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Physical parameters of Bruce Lee. bruce lee training program

The legendary man, Bruce Lee was born on November 27, 1940 in San Francisco, where his father, an actor in the Chinese theater, temporarily performed. His youth passed in the homeland of his parents, in China, Hong Kong. A remarkable fact is that, having barely been born, at the age of 3 months, baby Bruce starred in a film where his father played.

Bruce's life since childhood was connected with cinema, thanks to his parents. In total, Lee starred in 20 films before he was 15 years old. Of course, they did not bring him income, except for pocket expenses, but the creative experience acquired by Bruce during all that time was enormous.

At the age of 12, his parents sent Bruce to La Salle College, a kind of school for all-round development, both mental and physical. At 13, young Bruce Lee expressed a desire to learn kung fu, citing the fact that he could not stand up for himself in street fights. The parents liked the hobby of their son and they sent him to the legendary Wing Chun master Ip Man for training.

In addition to kung fu, Bruce went to dance classes, namely the cha-cha-cha dance, and soon became the winner of China. The excellent coordination of movements acquired in dancing helped Bruce reach unprecedented heights in kung fu.

In 1958, Bruce Lee won his college boxing championship by defeating a three-time, far-outweight champion. Lee began to fight more and more often on the streets, as the fame of his success in kung fu gave rise to envy among many of his peers. After another skirmish, in which, enraged by the actions of his opponent, Bruce knocked out several of his teeth, for which he was brought to the police, his father sent him to a friend in San Francisco to save the guy from a negative future.

Soon Bruce Lee moved to Seattle, where he got a job as a waiter, enrolling at the Edison Higher Technical School along the way. Meanwhile, he continued to practice kung fu, improve his body and come up with his own techniques in combat techniques. After graduating from technical school, Bruce entered the University of Washington at the Faculty of Philosophy.

In 1961, at the age of 21, Bruce opens his own kung fu school and, in addition, begins to lecture in many educational institutions on the philosophy of combat. Bruce Lee's kung fu school was different from all others in that it accepted people of all nationalities, while other kung fu masters in America recruited exclusively Asians into their ranks.

For this, Bruce was repeatedly called to fights, from which he always emerged victorious. Lee was incredibly fast and strong, his fighting tactic was to land as many hits as possible in a short amount of time. An ideal fight, according to Lee, should last no more than 5 seconds, after which the opponent should be defeated. This is what Bruce always went for, sparing neither himself nor his students.

In the records found after the death of Bruce Lee, it was said that he considers kung fu and ... bodybuilding to be the meaning of his life. Oddly enough, but Bruce Lee was very fond of this sport for its very idea. Building a perfectly folded obedient body - that was Bruce's main goal. However, he could not devote all his attention to bodybuilding for the reason that too much muscle mass could hamper his movements. And sharpness and strength - this was Bruce's calling card.

There are many rumors and legends about the strength of Bruce Lee. His students said that sometimes Bruce showed them the wonders of his body in training. In addition to push-ups on one hand, on 2 fingers, Bruce also did incredible things with iron. For example, once he gathered all the wards around him and told them that he would show what the human body is capable of with proper development. At that time, his weight was 70 kg, he took a kettlebell weighing 37 kg in each hand and spread them apart. In this position, he stood for 20 seconds.

A friend of Bruce's jiu-jitsu coach said that once, meeting Lee at the airport, he witnessed how the 65-pound Bruce easily carried a suitcase weighing 100 kg.

Bruce Lee's strength was so great that he repeatedly knocked out many martial artists who surpassed him in weight and height. Once the winner of gold at the American Judo Games 100-pound Howard Nashioka met in sparring with Bruce. As a result, he was thrown several meters away from Lee's blow, after which he did not dare to rise.

On July 20, 1973, the world was shocked by the news of the death of a cinema and sports star, Bruce Lee. He died under rather strange circumstances in his room, during a break between the filming of his last film with the fatal name "Game of Death" from cerebral edema. More than 25 thousand people came to bury the people's favorite.

The founder of his own fighting style "Way of the Preemptive Fist", movie star, outstanding trainer and legendary fighter Bruce Lee, as they say, took the secret of his strength with him to the grave. He never revealed the final formula for achieving success in building such a strong and at the same time fast body, like his. However, one thing is indisputable - all this is possible only with the help of colossal efforts and truly "iron" willpower.

