Bruce Lee, The Greatest Martial Arts Movie Star

Bruce Lee is still to this day in my opinion the great martial arts movie star. Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Tony Jaa may be good, but they still do not look as stylish a Bruce Lee.

Bruce Lee was much more than just a martial arts actor, and this gave him a big advantage. He had a great sense of space and made an excellent film director, he was a choreographer and a writer. He was also a great thinker, having studied philosophy. But most of all Bruce Lee was an amazing martial artist - not an actor who learn to look flamboyant on stage, but a real fighter who could act. There is a big difference. Bruce dedicated his time and his physical training to making himself a better fighter. He did this by challenging the traditional ways that kung-fu had been taught for centuries in China and started applying new ideas that he had learned from fitness and strength training.

Bruce Lee was not a Bodybuilder

Many people think that Bruce Lee became a bodybuilder because of his amazing physique. But this was not the case at all. He developed a body that was better for fighting. Bruce Lee was the first practitioner of kung-fu to learn the importance of strong and powerful muscles in improving striking power and endurance.

While many martial arts would train to hit hard, Bruce Lee felt that they were never reaching their true potential as they only ever trained in the traditional ways which involved a lot of static stance work and calisthenics. Standing in horse stance or balancing on your finger tips may be effective at making you a better fighter but Bruce determined that they were not going to make him the best fighter. For that he needed to develop his muscles.

Weight Training for Power and Speed

So Bruce Lee adopted weight training principals to develop himself physically. There was a common held myth that larger and bulkier muscles slowed a fighter down, which was the excuse many used for not adding weight training to their training regime. However, Bruce Lee’s research led him to believe that developing stronger muscles did not have to mean that he would be slowed down.

Bruce Lee was a very practical man, so he trained hard in the gym, experimenting with different weight training methods, and constantly trained his fighting skills to ensure that he was not being negatively affected by increased muscle mass. Anyone who sparred with Bruce Lee can testify that he certainly did not get slower. In fact, if anything he got faster.

In the fight scenes in Enter The Dragon we see Bruce Lee at his best. He is strong, his muscles ripped and he is lightning quick. Bruce Lee mastered the art of martial arts cinema as well as developing radical new approaches to martial arts training. A true legend of our times.

Jon Wade has written at length about Bruce Lee training on MotleyHealth.com where you can find information about his weight training, kickboxing, stretching routines and also his diet. You can also study muscle diagrams to learn which exercises to focus on the build specific muscles. If you have any questions feel free to ask away, there is always someone to answer your questions.