Bruce Lees muscles

[Bau13]

damn...that scene in Way of the Dragon when he's flexing..
thats amazing...his body can like change sizes or something!

[Bau13]

I wonder how strong the guy really was..

[Evilution]

50 one armed pull-ups. Nuff said.

[Underdog]

He was on roids, pretty small amounts. Lots of diuretics for enter the dragon, also.

He smoked weed and chew coke, also.

He was grossly overtrained and overjuiced, that's the real reason behind his death.

Other than that he was a complete azzhole in real life.

BTW, he was a genius on theoretical martial arts...

[Bau13]

Yeah I know about the drug rumours...

Anyways funny you should mention his death cos I recently met the doctor who wrote the report on Bruces death! HE said it was "complications" with some medicine he took...
hmmmm...I wonder what kind of medicine...
he wouldn't say...cover up by any chance?

[Chopstix]

underdog, thats somewhat of the same conclusion i came to.. i stated that he wasnot normal because he trained all the time, and did not rest, and went insane near the end of his life.. i wouldnt have been surprised if he had done drugs to tr and eliveviate the stress.. but he was extremely strong for his size and had verty low body fat percentage..

[Underdog]

I was an avid lee fan during my teens; it must be made clear that some of the astonishing feats of him must be traced to an obsessive inferiority complex. He was relentless in his quest to show the world he was something special. Mind you he didn't had a champion's genetics, he was rather poor gifted on the physical plane. What he had was a superhuman concentration capacity and an acute and analitycal mind. Beside that he was as human as everyone of us. In the late part of his life he would get trapped by the superhero hype he had created himself. That put enormous pressure on him. To mantain his physical training regime and to keep an insane working schedule, I guess he was high on speed-type drugs, maybe cocaine, maybe steroids, who know. Actually his death was traced to an allergic reaction to a pill similar to aspirine, that he used to alleviate flu synthoms, for me it was the final droplet in the bucket, but it must be something really serious in the background; maybe cerebral edema in the beginning phase. I guess that the truth had been hidden well to mantain a legend aura around him.

I think he was grossly overrated as athlete and very underestimated as a technical expert.

BTW, without bruce lee, we all would be believing in traditional MA.

[Evilution]

Good post Underdog. You can see the value of and the role Bruce played in the evolution of MA but you don't bow down to him like some icon. That's the way it should be.

[Bad Karma]

There's a book out titled:

The Art of Expressing the Human Body
ISBN# 0-8048-3129-7
$18.95 (US)


Much information about his training with weights and exercises. There are some feats of strength he accomplished by knowing more about body structure (posture) than most people.

My opinion, Bruce was caught up in his success at the end of his time. Figure, a CHINAMAN making it big in the USA?! Married to a WHITE woman?! He was being tag teamed from BOTH ends! That day and age didn't approve of such things much more than current time. Can you just imagine the pressure? The first big budget, major martial art movie of its kind - WOW! As much as he tried to keep it real, he had to slip a little, you know?

An azzhole in real life? I don't think so. People tend to confuse confidence with cockiness when they lack it (confidence). I've never personally met Bruce Lee, but I have spoke with some of his students and I don't get the same impressions as Underdog.

Peace

[Evilution]

Again, good post Bad Karma. I've got that book, it's pretty interesting material and has lots of good pictures of Bruce.

[Underdog]

It must be made clear that my considerations about mr. Lee are base entirely on written word, so my conclusions are purely subjective and maybe completely wrong. I do think that Lee was far ahead of his time, the thing that piss me off is that the vast majority of people tend to elevate his behaviour, his physical feats, and above all, his message, into myth and histerical aderence to his words. That is the exact opposite of the true meaning of Lee message to us.

Seeing here in Italy, a representative (italian guy) of the JKD "nucleus" that held seminars based on the "exact position of the elbow in bruce lee's bong sau" and that cannot defend himself against a lazy applied guillotine, is very, very sad.

[Bad Karma]

Please know that my comments are not personal. I just have a different impression due to my own exposure and they are as subjective as yours. I thoroughly enjoy your comments and I believe you are a very serious martial artist. Besides, I don't want you to try and set me on fire should we ever get the opportunity to meet - LOL! Concerning that Rep in Italy, I know exactly what you are talking about! I know several instructor-types that couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag, BUT they usually have something I can benefit from. Not every fighter is a teacher; not every teacher is a fighter.

It's important to be able to "see" through the highly marketed hype of Bruce Lee. It's also equally important to understand his accomplishments. I still have a hard time grasping some of them! So much has been built upon and added to what Bruce was doing (JKD) and said, we must be very critical and question everything. This not only keeps us honest, but those around us, as well.

Peace

[Underdog]

Good post, BK. Sometimes I wonder if Bruce Lee has been the icon of our martial art infancy.

For me he had represented the gate trough which an obese teen would had dreamt to defeat all the bullies that daily crossed his path.
Dipped in the material of dreams, this man has led more or less each and everyone of us, from our generation, into martial art. And by sheer example had led an insicure teen into a grown and mature (maybe not too much...) man.

By virtue of this, for me, in this light, he had achieved the superhuman standard he had dedicated his life to.

BTW, it's strange how this post had evocked long and forgotten memories.

Now it's MMA rage, even for me (I'm a Ruas Vale Tudo Student, and proud), but now I remember those times where a bunch of teen would gather in a garage and chant:

"No way as way, no limitations as limitation".


Rest in very peace, Mr. Lee.

[Chopstix]

im not sure where i read this from, but i think it was an interview by marco ruas.. i think he said that his main influence for getting into martial arts was the bruce lee movies.. interesting little tidbit of info..

[quietanswer]

the concept of 'mixed martial arts' and "no way as way" are very similar, no? So it isn't that big of a jump, eh underdog?

I have heard quotes describing bruce as very temperamental. However, I have also heard quotes of him described as behaving emotionally like a man who had seen enlightenment. It's probably one of those "what kinda day did he have, what kinda guy was he talking to, what was the story" situations..

I agree, worshipping lee as an icon fully sidesteps his value.. His whole theory was to relieve the fighter of icons...human as well as conceptual..

I've heard Inosanto quoted as saying Bruce was very, very involved with grappling. It's funny how Ruas watched bruce's trapping and kicking, and was also led to grappling...with perhaps no knowledge that it was one of bruce's forte's..

Speaking personally, I have learned many things from Bruce's work. I appreciate what he passed on to all of us. I don't much care about his negative side. He made a lot of us little guys stand up for ourselves. He was another little guy that wanted to stand up, and he succeeded. I don't much care if he intended to help anyone else. Just by standing up himself, learning to fight, and spotlighting it to the world, he did a world of good. I wonder if he knew he would effect some guy born in 1974 in Missouri?

As far as bruce smoking pot? Well..this is a new one on me..but it makes me feel a little bit less guilty.. ;D

[Edited by quietanswer on 11-27-2000 at 05:17 PM]