User comments

Only 2 pages 1

great person

+1 -1

I am one of Bruce Lee's fans. Bruce Lee is not only an actor, he is also a philosopher.

+0 -0

Bruce Lee 34 kg for the layout of dumbbells while standing and holding a few mints! Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Bolo Young, real masters!

+0 -5

With his own weight of just over 61 kg, Bruce held a barbell weighing 57 kg with straight arms in front of him! A blow to a boxing bag weighing 136 kg led to a stunning result, the bag hung on a chain flew off and hit the ceiling!

+0 -6

The greatest, real example of the will and striving for the goal !!!

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I am one of the biggest Bruce Lee fans. And I am very pleased to see that there are still good people who appreciate the memory of great people!

+2 -1

"... once, meeting Lee at the airport, he witnessed how the 65-pound Bruce easily carried a suitcase weighing 100 kg." What are those suitcases at the airport? Or was he carrying 20 suitcases?

+3 -0

Man-Legend, I bow to his skill ...

+1 -0

If he knew now how he is respected and loved

When he was, they knew that he was, when he left, they began to appreciate, checked out

+0 -0

This often happens with artists, and with composers, in general with great people.

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I was brought up on his films. After all, in the 90s, every kid wanted to master his hands and feet so skillfully. Which led many to the martial arts section. A true master!

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bruce lee is a man of legend

+0 -0

Truly, the man is a legend. Whatever the fact, everything looks like a legend.

There are no victories in official competitions, as I understand it. All information about incredible strength and dexterity is gleaned from Chinese-style feature films. Just fucking ... Boyarsky, in this case, the best swordsman ...

Oh, the idols of my childhood, why, with the passage of time, do you turn out to be completely different from what you seemed many years ago?

Yes, I also held dumbbells weighing 37 kg for 20 seconds. And the strongmen, these overweight dead men, for some reason perform a similar exercise with a weight of 16 kg and cramps reduce their muscles, and grimaces-faces. It can be seen, indeed, there are incomprehensible things in this world, actually just one..

+5 -0

Found here, for information: the full official list of victories of the "great master". Already 11 fights in a lifetime. I note that, for example, "boxing champion Gary Elms" (1958) does not exist at all in nature. The rest of the victories are known ONLY from the words of his relatives or friends. The word "unknown" next to the enemy's name looks especially funny. That is, the dude challenged Bruce Lee to a fight, got a kick and wished to remain anonymous.

Bruce Lee has NEVER competed. That is, when an event is held under the auspices of the federation, well-known fighters gather, the fight is fought in the presence of spectators, judges and reporters. Filming is underway. Then, after the fight, the panel of judges makes a decision that is known to everyone, you just need to look into the archives of the federation. The average boxer has dozens of such fights. And a kungfu master has only 11. In his entire life.

1955: William Cheung, Hong Kong....Exch.

1957: Wong Shun-Leung, Hong Kong....Exch

1958: Pu Chang, Hong Kong....KO 2

1958: Yang Huang, Hong Kong....KO 1

(Amateur Boxing Tournament)

1958: Lieh Lo, Hong King....KO 1

(Amateur Boxing Tournament)

1958: Shen Yuen, Hong Kong....KO 1

(Amateur Boxing Tournament-Semi Finals)

1958: Gary Elms, Hong Kong....KO 3

(Amateur Boxing Tournament-Finals)

1960: Unknown, Seattle, Washington....KO 1

1960: Uechi, Seattle, Washington....KO 1

1963: Unknown, Hong Kong....KO

1965: Wong Jack-Man, Oakland, California....KO 1

+2 -0

Petrovich, do you want to say that there is a smell of KURITSINS here?)))

+1 -0

No, what are you. Kuritsin is our asymmetric answer to all this. He is both an actor and a bodybuilder, it would be better to elect him as governor and OK. No, the point is different. Namely, how easily the gullible masses swallow the most incredible information, which is brought to their attention

I must say right away that I did not practice kung fu and have nothing against Lee. I am against the wave of misinformation that different storytellers cover us with their heads, writing fables about famous people

+1 -0

I don't know what to believe anymore.

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Bruce Lee (bruce lee) is famous all over the world, and although he died at a relatively young age, his legacy is simply amazing. There are many frequently repeated facts about Lee's superhuman abilities, and if you search the Internet, you will find many articles discussing the veracity of these facts. Below are a few stories about Bruce Lee's superpowers confirmed in books. Knowledge is power.

