I have read all some Bruce Lee’s books lately and I find it interesting his incoroporation of isometric exercises or which are exercises done with pressure on an imovabe object for 8-12 seconds. He also had an aparatus he used sort of like an immovable cable bar. Which he performed 8 different exercises, only one set each, for 8-12 seconds. What are the forumns thoughts. They said he might be the most powerfull man in the world at a bodyweight of 127. He could perform, one handed, one finger pushups. Also bruce lee copied his program from a successful powerlifting coach of that time. Charlie is the anytime we could use isometric exercises and how often?
Tim what books has BL got and what would you recomend.i’m very interested in his approach
Isometric resistance training seems unnecessary for a dynamic exercise.
it doesn’t surprise me that Bruce used the isometrics. It’s the best way to handle your body weight. I’ve been toned my whole life even prior to lifting weights. I’d say it was from isometrics. I wouldn’t say that isometrics where enough. But they do work.
X-man,
I don’t normally read MA books, there is so much BS out there but one that I found really interesting and that I would reccomend to anyone is 'The Art of Expressing the Human Body" Compiled and edited by John Little.
Its is based on the training methods of Bruce Lee.
For anyone interested in MA, sport or BL - I highly reccomend it.
I don’t think Bruce Lee was the greatest fighter ever or unbeatable but that article is crap. The article says he did 10 reps 95 pounds for the squat in 1965. Isn’t that when he first started weight training?I’ll check my Bruce Lee book later to check but I believe he started weight training in 1965. Also the article talks about how his mile run wasn’t that great.Well first off the mile run or how fast he runs a mile doesn’t tell anything about his explosiveness or martial arts ability and also I read that Bruce Lee when he would run would shadow box and move around,run backwards and do all kinds of footwork while running the mile shurley this would impact his time.It is suspect weather Bruce Lee when he ran miles would just run the distance as fast as he could for time, I doubt this. I’m not buying into the legend of Bruce Lee and saying he was an unbeatable fighter,he never participated in martial arts competitions to my knowledge and he was only 140 pounds.But he was in my opinion a great athlete and martial artist.That article seems like crap to me.
His basic style was great tho - I did Wing Tsun/Chun ( his first style ) for a few years and it was great - very basic , effective and very close quarters with similtaneous defensive blocks and attacking strikes - non of this flying thru the air nonsense .
Talk about repetition perfecting form - all counter attacks evolved off one basic stance and became completely subliminal and automatic - quite freaky actually .
Almost like doing yoga but really explosive , and the sparring was like a game of chess .
The stationary drills played havoc with my calves and achilles tho but If you like trying different styles u must try this one because it is really special .
For his aerobic exercises, his own books states that he would run 4 miles a day in 24 - 25 min. Thats at 6 min pace… he wouldnt be runnning at a steady pace, he would change his pace as he ran. So I think if he was going to do just a mile, I think it would be closer to 5.
In the same book, it also said that BL did isometric exercises to help with the flow energy in his body. I think he may have performed them for more of a mental improvement than anything…
Bruce would almost ALLWAYS run up and down hills when he ran. He felt it was much better. When he did the 4 miles a day near where he lived at the time it was up and down a lot of hills, so they forgot to put that in aswell. I’ve read the book too. it shows him running up the hills, plus his training diaries and notes.