Bruce Lee Blues

[David]

I read the Bruce Lee book "The Art of Expressing the Human Body" yesterday, hoping for some good advice on building useful muscles and getting rid of fat where I don't want it. Can't remember the author, sorry, but I'm sure you all know the book I mean.

At the beginning I thought I was getting the info I needed for my muscles. Then the next chapter says here's another phase he went through with a different philosophy and regime. Then there's a third chapter explaining his ultimate workout - different again. Then there's a chapter on how he used the Macy circuit trainer to get where he was.

The book was too sycophantic, in my opinion and not incredibly useful for me as it stands. Am I supposed to do the trainings in the order that Bruce did them or skip all the early stuff and give up on the later stuff cos I can't afford or justify or have room for some great daft machine?

Anybody else got a complete work plan out of it or have you just picked the odd exercise to add to your current regime? Has anybody worked out The Method? And can it be done without going to a ****ed gym?

I did appreciate the chapter on abdomen and love-handles justifies the book's cost by itself!

The powers of Kung Fu never fail!
-- Hong Kong Phooey

[Ford Prefect]

I believe the book was by John Little. He is as far from a fitness expert as you can get, and all he did was take Bruce Lee's "notes" (actually he's still under suspicion for making up a lot of info in his books) and put them in a book with his own spin. Not surprised it was like that.

[IronFist]

I used to read that book and train from it about 4 years ago, until I found a better training book called "The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Actually, the training programs in that book are too intense for people who aren't on drugs, but the description of exercises in it is unrivaled. And, each exericise has matching pictures, unlike in the Bruce Lee book.

Check it out. Get the soft cover one, cuz it's only $25.

Iron

[David]

Thanks, guys

The powers of Kung Fu never fail!
-- Hong Kong Phooey

[Stranger]

A couple years back in one of the major US martial arts publications (can't remember which), they went throught Bruce Lee's entire workout he was using before he died. They analyzed his workout in relation to other people his height and weight. Interestingly, his upper body work apparently placed him somewhere above the 90% mark in terms of strength, power, and muscular endurance. It was more shocking to learn that he was slightly BELOW average in the lower body in terms of strength, power, and muscular endurance.

What does this mean?

The author mentioned injuries that Lee faced later in life that may have contributed to his poor performance in lower body work.

The author mentioned that sports science, nutrition, supplements, and training equipmnet has evolved so much in the past 30 years that it is unfair to think that Lee's fitness attributes would be comparable to a contemporary elite athlete.

The author admitted, however, that we could simply be facing evidence that from a fitness perspective, Lee was not perfect.

Now before everybody screams about the legendary "surge kick", realize that this was merely the measurement of his strength, power, and muscular endurance- NOT HIS TECHNIQUE. Maybe he was so highly skilled that he could compensate for his physical inadequacies. We'll never know beyond the few facts we have and the anecdotes that are preserved by the faithful.

I don't get mad.
I get stabby.

[David]

Yeah, Brucey bust a nerve in his lower back which left him in plenty of pain for the last years. That would put a dampener on building up his bottom half, perhaps.

Also, the book this thread is about doesn't deal all that much with legs. Running and stretching mainly.

The powers of Kung Fu never fail!
-- Hong Kong Phooey

[Silumkid]

In regards to the "surge kick" there is a quote from Lee himself (I'll try to find the source) where he says that one of his legs was shorter than the other. He figured out how to use that to an advantage by adding the "switch stomp" to the kick for greater impetus.

John Little...this poor guy is one of the lowest forms of humanity in my view. Instead of coming up with anything on his own, he writes about what other people did, namely, Bruce Lee. Unfortunately, Linda seems to like him. I guess leeches are hard to spot. He and some other guy also claim to have come up with a workout method called "Power Factor Training". The entire system (from what I have seen) seems to be based on partials. Basically, lifting a weight only on your strongest range of motion. Whiel partials do have a certain place in weight lifting, they do not a complete workout make, thus the term "partials".

By the way, the idea of partials are not new...weight lifters have used them for a LONG time. Again, he didn't come up with anything, he copied an idea from someone else. Perhaps one day he'll have an original thought, but by that time, will anyone care?

We are trained in wushu; we must protect the Temple!