Bruce Lee And His Workouts

Bruce Lee was very serious about his training. Even at the beginning of his martial arts training he believed in the importance of his physical conditioning. Evidently after the challenge fight with another Chinese martial artist in Washington, he decided that with all the training he had been doing, he was still not prepared to really fight.

It was about time that he began doing more serious training so he could be the most fit he could achieve. He studied and read all he could get his hands on about, looking for that extra edge. He obtained a variety of different types of exercise equipment and even had some special made to his design.

Day and night he worked out. Even sitting in front of the TV he would be doing some kind of workout, many times with his son Brandon. He was constantly trying out new things looking for that extra edge. During one period of his life his body weight got up to 160lbs while working out with weights a lot. 160lbs was much bigger than his normal weight and he was not really comfortable with it.

Over time he eventually got his weight back down to his normal 132lbs to 138lbs range. According to Linda lee, Bruce's waist measured between 26 and 28 inches. It was after losing his weight that his perfect physique really became noticeable. He would do his train night or day and it included running, cycling and the many other things he did as well. Even with all the training he did he still realized how important it was to let the recover so it could heal and grow.

Bruce was always looking for new or innovative ways to train, wanting to improve his physical conditioning as much as he could. He desired to be in the best physical state he could be and was willing to try any and everything to reach his goal. In this process he managed to accumulate a lot of equipment.

Lee would have some equipment specially made for him so he could simulate certain conditions. A friend by the name of Herb Jackson was to build a dummy that was movable by cables and pulleys so Bruce could simulate fighting with it.

Bruce started to do a form of cross training that he used to combine all the elements of stretching strength building and cardio. He would go on 5 mile runs but would never do them the same each time. One day he may just run fast, another he would do intervals. The idea was to not always do the same thing over and over.

Two of the most important body parts Lee felt should he should concentrate on were the forearms and abs. He felt no one should begin sparing until they had strengthened their abs. He felt that the abdominal area or the core was the key to coordinating the rest of the body by providing balance and strength so he spent lots of time working on his midsection. For punching one needs strong forearms so Lee spent more time developing his, he was always trying out new and different forearm workouts.

Weight lifting was one of Lee’s key workout methods. He believed in using heavy weights but not heavy enough to cause too much exertion. He had a couple body building friends who helped him work out. He would do three days a week using basic exercises like dead lifts, squats, bench press and curls. On the other days he would do lighter workouts that were not as taxing, this he could recover somewhat from the heavier lifting.

You can see Bruce may have been ahead of the times by the way he used different methods a working out to achieve his fitness goals. They seem to have worked great for him and much of what he did back then is being done today.