10 Dragon Flag

Bruce Lee was a fan of training: according to his widow Linda Lee, there was no moment when Bruce did not work out (even while watching TV he sat on the splits). Of all the muscles in his body, Lee paid the most attention to the abdominal muscles, which are used in virtually any movement, and therefore are of great importance in martial arts.

In an attempt to improve the strength of his abdominal muscles, Lee invented the exercise now known as the dragon flag in his honor. If you haven't guessed yet, this is one of the most difficult exercises - after all, Lee was not some kind of slacker. Stallone may have popularized this exercise in Rocky 4, but Lee was able to perform the exercise in such a way that he could support his entire body in a horizontal position above the bench, with only his shoulders resting on the bench.

Imagine that someone had to fight Lee, and then before the fight he would see Bruce floating in the air. Even the toughest fighter would run at such a speed that he would be ahead of time.

9. Catching rice with chopsticks


Remember the scene from the movie Karate Kid where Pat Morita catches a fly with chopsticks? Yes, Bruce Lee went further. It is said that Bruce was so interested in developing his reaction that he threw rice into the air and tried to catch the falling rice. Apparently, if you can catch a small grain of rice falling on the ground, then it will be easier for you to fight the big men. Eastern martial arts!

Although it sounds useless, the sheer skill and dexterity required to perform such a stunt caused him to constantly clench his fists around women so that their hips would not separate from their torsos and run instinctively towards him. At least, that is the impression.

8 He Was Too Strong For Regular Punching Bags

At one time, Lee used many sports simulators, created especially for him by his close friend James Lee (James Lee). Some of them were collected at the request of Lee himself, others were collected out of necessity. Lee's boxing bag is an example of the second reason.

According to an unknown source, Lee's boxing bag mocked other bags, far exceeding them in size. Regular boxing bags weigh about 30 kilograms, and some even reach up to 70 kilograms. Lee's bag weighed 140 kilograms! And it was filled with metal. It's not because Lee was a braggart, he just couldn't use a lighter non-metal bag without breaking it. According to some stories, Lee could hit the punching bag so hard that it fell from the ceiling. He may not have knocked the sack off the ceiling, but once he hit the sack so hard it caused a man to have a seizure. Seriously.

7. Push-ups on one finger. Pull-ups on one arm.


How many times could you push up right now? If your answer is anything other than "so much that the Earth would think I'm trying to breed with it," you're way behind Bruce Lee. In his youth, Lee liked to show off during training. One of his favorite tricks was push-ups on one finger. The exercise is performed exactly as you think, and Bruce did it just to prove that he can. What tricks do you like to perform at parties? You can bet that your tricks now seemed pathetic to you.

Bruce's incredible strength wasn't limited to his fingers - he could also do one-arm pull-ups, and according to some sources, he could do 50 pull-ups without getting tired. Of course, this exercise is not exclusive to Bruce, but the fact that he did it just because he could, brings us a certain pride that we live in the same world in which his biceps existed.

6. Inch punch


This is one of Lee's most famous skills, and no wonder. Lee possessed such strong arms that he could knock down a grown man from a distance of about 2.5 centimeters. This skill is so impressive that scientists have interviewed many martial artists to find out how this is possible. There is even a rare video clip of Lee performing a one-inch kick on a wooden plank, apparently so that the trees who watched the video would know their place. There are also stories according to which Bruce used a blow on schoolchildren - he greatly appreciated the education of subsequent generations. Lesson number 1: Don't piss off Bruce Lee.

5. It was impossible to hit him


Bruce Lee, who became a star for being very good at fighting people, was naturally often called to fight on the street, because people in the 70s were shockingly stupid.
Fights usually ended the same way: Bruce simply brushed them off like a fight with passers-by did not make any sense. However, sometimes those who wished were too intrusive and Bruce Lee had to show where the crayfish hibernate. During his life, Lee fought on the street three times and none of his opponents even hit him once - he was too fast. When he was offered to fight on the set of Enter the Dragon, Bruce avoided all the blows of the enemy and pinned him against the wall. Then he taught the fool a lesson.

To teach a person who is the instigator of street fights how to fight better - the logic of this is not entirely clear. But we will not argue simply because in the afterlife we ​​don’t really want to justify ourselves to Lee.

4. He could take a coin out of a person's hand and replace it with another


Lee's speed is so legendary that many cheetahs hang a picture of him in their lair, and Usain Bolt has to watch Bruce's movies in slow motion.

