THE POWER OF THE DRAGON
Develop Strength Bruce Lee’s Way.
By: Justin Frost and Ted Wong.
Did Bruce Lee take his training seriously?
"While Bruce was in Hong Kong filming in late 1971 or early 1972, he had his weight
equipment and training gear shipped to him," says Ted Wong, who met Lee in 1967 and
trained with him for more than six years. "He wanted to stay in shape. So we packed his
bags, but we did not send any clothes because he said he could buy them cheap in Hong
Kong. We just packed training equipment. When he saw all the bags filled with training
equipment, he laughed and said, ‘Now I’m going to be able to do lots of training.’"
And train he did.
"Bruce considered training number one," says Wong. "He was constantly training. When
he watched TV or went to the movies, he conditioned his knuckles. When he was driving,
he worked the hand grips. If he walked to a bookstore and came to a hill, he always ran.
He never wasted time."
Why was this man so obsessed with training? Several reasons.
First, according to Lee, training was important because you couldn’t perform up to your
capabilities if you weren’t in shape, Wong recalls.
"Lee felt you had no business being in the martial arts if you weren’t in shape," says
Wong. "If you weren’t in shape you couldn’t be 100 percent efficient."
Second, he had lofty goals.
"He wanted to be the best," says Wong. "He wanted to be the best martial artist."
And no one could dispute that he was.
Lee’s Thoughts on Strength
To get in excellent shape, Lee felt you needed strength, Wong notes.
"He considered strength training very important," Wong says. "He was constantly
looking for ways to improve, including weight training and isometrics."
Although Lee felt strength was important, he did not believe bodybuilding was the
answer, Wong says.
"He felt it was important to have definition, but he did not feel you had to overboard,"
Wong says. "He did not feel it was necessary to develop large muscles. On the other
And Lee’s conditioning entailed more than hand grips, sit- ups, weights, running and
"A lot of the time he read books and analyzed different arts," Wong says. "He had a keen
eye and an analytical mind. He did a lot of researching."
While you may never develop Lee’s skills, you can certainly train the way the "Little
Dragon" did. Here are a few of the exercises Lee used to develop power.
