Bruce Lee Fitness and Exercise Forum

[contra]

One, no one ever offered to forget training in your sport and simply do weight training. Bruce trained hours a day martial arts (let's not forget as I said he was a teacher/trainer for 7-8 years before the first big movie role and still trained harder than anyone at the time. (as per Chuck Norris, Bob Wall, Jim Baker, etc..)

Two, every athlete in any sport supplements their training with resistance training, plyometrics and other similar training.

The famous story is that Bruce Lee took on a challenger in 1964 a fight that lasted almost 3 minutes and he was disappointed it took so long and also that he was so winded. That was the turning point that made him a fanatic about training and endurance and changed the course of his training going forward.

Look at him in 1964-1965 versus where he was in in 1971. Major body change.
So you have not said anything different that what I am discussing.

Bruce Lee's routines changed constantly. He was always studying and looking for improved techniques and discarded what was time wasting. If you research his routines you will see over time how he added in new elements a lot, which is why he developed the physique that he did. I am offering to discuss in this thread many of the techniques that he used for various results.

I know, I didn't mean to imply anyone said anything about just doing weight training.

Don't mean to take it off topic as it started simply as talk of his fitness and training regiments. But you did say Bruce trained specifically for speed and power to support martial arts, and that's what I was commenting on. Just saying, what can be better than the top training methods used currently for that specific purpose.

 

[El OchoCinco]

I know, I didn't mean to imply anyone said anything about just doing weight training.

Don't mean to take it off topic as it started simply as talk of his fitness and training regiments. But you did say Bruce trained specifically for speed and power to support martial arts, and that's what I was commenting on. Just saying, what can be better than the top training methods used currently for that specific purpose.

I believe training in your art is a given. But Lee and many of the people he trained wanted to get stronger and have more endurance. By endurance I mean muscle endurance. The difference is a boxer who can run 10 miles easily and one who can still punch for power in the later rounds.

It should be noted that most of Bruce's training was simply sparring with people (not street fights) and working on defending different skills. So he constantly trained through similar fighting you would see in the ring now. He was the first that advocated for wearing padded gloves during training and to go all out against each other. Otherwise how could you get better.



For arm strength for example he did the following:

Dumbell Rotations - hold two dumbbells out in front of him palms down and rotate wrists until they were up and then back down again.

Straight out Chest Presses - Standing with barbell at his chest he would press out horizontally and hold isometrically.

Dumbbell punches - Holding dumbbells he would do alternate punches repeatedly

Zlotman Curls - these are good curls plus forearms and some shoulder.

He would cap it off with pull ups (although a back exercise it works the grip and biceps) and it was said he did 50 one arm pull ups by several witnesses.

 

[luisHK]

​

He was the first that advocated for wearing padded gloves during training and to go all out against each other.
.

Either you forgot to end your sentence, along the line of ¨among Hong Kong ballet dancers¨ or you are more ignorant than it should be allowed to talk on the topic :

https://www.titleboxing.com/history-of-boxing-equipment

But yes, adding full contact sparring sounds like a must for a martial art to become effective, if it´s true Kun(g) Fu folks had to wait for Bruce lee to discover that, there´s little surprise they fared so poorly when confronted with fighters from competitive sports

 

[luisHK]

Besides, as hinted earlier in this thread, I agree with Contra : rather than checking the training of a dude who was playing tricks in front of cameras decades ago, you´d be better off looking into what´s done nowadays - The Rock can hold helicopters with his bare hands, and his routine is probably publicly available, it should be of interest to you, if you are neither impressed by the speed of tkdo athletes nor the overall athleticism and efficiency or mma fighters/wrestlers/boxers/kickboxers etc...

 

[luisHK]

, if it´s true Kun(g) Fu folks had to wait for Bruce lee to discover that, there´s little surprise they fared so poorly when confronted with fighters from competitive sports​

I actually doubt very much that to be true, but won´t push your buttons until saying Bruce Lee wasn´t able to kill his opponents by the sheer force his kicks applied to the air around them, that bit is obviously true :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanshou​

 

[Frederick Foresight]

“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”

And it's amazing just how sharp Occam's razor can be. If you look at his actual competitive fights, he has very few moves that he uses. But he performs them very, very well.

One other thing that I find interesting about his fighting style is that he leads with his right even though he is reportedly right-handed. This makes sense since he typically strikes at the moment his opponent attacks, so his dominant hand (and foot) are in immediate proximity. I wish I had thought of that decades ago in my karate days.

 

[El OchoCinco]

And it's amazing just how sharp Occam's razor can be. If you look at his actual competitive fights, he has very few moves that he uses. But he performs them very, very well.

