The Art of Expressing the Human Body By Bruce Lee: Book Review

Is The Art of Expressing the Human Body actually useful? I read it to see how Lee approached strength, fitness, and martial arts training.

Note: Prices were correct at the time of writing.

The Art of Expressing the Human Body - Book By Bruce Lee, Compiled By John Little

KEY TAKEAWAY:

This book motivated me to change my training, lose weight, and take my fitness more seriously.

BACKGROUND:

The book was published in 1998, years after Lee’s death, and was compiled by John Little from Lee’s notes, letters, diaries, and training logs. A friend of mine mentioned it and it sounded interesting, so I picked up a copy. I already owned a number of books about bodybuilding and fitness, but this one had a much bigger effect on me than most of them. It helped me make the decision to lose the extra 40 pounds I had been carrying around.

CIRCUIT TRAINING:

I had always thought of circuit training as something girls did, but this book changed my mind about that. I discovered that it can be a very effective way to maintain, or even gain, muscle while losing weight. At the time, I had been lifting for about six months, although I had also trained seriously at two earlier points in my life. After only two weeks of circuit training, together with a high protein, whole food diet with almost no added sugar, I could already see a visible change in my physique.

FOREARM TRAINING:

I also appreciated the attention Bruce gave to areas that often get overlooked in fitness programs, especially forearm development. I noticed that a lot of guys at the gym had big biceps and triceps but relatively scrawny forearms. I’d been complaining about the same thing, but this book finally got me started on actually doing something about it. I have since been looking at other books to learn more about forearm training, but this is where that started for me.

TRAINING GOAL:

What interested me about Bruce Lee’s training was that he wasn't trying to become huge like a bodybuilder. His goal was to build a hard, muscular body that would give him more power and speed in his martial arts techniques. He looked at exercise programs from a wide range of systems instead of limiting himself to one approach. I found that especially interesting because when I was training seriously in martial arts, I ended up using many of the same kinds of sources in my own search.

TRAINING METHODS:

I was surprised by how many different exercises and pieces of equipment Bruce used to build strength and power. That included eight basic isometric exercises, barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, circuit training routines, abdominal work, forearm exercises, and the Enter the Dragon routine for martial artists. There were also exercises for the neck and shoulders, along with routines for building the chest, back, arms, legs, and calves. He even had a specific routine for working with the heavy bag, plus a number of other training programs.

FITNESS VALUE:

I wouldn't want this to be the only fitness book I owned, because there are other books that go into different areas in more detail. Still, when it comes to motivating me to actually get results and change my body, this is the best fitness book I own.

MARTIAL ARTS:

For me, the book is especially valuable from a martial arts perspective. Bruce Lee clearly understood how important physical conditioning is to martial arts training and how strength, speed, and fitness all support technique. In my opinion, this is a classic look at the training methods of Bruce Lee, and anyone interested in understanding how he approached physical preparation for martial arts will find a lot here.

Buy it on Amazon today for: $24.95 with FREE returns