BRUCE LEE QUOTES ON STRENGTH TRAINING FOR MARTIAL ARTS

Training for strength and flexibility is a must. You must use it to support your techniques. Techniques alone are no good if you don't support them with strength and flexibility." - Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee's training regimen involved all the components of total fitness. Apart from his daily martial arts training, Lee engaged in supplemental training to improve his speed, endurance, strength, flexibility, coordination, rhythm, sensitivity, and timing.

Bruce Lee learned early on that the role strength played in the overall scheme of things was of vital importance, not only for its own sake but also because an increase in muscular strength brings with it greater mastery of striking techniques, increased speed and endurance, better-toned muscles, and improved body function. However Lee did not regard weight training as the "Holy Grail" to a athletic success. He recognized it for exactly what it was an important facet of total fitness that had to be integrated into one's training schedule along with other exercises to improve one's technique,  speed, agility, excetera.

"My strength comes from the abdomen. It's the center of gravity and the source of real power." - Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee was particularly impressed with the fact that strength training, which typically involved weight lifting,  could increase one's speed and endurance capabilities. His belief that a martial artist must engage in training methods apart from the techniques and movements of the art he or she has been trained in was based on purely scientific grounds.

"If you are talking about sport, that is one thing. But when you are talking about combat - as it is - well then, baby, you better train every part of your body" - Bruce Lee

When Bruce Lee devised muscle development programs either for himself or his students, he always stressed compound exercises - that is, exercises that required two more muscle groups to be involved in the execution. Lee's reasoning was simple: he wanted harmony among all of his muscle groups so they could generate power in concert and would combine to accomplish a single objective.

"Above all, never cheat on any exercise city; use the amount of weight that you can handle without strain." - Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee experimented with many different martial arts and supplemental training programs. For example by looking at his 1963 training records we learn that Lee was working out and what would have to be described as a traditional fashion: he was performing forms or spending hours on the wooden dummy.

By 1970 his workouts were perfect examples of efficient cross training weight training for strength, running and cycling for cardiovascular efficiency, stretching for flexibility, the heavy bag for timing and applied power, and the speed bag for developing rhythm and timing.

"Some guys made not believe it, I spent hours perfecting whatever I did." - Bruce Lee

HOW TO GET STRONGER WITHOUT WEIGHTS USING BODYWEIGHT EXERCISES

You can build strength and muscle without going to the gym, buying expensive home exercise equipment or even lifting a single weight. In fact, many world-class athletes such as Olympic gymnasts use bodyweight exercises as a primary means of building strength.

Body weight exercises either require you to support the weight of your body with one or more of your limbs, or use your core muscles to lift your limbs against gravity’s resistance. Many Pilates movements and yoga poses are body weight exercises, as are traditional calisthenics like push ups and squats. 

To build muscle and get stronger you need to place the muscles under tension by using significant resistance. So, to make bodyweight training an effective method of building muscle without weights, you have to progressively overload the muscles in the same way you would by adding weight in the gym.

Progressive overload’ refers to the concept of placing demands on the body which must be increased gradually over time to continue building muscle. Without progressive overload, your muscles have no reason to grow and adapt to handling heavier loads.

To build muscle without weights, you need to continually challenge your muscles by doing increasingly difficult bodyweight exercises – just as you would use heavier weights in the gym.

Body weight exercises generally improve muscular endurance; whether or not they can make you stronger is dependent on your current level of muscular strength.

If you’re unfit, you may only be able to perform 10 body weight squats with good form. As your muscles become stronger and your fitness increases, you can lift one foot off the floor at a time, performing single-leg squats. Once you’re able to perform a high number of single-leg squats -- with good form -- you can advance to plyometric, or jumping, squats.

Other ways to increase the load of bodyweight exercises by creating variations like stopping and holding the movement on the sticking points, doing the whole exercise slower and elevating a part of your body to increase the load (such as your feet during a one armed pushup), however you can use weights with bodyweight routines to keep yourself progressing into new territory. For example with chin ups, you can put a weight into a back pack and wear it while doing pull ups to increase the load.