One other thing that I find interesting about his fighting style is that he leads with his right even though he is reportedly right-handed. This makes sense since he typically strikes at the moment his opponent attacks, so his dominant hand (and foot) are in immediate proximity. I wish I had thought of that decades ago in my karate days.

It is so funny that you mentioned that because traditional early days of Wing Chun the stance was not standard boxing with one foot back it was both feet shoulder width apart facing your opponent with both hands up in front like this:

This is Chi Sau drill but basically drilled facing flat to each other so that you could equally strike with both hands rather than have one hand further back. the idea was Wing Chun was not based on power or strength but for anyone to be able to use it against even stronger/bigger opponents (Wing Chun was created by a woman so it started off with that mindset).

Now Bruce Lee did not invent this but the traditional Wing Chun stance morphed into the idea of putting your stronger hand/foot forward. He wrote about this in great detail in his Tao of Jute Keen Do focusing on the stance and leading with your strongest side.

So the right hand/foot was forward for quicker attacks and the rear left hand was for defense or attack if the right hand made the block. Also the lead right foot was for quick strikes to the knee or shin to stop your opponent. having the lead strong hand/foot forward also meant quicker delivery on strikes and less time to telegraph or be blocked.

Contrast to boxing where we put our strongest hand back and it ends up being further from the opponent and is more easily telegraphed.

Main tenet of his JKD was to attack and defend simultaneously, often the attack was the defense (intercepting fist). Many martial arts were traditional in block, then attack in a way. So having the attacking side forward fed into this better.

 

[El OchoCinco]

I wish I had thought of that decades ago in my karate days.

Being a lefty in a right world did have advantages I did not realize until I read Bruce Lee's detailed commentary on stances.

In my TaeKwonDo days I was taught right foot back and left side forward and the power kicks were thrown from the back (roundhouse, front or spinning etc..) and the front leg was for the "jab" kicks haha.

But I was a lefty so having my left foot forward I felt better and stronger throwing side kicks and roundhouse with my lead leg versus doing anything with my back leg in sparring even though you dont get full hip rotation on circular kicks. Anything from the back felt awkward and weak but I was just copying the righty stance. I guess it was actually the better way because winding up with a roundhouse kick or crescent kick (waste of energy) felt like you could see it coming a mile away.

I boxed for a few years right and never thought about it but I worked the jab so much more because it was my left hand and my stronger hand and easier to land than bringing the back hand from downtown (not like pros who are lightning quick with both hands so it might not matter).

 

[speedo]

Chi Sau is a drill to work on various sau's (hand technique) and begins in an aducted stance. It is similar to push hands in taiji in that it trains to sense the movement and force of the other. It can formally escalate into more advanced interactions including gao sau which is pretty much free sparring. Wing Chun training actually includes quite a bit of footwork technique and changes as dictated by the dynamics of a confrontation. The Mook Jong (wooden dummy) is a very useful training device to develop foot work and kicks (chi gerk) as it is stationary and the practitioner moves around the dummy applying various sau's and gerk's. BTW I have for years and continue to practice WC among other Chinese disciplines.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

It is so funny that you mentioned that because traditional early days of Wing Chun the stance was not standard boxing with one foot back it was both feet shoulder width apart facing your opponent with both hands up in front like this:

This is Chi Sau drill but basically drilled facing flat to each other so that you could equally strike with both hands rather than have one hand further back. the idea was Wing Chun was not based on power or strength but for anyone to be able to use it against even stronger/bigger opponents (Wing Chun was created by a woman so it started off with that mindset).

Now Bruce Lee did not invent this but the traditional Wing Chun stance morphed into the idea of putting your stronger hand/foot forward. He wrote about this in great detail in his Tao of Jute Keen Do focusing on the stance and leading with your strongest side.

View attachment 209250



So the right hand/foot was forward for quicker attacks and the rear left hand was for defense or attack if the right hand made the block. Also the lead right foot was for quick strikes to the knee or shin to stop your opponent. having the lead strong hand/foot forward also meant quicker delivery on strikes and less time to telegraph or be blocked.

Contrast to boxing where we put our strongest hand back and it ends up being further from the opponent and is more easily telegraphed.

Main tenet of his JKD was to attack and defend simultaneously, often the attack was the defense (intercepting fist). Many martial arts were traditional in block, then attack in a way. So having the attacking side forward fed into this better.

Good post, but that original Wing Chun stuff looks like fantasy fare. The top picture looks like it involves fine-motor movement, which normally ceases to exist in real combat.

Good explanation on leading with the dominant hand/foot for mounting simultaneous counter-strike with less telegraphing.