Bruce Lee

Summary

• 1940 - 1973
• Bruce Lee was a legendary movie actor
• He bridged the gap between East and West by his portrayal of Asian characters in his movies

Details

• He was not huge but he worked hard to be exceedingly strong
• His dad signed him up to master Ip Man for Kung Fu tutelage
• He started teaching Kung Fu to other, and did not discriminate who he taught. But the traditional Chinese Kung Fu masters did not like that he was teaching non Chinese. They told him he had to fight against their best fighter and if they lost, then he had to stop teaching non chinese. He won in about 3 min.
• In spite of winning, Lee felt that he could have done better, and this led to a lifelong study of martial arts and physical fitness.
  
• Lee was a lifelong learner and a voracious reader. At his death he had amassed a personal library of over 2,500 books. He read all kinds of books from Eastern and Western philosophy books to American self-help books.
• He studiede everything he could find on body training.
• He started a life philosophy he called 'Jeet Kune Do' (the Way of the intercepting Fist), that was based on practicality, flexibility, speed and efficiency and took ideas from many different disciplines.
• He did not specialize, but trained in anything that would help him become a better fighter.
• He used weight training to build strength.
• He looked for compound movements to work several muscle groups at the same time: squats, clean and presses, bench presses and rows. He looked for low volume exercises like 8-12 reps per set, doing onily 1-2 sets per exercise
• He believed in progressive overload by adding weight, reps, or shorter time. He focused on velocity over sheer strenght, and he was minimalist in his approach to get maximum results with as little time as possible.
• He jogged for cardio 3 times a week adn tried to run faster or carry dumbells while running. on alternate days he would cycle or jump rope
• He stretched every day after waking up and do full stretching later on the same day., often while reading.
• he trained his core every day: situps (4 sets of 20), side bends (4 sets of 20), leg raises (4 sets of 20), twists (4 sets of 50), frog kicks (4 sets of 20)

Reference

• Bruce Lee: The Art of Expressing the Human Body by John Little
• Art of Manliness article
• wikipedia

Related

• Physical activity on a vacation makes for a happier vacation
• Fall in love with some activity, and do it - Richard Feynmann
• Exercise beneficial to our brain
• Exercise is the single most powerful tool you have to optimize your brain function...If exercise came in pill form, it would be plastered across the front page, hailed as the blockbuster drug of the century - John Ratey