BRUCE LEE’S NEW TRAINING PROGRAM
TRAINING OVERVIEW
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MUSCLE & FITNESS
WARMUP STRENGTH TRAINING
This is one area in which training
philosophy has greatly improved
over the past five decades. Warm-
ing up properly can improve per-
formance and decrease the chance
of injury. Lee actually sufered a
back injury—which plagued him
for years—from performing barbell
good mornings after not adequately
warming up. Here, we replace his
archaic stretch routine with foam
rolling, elastic-band work, and a
routine of dynamic movements to
prepare the muscles, increase heart
rate, and stimulate the central
nervous system. A full warmup can
by found in the TFW text. Lee was one of the first martial
artists to advocate weight train-
ing. This broke with the prevailing
wisdom of his day that strength
training would make you heavy
and slow. However, in place of his
total-body routines, I’ve changed
the emphasis to one upper- and one
lower-body day. Weights used are
heavier, and sets and overall volume
increase from his two sets of eight
to develop more size and strength.
Some basic bodybuilding moves
he used are upgraded to a more
productive fight-specific version.
Single-leg lifts are added to im-
prove stability and kicking power.
FEBRUARY 2016
Bruce Lee learned through combat
that he needed to improve both
his strength and conditioning to be
a more efective martial artist.
Although he used basic concepts
like weights for strength, jogging
for endurance, and stretching for
flexibility, these methods have
come a long way since the 1960s
and ’70s. Today, Lee would not
seek “best,” but he would continue
to seek “better.”
Similar to what Lee used, the
Training for Warriors system also
uses a four-day physical train-
ing week. This schedule allows
fighters (and weekend warriors) to
build strength and cardiovascular
endurance while still leaving time
for both recovery and martial arts
training. In order to accomplish
this, the following workouts should
be finished in a little over an hour
or less.
If Lee were training today,
the TFW methods would be per-
fectly tailored to match his need for
strength, conditioning, and recovery.
You have to remember Lee was
constantly training for martial arts
in addition to his physical training.
In accordance with the philoso-
phy of his martial art, Jeet Kune
Do (also referred to as the “style
of no style”), Lee would surely be
involved in more of the martial
arts that make up MMA, adopt-
ing what works best for today’s
champs. This would require more
time spent on martial arts training
in addition to work in the weight
room. As a result, you will notice
that martial arts are kept separate
from his TFW training routine.
The following overview of his
new training routine will explain
Lee’s past program and how and
why it was upgraded.