| Of
all the body parts Bruce Lee developed, his abdominal muscles
were the most spectacular: rock solid to the touch, deeply cut
and highly defined. Bruce believed the abdominals were one of
the most important muscle groups for a martial artist since
virtually every movement requires some degree of abdominal work.
Perhaps more importantly, the "abs" are like a shell,
protecting your ribs and vital organs. Lee was more than merely
a fitness fanatic; he was an extremist, always in search of
new ways to push his body to the limit, constantly tuning it
while striving to achieve maximum efficiency. He felt many martial
artists of his day lacked the necessary physical fitness to
back up their skill. In his book Tao of Jeet Kune Do, he wrote
"Training is one of the most neglected phases of athletics.
Too much time is given to the development of skill and too little
to the development of the individual for participation."
Black Belt magazine owner Mito Uyehara recalls that "Bruce
always felt that if your stomach was not developed, then you
had no business doing any hard sparring." Lee's wife, Linda
Lee Cadwell, claims her former husband "was a fanatic about
ab training. He was always doing sit-ups, crunches, Roman chair
movements, leg raises and V-ups."
According to some of Lee's early training notes, his daily
abdominal workout included:
Waist twists - four sets of 90 repetitions.
Sit-up twists - four sets of 20 repetitions.
Leg raises - four sets of 20 repetitions.
Leaning twists - four sets of 50 repetitions.
Frog kicks - four sets of 50 repetitions.
Lee further developed this routine, adding additional sets
of sit-ups, side bends, leg raises, "flags," twists and back
bends to his abdominal workout regimen. The "flag" exercise
was a particularly difficult drill Lee devised for working
the abdominal. While lying on a bench, he would grasp attached
uprights with both hands and raise himself, supported only
by his shoulders. Then, with his knees locked straight and
his lower back raised off the bench, he would perform leg
raises. Bolo Yeung, Lee's co-star in Enter the Dragon, recalls
seeing his friend perform this exercise with just his shoulder
blades resting on the end of the bench, and with his legs
and torso suspended horizontally off of it. "He was able to
keep himself perfectly horizontal in midair!" Yeung notes.
Of course, Lee's washboard stomach did not come from mere
abdominal training; he was also a zealous proponent of cardiovascular
conditioning and would regularly run, jump rope and ride a
stationary bicycle. A typical Lee run covered a distance of
two to six miles and was accomplished in 15 to 45 minutes.
According to Lee's friend and fellow actor Bob Wall, "Bruce
was pretty much a five-mile runner, but then Bruce was one
of those guys who I just challenged the heck out of himself.
He ran backward, and he ran wind sprints where he'd run a
mile, walk a mile, run a mile...." Lee would alternate running
with stationary bicycling, which, according to Uyehara, he'd
ride for 45 minutes (about 10 miles). Lee's student, Herb
Jackson, remembers another, more unorthodox method Lee used
to increase his muscle definition. According to Jackson, Lee
would wear a type of sauna belt when riding his stationary
bicycle because he believed the belt focused heat on his abdominal
muscles and helped reduce fat. Another element in Lee's quest
for abdominal definition was nutrition. According to Linda
Lee Cadwell, soon after he moved to the United States, Bruce
started to take nutrition seriously and developed an interest
in health foods and high-protein drinks. "Several times a
day, he took a high-protein drink made up of powdered milk,
ice water, eggs, eggshells, bananas, vegetable oil, peanut
flour and chocolate ice cream," recalls Cadwell, who claims
Bruce's waist fluctuated between 26 and 28 inches. "He also
drank his own juice concoctions made from vegetables and fruits
apples, celery, carrots and so on, prepared in an electric
blender. Lee ate lean meat sparingly and consumed large amounts
of fruits and vegetables. In later years, he became very knowledgeable
about vitamin supplements, and each day apportioned himself
exactly the right quota of vitamins A, B,C,D and E. |
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