Bruce Lee isometric exercise ? Was that Bruce Lee secret strength building weapon?
Not a day goes by that an old Bruce Lee movie is shown and people sit in awe of his incredibly lean and V-Tapered body. Bruce Lee was ahead of his time in almost everything he did. Even when it came to bodybuilding. In a day and age where sheer bulk meant strength, Bruce Lee changed the world by showing them the beauty of muscle definition and the power that it produces.
As you may know from my website, I have done an incredible amount of research into Bruce Lee, his workouts and fitness training methods. In fact, it is this research that motivated me to create an isometric exercise device that incorporated many of Bruce Lee isometric exercise principles.
Bruce Lee begin using isometrics exercise right from the beginning of his martial arts training. Isometrics was always part of martial arts, so it is not unusual for him to have practiced this type of fitness training.
But, Bruce Lee was an innovator, and he felt the same way about strength training that he did about martial arts. That is, take what works use it, take what doesn’t work and throw out.
That philosophy embodies the spirit of Bruce Lee and the way that he used isometric exercise.
Bruce Lee, began putting more emphasis on isometric exercise right after his back injury from doing a free weight exercise called Good Mornings. He had read and studied Bob Hoffman’s work with the US Olympic weightlifting team. He decided to expand his training, in the same way that he expanded Jeet Kune Do.
Bruce Lee experimented with many training devices, including an isometric exercise device that was being sold at the time. The main difference was in his application of the isometric exercise device. Unlike traditional isometrics, he performed many repetitions of the exercise, and then used what is now referred to as a post-isometric exercise contraction.
Bruce Lee found by using it in this manner, he increased his muscle size, fitness level and strength significantly. The thing I most liked about Bruce Lee, is that he wasn’t stuck to tradition, or dogmas. He did not sit and defend traditional martial arts, he innovated. His greatest contribution to the bodybuilding and martial arts community was in that belief system. In reading the original Jeet Kune Do manuscript, that became very apparent.
It is unfortunate that some people, remain rigid in their thinking , believing that because something worked in the past that it is still the most effective way to do it that way today. If we can learn something from Bruce Lee, it is to be, as he so aptly put it “be like water. Water conforms to its environment, yet is not subdued by it. We should take that thought and apply it not only to our lives but to our isometric exercise and training.
Bruce Lee isometric exercise training Was a tool he used to achieve his goal. It is unfortunate that Bruce Lee died at such a young age.
Here is one perfect example of his use of that philosophy… when he was practicing wrestling, the wrestler pinned him and asked what would he do if he was caught in this position in a real fight. Bruce Lee responded, “well, I would bite you, of course.”