General Article on BL Work Out

[DragonClaws]

[DragonClaws]

[DragonClaws]

 

This artlce might not feature BL, but it does feature an older Asian guy, who has continued to keep up his weight training/fitness regime. Thought this might interest people who read this thread?. Sure the Little Dragon would be doing simlar things, had he lived.

 

Ted Pollard in 2017

 

Ted back in the 1960's.

 

For the full article about Ted, and equally dedicated training partner, cick on the link below, thank you.

Link- https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4756244/Former-Mr-Universe-competitors-stay-shape.html

[DragonClaws]

 

BL's Marcy Circuit Trainer, as it looked when John Little owned it.

 

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Bruce Lee’s Circuit Training for Enter the Dragon

Many have noted the apparent sudden improvement in Bruce Lee’s physique going into Enter the Dragon, not that he was a slouch before!

And apparently, this evolution was at least partly due to his investment in the ‘Marcy Circuit Trainer’ in 1972. This was basically a cable machine as is popular in gyms today that would allow Bruce to perform everything from bench press, to curls, to tricep extensions etc. all from a single station.

This coincided with Bruce’s discovery of PHA training, or Peripheral Heart Action. According to The Art of Expressing the Human Body, Bruce discovered this training method by reading Ironman magazine, which reportedly was one of his favorites at the time.

The idea behind PHA is to keep the blood circulating around the body rather than allowing it to pool in a single muscle or group of muscles. In other words, this style of training advocates the use of full-body circuits over isolating single muscles or even performing sets and reps of a single exercise.

The idea behind PHA is to keep the blood circulating around the body

The result is something that looks a lot like a modern metabolic conditioning (metcon) routine. Bruce had several programs designed around this philosophy, but the most well-known is his cross-training routine using the Marcy Circuit Trainer.

This consisted of:

Over Pull Up – 30 seconds
Seated Leg Press – 30 seconds
Bilateral Alternative Hip/Knee Extensions – 30 seconds
Shoulder Press – 30 seconds
Standing Calf Raise (Using Shoulder Press) – 30 seconds (with varying foot positions)
Alternating Cable Curl – 30 seconds
Standing Unilateral Arm Adduction – 30 seconds
Bench Press – 30 seconds
Regular Deadlift – 30 seconds
Kneeling Pull Down Behind Neck – 30 seconds
Triceps Push Down – 30 seconds
Sprint – 1.5 minutes
Standing Wrist Roller – 1 minute
Neck Flexion/Extension – 1 minute

The aim was to use a weight heavy enough that he would reach failure around 8-12 reps and he would perform as many reps as he could until failure or until the 30 seconds were up. There was no rest in-between.

The movements alternate between upper and lower body, which makes sense if the aim is to encourage as much blood flow as possible. This would then be combined with a more traditional weight-lifting regime.

 

Circuit Trainer image and TxT, from the this sie Link- http://www.thebioneer.com/bruce-lee-training-routines/

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

This guy hasn't let his surroundings stop him, he couldnt afford a wightlifting set, so he created his own. People quote BL all day on social media, but how many people actually listen/follow the words he/others left behind?.

It's clear Abba's Alizadas has taken the Little Dragons approach to life, and run with it.

 

 

Empty paint can, filled with concrete, no fancy bar grips, or expensive shoes, no crappy Apple related fitness tech gimmicks, no headphones. Just hard work, dedication, and persistance.

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

As far as I know, BL did not create any original forearm movements, but he certainy spent a lot of time researching the subect. With even more time spent applying it to himself.

 

 

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The System of Training of Bruce Lee

Link- http://bodybuilding.vsebolezni.com/sistema-treninga-bryusa-li

Good article about BL involvment with weight training.

 

Bruce Lee sporting one of the old muscle tops, that they used to sell in Bodybuilding magazines back in the 60's. Which helps exgerate his already impressive V-Shaped lat's, by being more tight fitted around the waist, than a standard shop sold t-shirt.

 

Edited October 30, 2018 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

BL strikes a pose, with his son Brandon.

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

 

This is just one of the many physical culture books, BL owned, I'm not sure if his copy was a re-print, or if he owned an original?. Strongman Eugene Sandow was pioneer of his time, long before Joe Weider and Arnold Schwazenegger, kicked bodybuilding/weightlifting into the mainstream pop cuture, in the 70's. He sadly passed away of a brian hemorage, aged only 58. His last strongman act, was pulling his own car from a ditch, aged nearly 60, witnessed by passers by, and performed only shortly before he passed away.

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

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  Bruce Lee Fitness Secrets revealed : Here are some of Bruce's truly amazing real life feats, which I consider to be absolutely outstanding. All of this information is taken from various documentaries and magazines. There's also some quotes from his closest friends.