One of the most interesting indicators of Lee's speed is his ability to pick up a coin from a person's hand. Usually it happened like this - Lee gave a coin to a person's hand, after which he retreated half a meter. After that, he told the man to close his hand as soon as he saw that Bruce moved.

When a person noticed the rapid movement of Bruce Lee, he closed his palm and felt a round object in it. However, the complacency quickly passed when the person noticed that Lee was smiling and holding a coin in his hand. After that, it turned out that Lee managed to replace the coin with another in just a second. It was the last thing the fans saw before their heads exploded in annoyance. Not surprisingly, Lee died young - it is obvious that time passed twice as fast for him as for others.

3. He was too fast for the cameras

The fact that Lee's movements were so fast that they had to use cameras with increased frames per second is repeated very often. There is a deal of truth in it. True, for some reason people miss the most interesting side of it.

When this problem first arose, Lee was filming Green Hornet and noticed that all the scenes in which he fought looked like he was just standing still, and his hands were falling in front of him. For some reason, the show's producer felt that a minor character with magical powers wasn't very interesting - so he asked Lee to move slower, which helped, but Bruce still looked blurry. Lee was so fast that when he had to slow down, he looked like a blur. This is the first time that such a sentence describes anything other than a fat man eating.

2. He dislocated a guy's shoulder with a slap

If you claim that someone has superhuman abilities, it is worth showing him in such a way that it will be immediately noticeable how much he is superior to an ordinary person. But if this is Bruce Lee, perhaps it is worth showing how much he surpasses the master of martial arts.

As previously mentioned, Bruce needed special equipment to handle his strength. However, he occasionally sparred with people stupid enough to get within striking distance of Bruce Lee. This distance, by the way, was the entire area of ​​​​the state in which Bruce Lee lived at any time of his life.

In one of these sparring sessions, Bruce dislocated his partner's arm. When he was reproached for this, Bruce was embarrassed as, in his words, "it was not even a blow, but a slap." Read it again: Bruce was so much stronger than normal people that he could dislocate his shoulder with what he thought was a light slap. What happened when he didn't limit the power of his punch? Well…

1. From his blows, people literally flew up into the air


Despite the time he devoted to training and developing his strength, Bruce Lee rarely showed his true strength. Mainly because, as history has shown, he could cripple people just by standing next to them.

However, Bruce had one trick that he was very fond of using. One of Bruce's favorite things was his practice shield, which he always took with him. His favorite "prank" was to ask a man to hold this shield and let him hit it. In those days when Bruce Lee was alive, the owners of the funeral home, just in case, had tombstones prepared in advance with these words. The force he put into the punch varied, but some of his punches lifted people into the air.

Considering that Bruce could force people to overcome the gravity of the Earth with a simple blow, it is not surprising that God noticed this and asked him to come to heaven as his personal bodyguard.

The personality of Bruce Lee, the world-famous cinematographer and unsurpassed master of martial arts, is still surrounded by an aura of mystery. During his relatively short life (1940-1973) he managed to achieve a level of skill that is still not only unsurpassed, but is generally beyond comprehension. He is credited with a huge number of achievements, many of which are little confirmed. In our article, we will highlight all the significant records of Bruce Lee - both official and unofficial.

Guinness Book of Records

If someone believes that Bruce Lee specifically convened commissions to confirm his records, he is mistaken. In the famous Guinness Book of Records, Bruce Lee's record was recorded only once, and not for partial achievements: he was enrolled there as a person who had over 800 fights in the ring during his career. Although there is practically no documentary evidence of this.

Bruce hated to fight in public, and if anyone challenged him, then the fight took place in private on the territory of the possessions of Bruce himself. There were no cameras at the same time, so only the only officially confirmed battle of the great master has come down to us. Here is his short video.

But although Bruce Lee did not particularly shine in the Guinness Book of Records, many of his achievements are officially confirmed and unbeaten to this day. Let's move on to them.

