7 Keys to Unlock Your Bruce Lee Fitness Skills

Bruce Lee was an amazing martial artist, despite his short career. And if you do some of the same things that made him great, you can greatly improve your own martial arts skills. Although you may not be as good as Bruce, if you work on these ideas you will definitely improve.

Build great cardio

Bruce Lee went for a run every day. He sometimes he jogged, sometimes he ran. And he also practiced a lot of martial arts and shadow boxed regularly!

So, Bruce was in phenomenal shape. He made sure that not only was he more skilled and more muscular than his competitors, but he was also in better shape than them.

Bruce became obsessed with conditioning after a challenge he received in which his opponent ran away and Bruce had to chase him down. After several minutes, Bruce chased after him and punched him, but Bruce was embarrassed at how out of shape he was and how much effort it took to win against his inexperienced opponent.

To develop the same type of skill, you’d add running to your regular training. Better yet, do some cardiovascular exercise that is closely related to your marital art. If you box, do shadow boxing; if you practice swordsmanship, review forms quickly or practice specific attacks and parries many times. These exercises will build the conditioning you need to get better at the skills you do.

Weightlifting

If you’ve ever seen a picture of Bruce Lee, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The man was devastated!

Weight training will give you much stronger muscles. In addition to looking good, stronger muscles will help you perform your techniques and will also help you fatigue at a slower rate as each movement is easier.

Now, building muscle by lifting weights doesn’t happen overnight. It takes dedication, but it works. Start with a well thought out general program to strengthen your entire body before you start specializing in specific muscles for your art or activity.

Extension

Part of Bruce Lee’s amazing fighting skills came from the fact that he was flexible. You can see this if you ever watch the clip of him warming up before his fight with Chuck Norris; He is incredible and can touch his head with his knees!

Being flexible allows you to take the fight wherever you want. Whether your opponent is shorter than you, taller than you, or you need to get the angle right, you can offset, move forward, and win. You can also get a lot more power out of your hips if they’re flexible than if you’re all tight and barely able to move.

Just like weight training, stretching really does take time. You won’t be able to do the splits after a few days of stretching; It will probably take about 2 months if you are younger and longer if you are over 30 years old.

So work on it a little at a time. And if you take this path, little by little you will become more flexible. And powerful!

make it part of your life

One of the cornerstones of a Bruce Lee fitness regimen is making it a part of your life. Exercising and becoming more flexible is not a once in a while thing, it’s an all the time thing!

Stretch when you watch TV. Commit to your workouts, both weights and cardio. Work hard to create a body that supports your activities, rather than a body that drags you down and inhibits you.