Bruce Lee is famous for one reason - he worked hard. His training was brutal and he was very dedicated. In this post I want to look at a few things that Bruce Lee can teacher us about our workouts.

Bruce Lee stressed repetition

If you want to be good at something you have to repeat it over and over again. When you are feeling tired you need to repeat it some more. There is an old martial arts saying that Bruce Lee often said to his students:

“It is not the 10,000 kicks you have practiced once that I fear. It is the one kick you have practiced 10,000 times.”

Bruce Lee was often seen to be performing the same punch or the same sidekick out on his heavy bag for hours at a time. Just one punch, over and over and over. This is how you become good at something.

Bruce Lee tried new things

“Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.” - Bruce Lee

One of the great things about Lee was that he was open to trying new things. He always learned new martial arts from people and he even looked into other sports to better his martial arts. For example, he started fencing lessons because he thought that it would help him learn to spring forward faster to deliver quicker punches and kicks.

Bruce Lee made things thoughtful

“The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a pattern of systems.” - Bruce Lee

One of the best things you can do for your workouts is to take them to a spiritual level. If you go to the gym everyday and spend hours working out it is a little silly to just leave it at the physical level. Fitness, martial arts, bodybuilding, etc. all need to be taken to a deeper level where you learn new things about yourself and the world. Bruce Lee was always looking at his martial arts as a microcosm of his life and as such learned how to deal with hardships and teach people wonderful lessons.

Bruce Lee made progress

“Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal.” - Bruce Lee

One thing that bodybuilders often do is get stuck on a plateau. They forget to keep adding more weight, more intensity or more reps. It is important to make sure that you are always progressing and getting closer to your goal. Bruce Lee says that each day you should take one sure step closer to your goal. Make sure you do to.

Conclusion on Bruce Lee’s lessons

Bruce Lee’s life work was so vast that you could continue to study it for the rest of your days. It is important to look at great people like Lee and learn from their example. It will help you grow as an individual and it will help you take your training to an all new level.

What martial art has high kicks, backflips, music, speed and big muscles? Capoeira does. This Brazillian martial art is unlike any other. For the first time you will be able to harmonize muscle building, fighting ability and pure grace into one martial art.

So what is Capoeira?

Capoeira is difficult to put into one basket. Some people like to consider it a dance. Other people like to use it for lethal force. Others see it as a physical means to express themselves. I am not sure what I see it as. I know it is beautiful but I also know it can be ugly. One thing I really do understand, however, is that it is not a form of art that is simple to mentally or physically grasp.

To put it crudely Capoeira is a martial art that was developed by African slaves in Brazil. It was “hidden” as a dance so that their captors would not realize what they were training but in essence they were training deadly moves. As smooth and harmless as some of Capoeira might seem it also has a dark side.

The Roda - the backbone of Capoeira

Capoeira is centered around a “sparring session” called a roda (pron. hodda). In this roda the students gather in a circle and play musical instruments to a very infectious beat. The students then enter the circle two at a time and “play” out their moves together. Sometimes the “playing” students will be kind and help each other with their moves; each making room for the others kicks and acrobatics. Other times the playing will turn nasty and the students will vent their anger by trying to take down their opponent in a show of seeming arrogance.

The playing always ends in a laugh and a handshake, however, which makes it so much more difficult to understand. Sometimes when I watch a roda I think that it is a microcosm for life. The players enter the roda with different moods, motivations and scars and as such mood of the roda is influenced. If someone cannot master his own moves he might seek to bring the other persons down by restricting him or attempting to degrade him.

However, the purpose of the roda escapes me. It could be viewed as a meer sparring session where one puts the training into practice. But, like many things in life, it seems that there is something deeper. A hug with your mother is more than a hug. A kiss from your lover is more than a kiss. A kick in a roda is more than a kick.

Capoeira for developing muscles and fitness

On a more simple level Capoeira is wonderful for developing some fantastic fitness. The art involves lots of handstands, high kicks and acrobatics and as such you get to develop core strength and aerobic endurance while you pump these moves out over and over again.

The movements in Capoeira force you to use your body in ways you never have before and as such your muscles are shocked into a new state of growth. Weedy guys grow muscles in weeks. Fat guys lose weight faster than they have before. It really is fantastic for keeping fit and healthy.

Is Capoeira for me?

A word of warning; Capoeira is not for everyone. It is a very high impact art and puts a lot of stress on your joints and tendons. If you are healthy and you approach the art in a slow and concentrated manner you will probably strengthen these parts of your body but if you have pre existing health concerns you should probably stay clear.

Soul Capoeira for more on all things Capoeira

A dear friend of mine runs the premier Capoeira Blog called Soul Capoeira. Go over and subscribe to his feed to get a real insight into the heart of this most wonderful art. It is a must read for any martial artist seeking his/her way on the warriors path.

Its time again for another Real Muscle Online Reader Question and this one comes from long time reader Wim who asks:

“To train in martial arts is harder then most people think. You have to train your strength, you have to run and of course you have to train martial arts. So how does someone who has to work a full time job and raise kids balance their martial arts training with other types of exercise?”

Great question Wim. I know a lot of people will be struggling with this problems so I will share with you a few techniques that I have learned a long the way.

How to balance martial arts training with other types of exercise

I think the source of this problem is Bruce Lee. It was Bruce Lee who popularised cross training with martial artists. Because of him every martial artist now lifts weights, runs, jumps rope, stretches as well as training their traditional kata or form. Back in the old days in China or Japan the martial artists pretty much just practiced their own art without these other types of exercise. Now, however, we feel the need to do all these other types of exercise to improve our martial arts skills.

Whether this is right or wrong I won’t touch on here.

What I will touch on are some thoughts I have on the matter of balancing your martial arts training with other types of exercise.

1. Realise that we don’t have as much time

Can you imagine a Shaolin Monk in ancient China getting up at 6am, feeding the kids, shaving, getting ready for work and then coming home and doing 6 hours of kung fu?

No.

It simply wasn’t like that back then. These monks were so good at kung fu because they dedicated their whole lives to training their art. They didn’t have families. They didn’t have jobs. They just trained and meditated.

We cannot do that.

So the first step is to realize that we don’t have as much time as the Shaolin monks or as millionaire celebrities like Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris or Jet Li. With our limited time we can only work with what we are given. And if that is only one hour per day then we have to accept that. Continue Reading