Officially confirmed records

These are the achievements that have ever been made before the eyes of journalists, and which have been sanctified in the credible serious press, memoirs and other literary works of famous personalities. Bruce Lee's officially confirmed world records include:

  • The ability to deliver blows at such a speed that the then video technology - 24 frames per second - simply could not have time to capture these blows. To shoot fights with Bruce, I had to shoot his actions at a frequency of 32 frames per second, but the lines turned out to be blurry.
  • Bruce's ability to hold a "corner" (legs bent at an angle of 90 degrees relative to the body, legs straightened at the knees) with an emphasis on his hands for more than 30 minutes in a row.
  • The ability, with its weight of 65 kg, to hold a 34-kilogram weight on an arm extended parallel to the earth's surface for more than 3 seconds.
  • The ability to break through the tin of the then steel beer bottles with the fingers of the hand.
  • The ability to pull up, hanging on the crossbar on the same little fingers, and push-ups, resting on the ground with two fingers of one of the hands.
  • The ability to toss and catch rice grains in flight with chopsticks.

Records recorded by unofficial sources

Bruce Lee's records include the following achievements:

  • The force of his side impact was such that he tore through the fabric of hanging bags of dense burlap filled with rice.
  • Bruce wound 16 km on an exercise bike in one approach (duration - 45 minutes).
  • He could topple a 200-kilogram man to the ground with just a touch of his hand (he called this the "Master's Touch" or "Chie Kick" strike).
  • Once, the master managed to break through a helmet to protect the face with a blow of his fist, which at the test could not be broken with a sledgehammer.
  • Bruce could kick a 136 kg punching bag into flight so that it hit the ceiling.
  • Demonstrating his speed, he could easily replace a coin of one denomination lying in the palm of a person with a coin of another denomination, while he had time to squeeze his palm.
  • He could pull himself up on the horizontal bar, hanging on one arm, over 50 times.
  • From a place, he could jump to a height of 3 meters.
  • Bruce has never lost a fight in the history of his fighting career.

Records and facts from the cinema and gaming industry

Bruce Lee's records apply not only to sports and physiological achievements. He especially "inherited" in the film and gaming industry. Here is a list of the main well-known facts:


Conclusion

Bruce Lee is to this day a legend and an unsurpassed master. The world-famous film actor and bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger said that Bruce's body is the standard for the complete absence of fat in the body. This great man died at the age of 32 and was buried in the state of Washington, in Seattle.

Thanks to him, Hollywood first learned about kung fu. He is also a martial artist, instructor, philosopher, director and founder of Jeet Kune Do! And all this is about one person - the brilliant Bruce Lee, who, unfortunately, died at only 32 years old.

We have as many as two dozen facts proving that Bruce Lee was not an ordinary person, but had truly phenomenal abilities!

Bruce Lee is a martial artist, instructor, philosopher, director and founder of Jeet Kune Do.

1. Slow motion

Bruce Lee perfected his movements to such a speed that he could catch a grain of rice in the air using only chopsticks. He was so fast that the speed of shooting films with his participation was deliberately slowed down so that the audience could see his movements.

2. Coin trick

Bruce Lee could grab a coin lying on a person's open palm and change it to another coin before the person notices his movements and clenched his hand into a fist. He never stopped experimenting with his workouts to get the best results.

3. "Game of death"

Bruce Lee played a major role in the film "The Game of Death" after ... his death. The film contains footage taken at his funeral, with Bruce in the coffin. Since the actor died before filming was completed, some scenes were done with the help of editing and stunt doubles.

4. Don't piss me off

Bruce Lee hit his partner so hard that he broke his arm, with which he defended himself from the blow. It happened when Lee cut his hand with a bottle due to a mistake made by Bob Wall. So he hit him with the other hand in the next scene and miscalculated the force a bit. In fact, Voll was expecting a blow, but did not think that it would be so strong.

5. 11 seconds

In 1962, Bruce Lee managed to make 15 punches and send his opponent to a knockout in a fight that lasted 11 seconds. Also, Bruce Lee fans are still trying to replicate his famous one-inch punch.

6. 50 push-ups on one arm

Bruce Lee could perform 50 push-ups on one arm, resting on the floor only with his thumb and forefinger. He could also pull himself up 50 times on two fingers of one hand. Many of today's athletes are trying to master Lee's push-up technique.

7. Hong Kong Champion

Bruce Lee became the Hong Kong Cha Cha Champion in 1958. The legendary Bruce was only 18 years old.

8. Spinal injury

Bruce Lee managed to overcome a serious spinal injury. As a result of an unsuccessful training, his fourth vertebra was damaged. This meant the end of a career for any athlete, and doctors also said that Bruce would have to learn to walk again within six months and avoid stress for the rest of his life. But Lee proved to the doctors that they were wrong in their verdict. He developed his own therapy and was soon out of the hospital to become even stronger and faster than before.

