Bruce Lee Fitness and Exercise Forum

I never bought into it because I have always known Karate was a joke, but I never knew how weak he was at the actual movements until I saw his home workout footage.

Yeah that footage has been on youtube for a long time (not sure about that specific video). Seen it many years ago.
 
It does look like Tarantino misinterpreted the excerpt from Caldwell's book.

Regarding Lee's avoiding leg day... his legs look totally proportional. He was a cut dude. Good for him. Highly motivated. He should have done more in legitimate fighting work but it didn't pay back in the day. Perhaps his form would have improved instead of wasting his time on Karate. Certainly he did what he had to do to make money and that meant manufacturing his backstory and this Karate BS.

Yeah that's about the only thing I can respect about him these days. Can't take his work ethic and success away from him.
 
Legs, back and chest are done on different days, not going to put the other routines in here that are off topic. Bruce was not doing squats and presses and he did bench presses like everyone else so nothing ground breaking there.

I am also doing pull up/chin up work on offdays to try and increase my max reps and strength.


I can't find the pic, but he did squat.

 
I don’t do any negative-only work, but I do the negative part of the rep more slowly than the positive. Do you think this has any incremental benefit?


The negative is always slower. No, not as a set.

This thread would actually be useful if it related to his diet. 95% of his appearance was due to his diet. You can have the strongest abs and back in the world but it won't show through 25% BF.

I state "diet" and not lifestyle. The guy was a train wreck. Dies of heat stroke due to a lack of hydration. No anaphylaxis; not aspirin. The guy had taken aspirin all of his (adult) life. He was rumored to be taking diuretics.

Not one of the 60-90s action stars were legit fighters and Karate is a joke.
 
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I can't find the pic, but he did squat.



Sorry seems when I was writing I did not finish my thoughts as I was doing this on my phone, he was not doing squats to hit a 1 Rep maxium. He was known for mixing in to his bench press, high reps, lower weight for muscle endurance. I prefer the usual squats and bench press.
 
This Bruce vs Ali debate is comically .... because of the fact Ali was a dancer/rope a doper himself avoiding (most of the time) the brunt of the opponent punches.

He got his first title over Sonny Liston (a real drug addict) with the so-called mystery punch. Sonny was told to take a dive or else. He lost at least twice to Joe Frazier although Frazier was only given one victory. Kenny Norton beat him as well but was denied by the judges.

The second half of his career he beat up tincans and out-smarted Foreman which wasn't too hard to do.

Two snippets of interest from wikipedia

Following the Manila bout, Ali fought Jean-Pierre Coopman, Jimmy Young, and Richard Dunn, winning the last by knockout. The punch Ali used to knockout Dunn was taught to Ali by TaekwondoGrandmasterJhoon Rhee. Rhee called that punch the "Accupunch", he learnt it from Bruce Lee.[88] The Dunn fight was the last time Ali would knock down an opponent in his boxing career.

By the end of his boxing career Ali had absorbed 200,000 hits.
 
I believe Bruce Lee would beat Ali in a fight if Ali had to wear boxing gloves and Lee were allowed to kick. In a street fight, I would still give Lee the edge if Ali had no ground game, but Lee did, as 95% of fights end up with opponents getting entangled with each other. A smaller guy with ground skills will beat a bigger guy without ground skills. Submissions, choke holds, riding one’s opponent until they get winded, and taking their opponent’s legs out from under them are advantages the martial artist has over a opponent who only knows boxing. Sure Ali has world class abilities with the weight and reach advantage. But time and time again we have seen pure boxers get beat decisively by smaller martial artists and ground guys on UFC.

I have experienced getting beaten by a shorter state champion wrestler several times that I outweighed by about 35%. I also knew basic wrestling moves. Although my opponent was stronger than me and could bench press twice his body weight, he made it a point not to use his superior strength against me and relied on technique instead. No need for me to feel too bad because on several occasions my opponent had crushed people twice his weight in bar fights.

I knew an American Muay Thai fighter at Gold’s Gym in Naples, FL. He demonstrated the “1 inch” punch and knife fighting techniques. It was astonishing how hard he could hit with his fist just by snapping his wrist. Actually, his 1” punch involved precisely timing the movement of his hips as well. Underestimate martial artists, including Jiu Jitsu and wrestlers at your own risk.
 
I believe Bruce Lee would beat Ali in a fight if Ali had to wear boxing gloves and Lee were allowed to kick. In a street fight, I would still give Lee the edge if Ali had no ground game, but Lee did, as 95% of fights end up with opponents getting entangled with each other. A smaller guy with ground skills will beat a bigger guy without ground skills. Submissions, choke holds, riding one’s opponent until they get winded, and taking their opponent’s legs out from under them are advantages the martial artist has over a opponent who only knows boxing. Sure Ali has world class abilities with the weight and reach advantage. But time and time again we have seen pure boxers get beat decisively by smaller martial artists and ground guys on UFC.

I have experienced getting beaten by a shorter state champion wrestler several times that I outweighed by about 35%. I also knew basic wrestling moves. Although my opponent was stronger than me and could bench press twice his body weight, he made it a point not to use his superior strength against me and relied on technique instead. No need for me to feel too bad because on several occasions my opponent had crushed people twice his weight in bar fights.

I knew an American Muay Thai fighter at Gold’s Gym in Naples, FL. He demonstrated the “1 inch” punch and knife fighting techniques. It was astonishing how hard he could hit with his fist just by snapping his wrist. Actually, his 1” punch involved precisely timing the movement of his hips as well. Underestimate martial artists, including Jiu Jitsu and wrestlers at your own risk.


Strange post, nothing (not much maybe ?) wrong with wrestling and (b)jj when it comes to grappling, but claiming Bruce Lee grappling skills are similar to well trained guys in those sports sounds akin to saying Romeo Dev was an Olympia level bodybuilder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1q7JBclsZI
 
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Strange post, nothing (not much maybe ?) wrong with wrestling and (b)jj when it comes to grappling, but claiming Bruce Lee grappling skills are similar to well trained guys in those sports sounds akin to saying Romeo Dev was an Olympia level bodybuilder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1q7JBclsZI

I would still give Lee the edge if Ali had no ground game, but Lee did, as 95% of fights end up with opponents getting entangled with each other.

You misread my post or I was not clear that I did not know about the level of Lee’s grappling ability. Highlighted above is a line from my previous post and the words “if” and “but”.

I respect both Ali and Lee. My opinions are based upon weighing the available information that I am aware of and not some sort of “romantic” inclination towards Lee.
 
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