The Bruce Lee Training Program

40 years ago, young athletes drew inspiration from Bruce Lee's inimitable physical strength, speed and flexibility. Since then, little has changed. Take out a heavy bag and adopt the training principles of the great master!

Author: Arnav Sarkar

“Absorb what is good. Cut out the useless." These legendary words are often attributed to Bruce Lee, and although it is not known for certain whether he actually said them, there is no doubt that this principle was the basis of the philosophy of his martial art. The legendary and eclectic martial arts style of Jeet Kune Do, the "Way of the Leading Fist", is based on delivering a strike at the moment an opponent's attack begins, when any external influence slows down the opponent and leads to a fatal outcome. Thanks to this, Bruce Lee was unpredictable, and his fights were spectacular!

Openness and flexibility are two hallmarks of Bruce Lee's approach to physical training. While peers and their mentors spent valuable time arguing about tradition and vainly searching for one-sided, technique-oriented and functional training systems, Lee absorbed the best that the various schools had to offer. He took essentials from martial arts, bodybuilding and other training styles. Lee was true to his barbell and his kettlebells, but also loved circuit training; daily and with full dedication he practiced kicks and punches, but also ran, rode a bicycle and jumped rope.

In a word, he was a well-rounded athlete and had a body that Joe Weider described as the most sculpted of all that he had ever seen. 40 years after Bruce's tragic death, people continue to be inspired by his unique fusion of speed, strength and flexibility. New photos of Bruce Lee without a T-shirt are still on the covers of magazines today and become the main topic of the issue.

Of course, Lee never trained just to look good. The main goal was to create a perfectly functioning body, and appearance was just a by-product of his training. According to Bruce, training is "the art of self-expression of the human body." We'll tell you how he did it and how you can replicate it.

Lee belonged to the sporting elite: since the late 50s, he has been a mentor and fighter capable of incredible displays of strength, such as two-finger push-ups and "inch punch", sending opponents into a long flight. However, he revised all training methods after an event that occurred in 1964. In that year, Bruce Lee was challenged by Won Jae Man, a representative of the orthodox Chinese martial arts. According to sources, the reason for the disagreement was Bruce Lee's willingness to teach traditional Chinese martial arts to everyone - even Europeans. According to this version of events, if Lee had lost, he would have had to close his thriving martial arts school.

Soon Bruce Lee won and retained the right to teach anyone, anything. However, Lee later admitted that although the bout only lasted three minutes and ended with him running after Meng around the pavilion, the fight took much longer than expected and required more effort than Lee intended. Angry at himself, Lee decided to drastically revise his training program and began to search for what his wife Linda called "more sophisticated and exhausting training methods."

Very soon, Lee switched to an intensive program of strength development and general functional training, which he adhered to until his death in 1973. He constantly changed the content of the workouts and always recorded them on video. This means that while we can't recreate the exact "Bruce Lee workout routine", it's within our power to piece together his favorite exercises and routines. In short, if you want to leave behind a “muscle treasure map” for future generations, or just want to draw one for yourself, follow the example of Bruce Lee and make as many travel notes as possible.

Any conversation about Bruce Lee's training principles should start with his trademark martial art style. Bruce began mastering martial arts under the guidance of the great master Ip Man, the patriarch of the Wing Chun school (Kung Fu style). Having learned the basics, Lee continued to develop and eventually created his own style - Jeet Kune Do. Unlike traditional schools, Jeet Kune Do is not tied to any fixed dogmas. In Lee's words, it's "style without style," free-flying martial arts that embraces whatever is effective.

But does this mean that Bruce did not need to carefully work out his technique? On the contrary, he had to keep the entire arsenal of his techniques in full combat readiness, and therefore he devoted the lion's share of his free time to training. Here is a typical list of kicks and punches that Lee practiced.