9. Heaped on Jackie Chan

He once accidentally beat up Jackie Chan. In the movie Enter the Dragon, Jackie was hit hard in the face by a staff from Bruce, but turned the whole incident into a joke and just enjoyed the opportunity to meet and hug his idol.

10. Can of Coca-Cola

Lee could pierce a closed can of Coca-Cola with his finger. Moreover, at that time, banks were made of much thicker tin.

11. Boards are boring to beat

But he stated that “boards are boring to beat because they don’t resist” and preferred sparring with people.

12. Broken pear

While training with Coburn, Bruce Lee broke a 68 kg punching bag. James Coburn was one of the screen stars Lee taught martial arts.

13. Bruce is stronger than Chuck

Chuck does not like to talk about it, but he once admitted that his friend Bruce Lee could easily defeat him in battle.

14. Idol idols

Bruce Lee was a fan of The Great Gum, the only undefeated wrestler in the world. The career of the Great Gam lasted for 50 years.

15. Bruce is a peacemaker

In Bosnian Mostar, a statue of Bruce Lee was erected, because he was liked by all ethnic segments of the population living in this city. The statue was later destroyed by vandals.

16. Lee studied boxing technique

Bruce Lee was a big fan of Muhammad Ali and constantly watched recordings of his fights. Lee studied the movements of a boxer in great detail.

17 Equagesic

Bruce Lee died from an allergic reaction to painkillers. He died at the age of 32 from an allergic reaction to Equagesic.

18.0.05 seconds

The speed of Bruce Lee was officially registered: the reaction and impact from a distance of 1 meter took about five hundredths of a second (0.05 seconds). There is a fight scene where he took down 50 opponents in a few seconds.

19. A quarter German

His mother Grace Ho was half German and Catholic.

20. Yip Man and Bruce

Yip Man, the man who taught Bruce Lee martial arts, opened his own school to earn money for opium. Bruce Lee promised his teacher that he would keep the kung fu technique only for the Chinese and would never show it to foreigners, but he did not keep his promise.

Concerning the unsurpassed martial artist bruce lee There are many stereotypes and judgments that, to put it mildly, are not entirely true. This is partly due to elementary ignorance, partly to forgetfulness about certain facts. In particular, it is considered that above all in the training process the legendary dragon put exercises on the concentration of efforts, dynamics, speed. Strength training was allegedly not held in high esteem by him. But an attentive viewer must have noticed that, unlike many aces of martial arts, Bruce Lee's body could well be a visual aid to the study of the anatomical atlas in terms of muscles - literally every muscle stood out so prominently on it. Is this possible without strength training? Hardly.

And indeed, not so long ago it became known (from the materials of the personal archives of the famous athlete) that he was passionately fond of not only karate; bodybuilding was also included in the scope of his interests and the attitude of the master towards him was more than serious. In addition to the purely sporting aspect, another point is also important here: in order to successfully act in films (of the corresponding genre), the body must look spectacular - this is an important success factor. Such entertainment is almost impossible without bodybuilding.

Therefore, the eternal debate about whether athletes whose specialization in martial arts needs heavy strength training or can be limited to the development of flexibility and dynamics, from the point of view of the example of Bruce Lee, are resolved unequivocally: they are needed, necessary. Objections regarding muscle enslavement, a decrease in muscle reactivity as a result of bodybuilding, can only be partially accepted. It's all about the right combination of strength and other exercises, the selection of the optimal training regimen.


Colleagues tell

Let us turn to the testimonies, as they say, eyewitnesses. John Lewis (one of the students of the invincible dragon) recalls how once Bruce Lee weighed himself before starting training (he weighed about 70 kg), then picked up two dumbbells for himself, each of which was approximately half his own weight in mass (37 kg). With the next step, he took dumbbells, spread (very slowly) to the sides of his arms. In this position, he held training shells for twenty seconds. J. Lewis noted to himself that not every bodybuilder weighing even about a hundred kilograms could repeat this.

Another American specialist in martial arts and their apologist John Rea claims that Bruce Lee really appreciated muscle strength. According to him, the dragon was very strong, Ri did not meet similar strength in anyone of those with whom he was familiar. In the presence of John, Bruce did multiple push-ups from the floor (including on one hand and, finally, on one finger in general).

