The transcript below is from the video “Bruce Lee Most Powerful Workout and Weirdest Training Method” by BruceLeeRealFight.

BruceLeeRealFight:

Welcome to BruceLeeRealFight channel.

Bruce Lee is the icon of martial art and to many people, he also represents the ultimate peak in human physical performance. He was best known for his incredibly low body fat, his super fast speed in punching and kicking, and also the power that he is capable to deliver. He is one of the strongest people ever lived on this planet pound for pound during his lifetime, waving at about 135 lbs. What makes Bruce Lee so strong? Let’s take a look at some of his workout and training method from the notes he wrote and see if we can learn something from the principles he used.

BruceLeeRealFight:

This is one of the earliest training Bruce Lee did back in May 25, 1965 when he was 24 years old. This is Bruce Lee’s training card from Hak Keung Gymnasium. He did 3 sets of 95 lbs squat for 10 times, 4 sets of 64 lbs French press for 6 times, 4 sets of 35 lbs incline curl for 6 times, and some other exercises which are very common in the fitness center today such as push-up, triceps, stretch dumbbell circle, reverse curl, wrist curl, sit up, as well as calf raise.

BruceLeeRealFight:

This is another note written by Bruce Lee in November 15, 1965. It’s very obvious that Bruce Lee changed his training method just after 6 months. He did a lot of stomach exercises including waist twist, sit-up twist, leg raises, leaning twist, and also frog kick. As you can see from this note, he was constantly adding weight to his training. For forearm exercises, Bruce Lee did underhand wrist curl, overhand wrist curl, leverage bar curl, reverse curl, wrist rollar, and leverage bar twist. Bruce Lee always emphasizes on forearm training especially if you are training for street fight. He believes a strong forearm can increase not just your gripping strength but also your striking force. This is very important for every martial artist.

BruceLeeRealFight:

Other than those training written in the note, Bruce Lee also did many unconventional exercises for his forearms using a few custom-made devices designed by himself. For punching exercises, Bruce Lee did a few set of straight punches with weight and some other training method, including punching a pole or a column or a tree to practice on.

BruceLeeRealFight:

According to Bruce Lee’s friends in Hong Kong, they said Bruce Lee always throws straight punches on the tree until it has a lumpy bark on it. Other than some of the mentioned workout, Bruce Lee also employed training methods from Boxing such as skipping and road running to improve his endurance. He would run 4-5 miles every morning and go for weight lifting 3 times a week. His daily training also consisted of aerobic exercises and others which were patterned to develop his skill in a real fight.

BruceLeeRealFight:

Bruce Lee recognized that strength, endurance, and condition training was crucial to becoming the ultimate fighter. This is why his training method evolved over the time.

“Don’t pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a hard one”. – Bruce Lee