Link- https://rock-body-fitness.blogspot.com/p/bruce-lee-secret-weapon-for-lean-muscle.html

 

[DragonClaws]

Quote

Leejunfan

September 24, 2017 at 1:55 am

A lot of the above is somewhat off the mark. Bruce didn’t often have small meals. That is something Schwarzenegger pioneered. He would eat large meals. He could eat, eat and eat for hours. He would often sit down for a long time to eat. He had a problem of maintaining his weight. He would burn so many calories. All his students mention this in various books including Danny Inosanto in “The Art and Philosophy of Bruce Lee”. He loved noodles Asian and Italian. He loved spaghetti as Linda used to make him often. She would make it often in Hong Kong and complain that the spices were wrong there. So he had flour based foods. He was a pioneer about peanut butter ice cream protein shakes. Peanut flour was part of the recipe. Milk and ice cream were definitely part of his diet. Yes he did love beef with oyster sauce. He would have a soda or two a day as directer Robert Clause noted. Soft drinks were also listed as consumed during his last day in his autopsy report. He ate a lot of seaweed. In fact his doctor told him to cut back on it as his iodine levels were very high during the filming of Enter the Dragon. He ate a lot of weird animal parts which is normal in Hong Kong/China. He was American and sometimes ate american foods like burgers… but in general he did stick to Asian dishes. Duh, he was Chinese. One of the keys was he ate more protein than much of his Chinese counterparts. That was the American side to him. He knew he needed a dense caloric food source as his metabolism was through the roof. At the end of the day Bruce could eat anything he wanted to. He was always at a calorie deficit. His diet was colorful and not boring as modern body builders with broccoli and chicken breast.

 

The Bruce Lee Workout Page – Fitness and Strength Training

Link- https://www.motleyhealth.com/fitness/bruce-lee-workout

 

Edited November 16, 2018 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

The latter half of this Shannon Lee interview, gets onto the subject of BL and his resistance training, from the Estate's point of view.

 

Perpetuating The Bruce Lee Legacy: Shannon Lee Discusses Father's Impact (Part 2)!

Link- https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/shannon-discusses-bruce-lee-legacy2.htm

 

 

Fore-arm pose, for the stills camera, between filming pick up shots, for The Big Boss, in Hong Kong.

Edited November 19, 2018 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

Ok, so we all know BL had trouble keeping weight on, at least post back injury, as he had a healthy body weight, while living in the U.S. I understand he wanted to keep fit, but all the carido he did, on top of the film making, was only going to make it harder for him to keep weight on. Anyone who wants to lose weight, up's their actively levels, and you do the opposite, if you feel your losing too much.

Anyone have thoughts on this subject?.

Edited November 19, 2018 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

Bruce Lee was a fan of the late physical culturist, Jack LaLanne, and it's rumoured his student/H.K bodyguard, Robert Baker, sneaked a gun into H.K, in one of LaLannes protein tin's?. There must hav been no place to obtain health food products, in H.K, in those days?.

Here's a photo of some of Jack's vintage products, as they would have looked when BL was purchasing them.

 

[DragonClaws]

 

Has anyone heard the story Dan Inosanto told, about Bruce Lee buying him a weight lifting set, and bench?. He went to sports store and asked Dan to come along, saying he was buying a set of weight for his son Brandon, and wanted his advice. When they got back to Bruce's house, he turned around and said, he actually bought them for him, and not his son. While they were unloading the weights from the car.

 

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Bruce Lee made his own fore-arm/wrist training device, which were sold in weight training magazines, under various different names, year's before BL even picked up a barbell. It allows you to work your fore-arms, from a number of different angles.

 

The one Lee is using in the below pictures, is just a simple dumbell, with the weights/plates, being placed at one end of the bar, held in place with some collars. Anyone who has a set of basic weights, can create their own one, just like Lee did. The benefit of using a dumbell, is that you can inscrease the weight, as you get stronger, or make it lighter, is if it's too heavy to use, if you are beginner.

 

Edited January 30, 2019 by DragonClaws

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Bullworker

 

 

Bruce Lee in his Golden Harvest office, note the BullWorker(Exercise equipment) in the bottom right hand sde of the picture, propped up in the corner.

 

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German scientists Dr. Erich Albert Müller and Dr. Theodor Hettinger concluded that muscle growth can be attained by exerting 60% of existing muscle strength against a superior resistance for only 7 seconds once a day, a fitness technique known as isometrics. The study at the Max Planck Institute consisted of over 200 experiments over a ten-year period.

Professor James A. Baley put isometrics to the test with a class of college students at the University of Connecticut. The study resulted in the isometric training group improving three times faster than the sports training group on tests measuring increases in strength, endurance, coordination, and agility.

In 1962 Bullworker pioneered portable home fitness devices and the 7 second isometric exercise for the fastest strength gains using both contraction and extension movements involving range of motion for all the major muscle groups in one light weight and compact fitness tool at a price everyone could afford.

Bullworker exploded on the fitness scene revolutionizing exercise for muscle strength to be more effective and much faster.

Source- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullworker

 

Edited January 4, 2019 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

Vintage Bullworker advert from the early 70's, taken from a U.K magazine, Star Wars fans might recognize actor/powerlifter Dave Prowse(Darth Vader) as the guy holding the equipment up, in one hand.

 

 

 

Edited January 20, 2019 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

The following book excerpts, features BL's former student Ted Wong, talking about Lee's use of the BullWorker excercise equipment.

Source- https://www.scribd.com/doc/6775972/Bruce-Lee-s-Strength-Training

Edited January 20, 2019 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

BL makes a point of displaying his forearm development, in this Fist of Fury publicity still.

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

This footage, taken from BL The Man, The Legend, gives you a brief, but rare glimpse at his home and gym, which was in a extension, at the side or back of the house?. It took him over 8-months to build this gym, after importing some of his old euqipment into Hong Kong. By the time this footage was filmed, BL had passed away, so a lot of stuff must have already been dismantled or taken away?. You also get to see his massive library of books, and his choice of vitamin pills, on the shelfs where he kept, his then, state of the art, home sound system.