It is clear that Bruce Lee is a unique athlete with outstanding natural abilities. At the same time, arrogance was not in the least characteristic of him, and he attached great importance to constant training (and especially strength training). This is evidenced by the entries in the athlete's personal diary. Another fact that speaks about Bruce Lee's attitude to strength exercises: the famous master owned a collection of posters, photographs with images of famous representatives of bodybuilding (among them is a photo of Dave Drapper, and not too famous back then).


Bodybuilding in the life and career of Bruce Lee

In a word, it is not difficult to conclude that the dragon was not at all a "stranger" person in bodybuilding; on the contrary, Bruce was well versed in its intricacies and loved this mixture of art and sports. It is known from open biographical sources that back in 1969, the outstanding master of martial arts “befriended” Jimmy Lee, who was seriously engaged in bodybuilding. Friends often trained together; Bruce at that time participated in training and, together with other fairly significant figures in the world of bodybuilding. At the same time, he showed awareness in theory and noticeable skill in practice. Now there is information that the dragon was previously fond of exercises that develop muscle strength. In particular, new data indicate that in 1965 (not yet living in the United States), the athlete was actively working in the gym. Then he usually performed a set of twelve exercises (ten of them using the superset method). However, at that time the athlete had not yet reached his best condition.

At the beginning of his career, Bruce Lee often felt a lack of stamina and strength, although from the outside it was mostly invisible. But the wife of the athlete, Linda, said that in fairly long fights, Bruce clearly felt a lack of energy for a worthy end to the fight; this fact greatly disappointed and upset him. Indeed, the final phase of the duel is the most important, decisive for the outcome of the battle. It was during this period that Bruce Lee turns to the help of bodybuilding. He carefully studies the theory of the issue using established literature and new publications (in particular, in the journals "Bodybuilder and Strength", "Mr. Olympia"), tries many methods and techniques in practice, chooses the most suitable ones for himself. Having already moved to Los Angeles, again according to Linda's recollections, Bruce continued to look for literature of interest to him on various issues related to bodybuilding (nutrition, training, regimen, recovery, etc.). After the tragic death of the famous master, his son inherited an extensive library of specialized literature, which included many works on martial arts and about one hundred and forty works on bodybuilding.

Also in the house of Bruce Lee were the necessary equipment for strength training - barbells, large weight dumbbells, dumbbells in a set (total weight - 50 kg), racks for bench presses. The outstanding athlete's training regime is now known: he did (only strength exercises) three times a week. In addition, there were daily aerobics and flexibility classes. Details, schemes of classes in our time are easily available on the Internet or in special publications. Bruce Lee was also interested in methods of dealing with deposits of subcutaneous fat; he bought various drugs recommended in the literature and tried their effects on himself. Unfortunately, on these issues, his conclusions remained unknown.

Own system of diverse training

Bruce Lee finally embodied his concept of the training process methodically around 1970. Its basic position was the search for an individual approach based on trial and error, intuitive findings, confirmed by practice.

In the athlete's personal training system, bodybuilding has taken its strong place, has become an integral part of it, although a little earlier it acted as a temporary assistant in maintaining and developing muscle strength. Until the end of his life, the martial arts genius showed an invariable interest in new methods of strength training; on the basis of some of them, he improved his own training regimen. In particular, one of his characteristic techniques was the use of the amplitude section, in which the muscles contracted as much as possible. This technique, according to Bruce Lee, perfectly contributes to the development of concentrated, "explosive" strength.

According to Linda Lee, her husband, as a result of regular bodybuilding, achieved outstanding athletic performance. Amazing speed, lightning-fast reaction, masterful concentration of efforts, incredible physical strength, remarkable theoretical knowledge and the highest combat skills - these are the main components of the invincibility of the famous dragon.

Now theorists see the main reason for the outstanding achievements of Bruce Lee in the fact that, unlike the great masters of martial arts, he took the liberty of somewhat departing from centuries-old traditions. The training system for fighters was fully developed already in the Middle Ages; it was sacredly revered and for a long time was absolutely unchanged. With all its merits, it clearly sinned with conservatism - everything in the world should develop. Bruce Lee was not afraid to "shake" some of the age-old foundations, expand their scope, improve at the worldview level. His genius manifested in the conceptual approaches to the training process and allowed him to combine the strengths of bodybuilding and martial arts. This combination made him great and invincible. Information from the previously classified personal training diaries of Bruce Lee fully confirms this point of view.

Video "Bruce Lee - Opportunities"

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