
Wow thanx guys I thought this thead was dead thanx for bringing it back to the living guys. I checked out the link and all I could say was Wow! Hmm...Matt, Bruce Lee's height was 'bout 5'7 and he weighed 'bout 140 pounds [I think ] |Cain|
And when he died he had three percent bodyfat, which is one of the factors blamed in his death, although little publicised.
hmm...ckdstudent I am not a scientist or anything but how does one die with only three percent on fat in his body? |Cain|
When bodybuilding there are many different factors which yield different results. As far as my knowledge goes, there was a time when Lee had bulked up, and was disatisfied with it. ( This may be totally false) Genetics is a big part, but so is the way you work out. If you lift a lighter wieght for higher reps, you will get higher endurance muscle without gaining alot of size. To buld for size, you lift a heavier weight for fewer reps. Bodybuilding is an art and science in itself. I believe all martial artists should take part in it.
Bodyfat is several things, insulation, spare mass, and energy store. With only 3% body fat you've got nearly no energy store, and nearly no insulation. It would also mean that he had very little mass to dilute anything toxic to him.
