Bruce Lee’s Abs Workouts

Bruce Lee’s abdominal muscles were quite exceptional. They were very well defined, well developed, and very solid. Lee’s waist was very thin, with almost no fat at all. Bruce Lee followed some simple rules to ensure that his abs stayed in great shape. The main rules are:

  1. Diet is the most important thing when building abs. Learn how to eat in order to build muscle and keep off fat. A high protein and low carb approach is a great way to build muscle and lose fat.
  2. continued below ....
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  3. Losing fat is the second key. If you have a layer of fat over your abs you will never see them no matter how good they are.
  4. Work your abs like any other muscle. Add weight constantly so you don’t stagnate.

Bruce Lee Abs Tips

Bruce Lee himself often used to comment on how he trained his abs. In doing so he helped other people build their own. Bruce learnt how to build abs from champion bodybuilders, and spent many years perfecting the art of abdominal development. He believed that the abs were vital to provide balance and strength in the body.

“The abdominal and waist region coordinate all parts of the body and act as the center of generator. Therefore, you can promote the ability to control the body’s action and master your will more easily.” Bruce Lee.

One of the best tips that he offered, which has been tried and tested is that you should always curl your body up as if rolling up a newspaper when doing a crunch. Do not sit up and down like a see-saw, but curl your upper body up starting with your head, then neck, then chest. Keep your abdominals engaged (tensed) and your attention focussed on them at all times. Do not simply go through the motions.

Lee concentrated on five exercises for stomach and abdominal development. He found that these were the best exercises to help build and maintain perfect six-pack abs. He would also only perform 1-3 different exercises on any one day, and very rarely perform all five in the same session nor on the same day.

Bruce Lee’s most common abs exercises:

  • Waist twists – 4 sets of 90 repetitions.
  • Sit-up twists – 4 sets of 20 repetitions.
  • Leg raises – 4 sets of 20 repetitions.
  • Leaning twists – 4 sets of 50 repetitions.
  • Frog kicks – 4 sets of 50 repetitions

Also Bruce liked to perform the follow stomach exercises:

  • Roman chair sit-up
  • Leg raises (excellent for the lower abs)
  • Side bends

Bruce Lee’s Abdominal Training Tips:

It is important to work fast while concentrating on good form. When you can no longer perform any more full repetitions, continue with smaller movements, such as abdominal crunches, which give improved muscle development and definition.

Bruce Lee was also a firm believer in static concentrations, which involve tightening the stomach muscles for short bursts and then relaxing.

Most importantly, Bruce Lee taught that abdominal exercises never reduce the waist, i.e. there is no reduction in belly fat. For this, diet and nutrition is key.

Lee further developed this routine, adding additional sets of sit-ups, side bends, leg raises, “flags,” twists and back bends to his abdominal workout regimen. The “flag” exercise was a particularly difficult drill Lee devised for working the abdominal. While lying on a bench, he would grasp attached uprights with both hands and raise himself, supported only by his shoulders. Then, with his knees locked straight and his lower back raised off the bench, he would perform leg raises.

Bruce Lee’s Success with Abs Training

In addition to what we have learned from Bruce Lee, there have been many other tried and tested methods of exercising and bodybuilding. Here is a summary of the concepts required for developing excellent abs:

Bruce Lee preformed both cardio and weight training (high and low intensity) every single day. In doing this he lost a lot of muscle, but mainly he burned off fat. This was the main reason that his abs looked so good. There was barely a shred of fat covering them.

Bruce ate a good diet and a lot of protein. He was an advocate of eating a post workout protein shake and used to experiment with lots of different ingredients. Recent research has proved that post workout shakes drunk within 30 minutes of exercise provide maximum benefit.

Lee firmly believed that proper nutrition was essential for developing the perfect set of abs. What you eat determines the thickness and density of the outer tissue covering the abdominal muscles. Once the belly fat has been worked off through a calorie controlled diet combined with aerobic and endurance fitness training, the abs are then relatively easy to maintain through a good healthy diet and regular abdominal exercising.

He did a lot of martial arts and was especially adept at kicking. Lots of the muscles used to power a kick come from the stomach region and as such he worked his abs out in different ways.

He was constantly changing his abs routine, which kept his abs guessing and helped him to achieve a very complete development.

Bruce Lee’s final advice is to exercise abs daily, and that with patience and perseverance, results will be seen in time.

With the New Year come new challenges. If one of your goals is to attain well defined abdominal muscles, then the Bruce Lee Abs Workout is a great place to start. Also check out the details of Bruce Lee’s diet and Bruce Lee’s weight training routine.

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    Thursday, January 11, 2007
    By MotleyHealth

    5 Responses to “Bruce Lee’s Abs Workouts”

    1. Deon Barnes

      Hey Motley it’s me Deon Barnes again lol.What I wanted to say was you have all of bruce lee’s weight training tips, but it doesn’t work well if you don’t tell us of all of his isometric excercises as well as well as his workout equipment it would be very helpful if you could thank you please respond back

      #1051
    2. MotleyHealth

      Hi Deon, we have now added an article on Bruce Lee’s isometric training, hope you enjoy! Flexibility training is next on the list.

      #1052
    3. michael

      I can’t believe you are promoting the atkins diet, god motley health my arse. I think Bruce would laugh at this article.

      #1153
    4. MotleyHealth

      Hi Michael, good point, it has been amended to say high protein / low carb to help build muscle. I think what was meant by Atkins was that a reduction in sugar helps to lose weight (which is does) although as we know from more recent studies, in the long term Atkins does not fair better than any other type of diet. However, most bodybuilders and athletes reduce carbs and increase protein when they are cutting, and reduce calories too.

      #1154
    5. michael

      Ok thats sounds better,How about using G.I. concepts instead?
      I did not mean to be rude sorry for the earlier comment.

      #1155

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