Bruce Lee Isometric Exercise? Was that Bruce Lee’s secret weapon for developing strength?

Not a day goes by without an old Bruce Lee movie being shown and people are in awe of his incredibly slim, V-Tapered body. Bruce Lee was ahead of his time in almost everything he did. Even when it comes to bodybuilding. In an age when sheer volume meant strength, Bruce Lee changed the world by showing you the beauty of muscle definition and the power it produces.

As you will know from my website, I have done an incredible amount of research on Bruce Lee, his workouts, and fitness methods. In fact, it is this research that motivated me to create an isometric exercise device that incorporated many of Bruce Lee’s isometric exercise principles.

Bruce Lee began using isometric exercises from the beginning of his martial arts training. Isometry was always a part of martial arts, so it is not uncommon for you to have practiced this type of physical training.

But Bruce Lee was an innovator and felt the same about strength training as he did about martial arts. That is, take what works, use it, take what doesn’t work, and throw it away.

That philosophy embodies the spirit of Bruce Lee and the way he used isometric exercise.

Bruce Lee, began putting more emphasis on isometric exercise right after his back injury by doing a free weight exercise called Good Mornings. He had read and studied Bob Hoffman’s work with the United States 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 its application of the isometric exercise device. Unlike traditional isometrics, you performed many repetitions of the exercise and then used what is now known as an isometric post-exercise crunch.

Bruce Lee found that by using it in this way, he significantly increased his muscle size, fitness level, and strength. What I liked the most about Bruce Lee is that he was not attached to tradition or dogmas. He didn’t sit down and defend traditional martial arts, he innovated. His greatest contribution to the bodybuilding and martial arts community was in that belief system. When 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, it is still the most effective way to do it that way today. If we can learn anything from Bruce Lee, it will be, as he so aptly put it, “to be like water. Water adapts to its environment, but does not allow itself to be dominated by it. We must take that thought and apply it not only to our lives but to to our exercise and isometric training.

Bruce Lee’s isometric exercise training was a tool he used to achieve his goal. It’s unfortunate that Bruce Lee died at such a young age.

Here’s a perfect example of his use of that philosophy … when he was practicing wrestling the wrestler pinned him down and asked what he would do if he got caught in this position in a real fight. Bruce Lee replied, “well, I would bite you, of course.”