He lived to fight, constantly striving to improve his fitness and technique. Self-discipline was his watchword. To be more like the martial arts and movie icon Bruce Lee, read on and find out how he trained, what he ate, and the rules he lived by.
Bruce Lee Biography:
Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan on 27 November 1940, passed away on 20 July 1973) was a Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, film director, philosopher, screenwriter, film producer, founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement, and a Chinese American.
Bruce Lee was raised in Hong Kong but when he reached his teens (18), he emigrated to The United States to recieve his higher education. He had a job at a restaurant and later went on to teach martial arts which ultimately led to him landing television roles.
Feature Films: The Big Boss (1971), Fist of Fury (1972), Way of the Dragon (1972), Enter the Dragon (1973), The Game of Death (1978).
Bruce Lee spent his whole life fighting. From the Kowloon street gangs he grew up with to the Hollywood boardrooms, every step was a battle against tradition, prejudice and nearly every martial artists that ever mattered. And he beat them all.
Bruce Lee fighting philosophy is continued to be studied the world over – Jeet Kune Do
Acknowledged by everyone from Chuck Noris (6 time undefeated World Professional Middleweight Karate Champion) to his old sparring partner Jackie Chan as the greatest fighter the world has ever seen, Bruce Lee single handedly popularised martial arts in the west, leaving a legacy of films and fighting techniques that have never been rivalled. The fact that he never fought a championship bout is of little relevance to many the world over when it comes to the study of Bruce Lee’s fighting philosophy- Jeet Kune Do (JKD). Bruce Lee developed Jeet Kune Do after he felt he “failed to live up to his potential using Wing Chun techniques only), 1967. Bruce Lee wanted to move away from the impractical and too rigid and fromalistic Wing Chun to something more fluid, flexible and practical which would be effective even in chaotic street fighting. Jeet Kune Do or the Way of the Intercepting Fist is a term Bruce Lee would later regret because Jeet Kune Do implied specific parameters that styles connote whereas the idea of his martial art was to exist outside of parameters and limitations.
The Bruce Lee Workout and Training Secret #1: Stay Lean
Don’t bulk. Although Bruce Lee’s training pioneered the use of weight trianing in martial arts, his aim was adding muscle strength, not muscle size. He used to say:”…weight training is supposed to help you, not screw you!..” It’s not difficult to imagine one would be far more sluggish when overly bulked with muscle mass, in relation to Bruce Lee’s ultra lean and ripped physique. The key here is to add muscle without adding too much, and focussing rather on strength training than normal bodybuilding per se. Although no-one is created equally with the same abilities when it comes to adding muscle strength or size for that matter, following the tips and techniques in this article will get you one step closer to attaining a Fung-Fu ready ripped physique. How do you stay lean like Bruce Lee without bulking? Simple, don’t consume too much carbohydrates and fat, and keep your protein intake high. When consuming protein shakes to aid your recovery between workouts or when supplementing as a meal during your Bruce Lee workout and training, keep your protein and carb ratio roughly 1:1.
The Bruce Lee Workout and Training Secret #2: Abdominal exercises every day
Bruce Lee incorporated a massive 360 waist twists, 80 sit ups, 80 leg-raises
and 400 or so frog-kicks. A day. For life. The martial artist believed that if your stomach wasn;t developed, you had no business in the ring. Bruce Lee was always doing sit-ups, crunches, Roman chair movements, leg-raises and V-ups. Chuck Norris himself ones mentioned that the most amazing thing he ever saw was Bruce Lee doing sit-ups while performing arm curls with a free-weight in one hand and balancing his son, Brandon, in the other. With arguably one of the most impressive abdominal muscles ever seen, it’s easy to see that all those crunches and sit-ups really paid off.
The Bruce Lee Workout and Training Secret #3: Eat like a Martial Artist
Bruce Lee started to blend his own high protein drinks, supplemented heavily with extra vitamins, ginseng and royal jelly. These drinks would remain part of Lee’s diet all his life, and by the time he died he was regularly blending whole steaks to absorb the protein his body required. Although Bruce Lee wasn’t very particular about what he ate, he did however avoid alcohol and cigarettes. He was also a typical omnivore eating anything from pork, fish, chicken, beef and vegetables. Bruce Lee’s favorite dishes were reportedly Japanese and Chinese (no real shocker there!) Although he was a small man, wieghing in at 134 lbs/61kgs, and standing 5 foot 2in/1,73 metres tall, he had a voracious appetite. In a restuarant he always ordered an additional plate of food for himself with lots of water. With his strenious workout routine and diet plan, Bruce Lee was able to add lean muscle to the extent that he went from 134 lbs/61kgs to 165 lbs/75kgs while still being extremely ripped.
A typical day-to-day rundown of The Bruce Lee Diet Plan
- Several times a day. High-protein drink made up of powdered milk, ice water, eggs, eggshells, bananas, vegetable oil, peanut flour and chocolate ice cream.
- He also drank his own juice. Concoctions made mainly from apples, celery and carrots.
- He ate only lean meat. Combining the lean meat (which he ate sparingly) with large amounts of fruits and vegetables.
- He ate scientifically. Bruce Lee analysed his nutritional intake to ensure he had exaclty the right quata of vitamins A,B,C,D and E every day.
The Bruce Lee Workout and Training Secret #4: Study, practise, Study, practise
The largest influence on Bruce Lee’s martial arts development was his study of Wing Chun. At the age of 13 (after losing a fight with rival gang members, Bruce Lee began training in Wing Chun under a Wing Chun teacher Yip Man in 1954. The regular classes mainly consisted of the forms practice, namely sticking hands (chi sao), free sparring and wooden dummy techniques. By organizing regular competitions, Yip Man encouraged his students to fight in these contests rather than taking part in streetfighting. If you want to study The Bruce Lee Fighting Techniques we recommend you first study Wing Chun, then study the fighting philosophy that Bruce Lee himself invented, Jeet Kune Do. Here is also a link to get a Self-defence course based on The Master Martial Artist Bruce Lee’s teachings (jkd).
The Bruce Lee Workout and Training Secret #4: Become a strength trainer
To develop speed Bruce Lee used one of the famous playground games, called Slaps. This trained him not only with speed but anticipation as well, which helped him to more easily block punches thrown his way during fights. How to play: extend your arm fully in front of you with your hand outstreched. Make sure your thumb is on top and hold it vertically. When your partner swings his hand to slap yours, jerk your hand upward and toward you, trying to avoid contact. You let him do the slapping until he misses, then roles are reversed.
Bruce Lee trained on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays using this wokout routine:
- Clean-and-presses (2 sets of 8 repititions)
- Squats (2 sets of 12 repititions)
- Barbell Pull-overs (2 sets of 8 repititions)
- Bench Presses (2 sets of 6 repititions)
- Star Jumps (2sets of 8 repititions)
- Barbell Curls (2 sets of 8 repititions)
- Skipping Rope (to be used everyday for 30 minutes)
The Bruce Lee workout routine allows your body to recover fully between workouts to ensure continious progress. Adding adequite nutrition as above, you will be Kung-Fu fighting ready just like Bruce Lee was. The same technique that’s mentioned in The Ryan Reynolds workout, namely the Shrink wrap effect, can also be used to great effect in combination with the Bruce Lee workout

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Disclaimer : Always consult your physician before starting any workout routine. The advice on this website should by no means replace the advice from your physician. These are mere guidelines for you to attain a healthy, good-looking physique that can result from workouts like The Bruce Lee Workout and Training











