Bruce Lee Training For Strength And Fitness

For anybody interested in learning the Bruce Lee training methods, it is important to understand his philosophy, which was very holistic in nature. Many martial artists spend endless hours practising techniques and forms, and perhaps do some partner work and some sparring. At the opposite end of the scale are the people who train for fitness almost addictively, but would not call themselves martial artists – an example might be ‘iron man’ triathletes.

Bruce Lee felt that many martial artists would never reach their potential because they concentrated too much on martial technique, and not anywhere near enough on the total fitness aspects such as muscular strength and endurance, cardiovascular endurance and body flexibility.

So Bruce Lee’s training included all these aspects, as well as the standard martial technique practice, such as kicking and striking. But he was also very careful to teach that physical strength alone is not enough – in other words, don’t discard martial arts practice in order to train physique. A healthy balance of the two is required, along with the correct mental attitude towards training, competing and fighting – Lee considered the mindset or spirituality of the martial artist to be extremely important.

So Bruce Lee training consists of a harmonious mix of three components: Spirituality (or the correct mindset for fighting); Martial Skills (knowing the techniques, and which ones to use when); and Physique (strength and stamina). To a certain degree these components are very well established and trained by western boxers, and Lee was always interested in other fighting styles to see if their methods were effective and useful.

Bruce Lee Weight Training

The Bruce Lee strength training regime consisted of many of the exercises commonly associated with a gym: bicep curls with free weights, concentration curls, French curls for building triceps, wrist strengthening exercises. He also used exercises such as push-ups and squats, and was methodical about working his abs. Lee always maintained that the abdominal muscles were the key to all martial arts training, as they are used in almost all techniques. They also need to be strong to protect against body blows from opponents – to protect the ribs and prevent damage to internal organs.

Here, Lee’s methods and explanations are very practical, but you can draw the comparison with traditional Chinese martial arts that put an emphasis on the abdomen, as this is where the dantien is located, from where qi – internal energy – is generated.

Bruce Lee Fitness Training

Lee was always experimenting with different training programs, but knew that all the strength and technique in the world wouldn’t matter if he was too exhausted to fight. So he trained his cardiovascular endurance relentlessly. The main three exercises he used were running, exercise biking and skipping rope. His runs would vary in length, and would involve interval training. He would cycle upto ten miles in a sitting on the exercise bike and then use the skipping rope to do hundreds of jumps.

Bruce Lee training has a lot to offer all martial artists, and if we all think about working on that fine balance between mindset, technique and fitness – and address our deficiencies – we can all reach our ultimate martial potential.

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