If muscle mass means strength why was Bruce Lee so strong for such a very small size? Bigger is Stronger huh?

Question

If muscle mass means strength why was Bruce Lee so strong for such a very small size? Bigger is Stronger huh?

Answer 1

These reasons:



1. He lifted weights

2. He knew how to focus the power of his entire body into his strikes.

3. He made use of his Chi

4. He had awesome flexibility

5. He knew how to combine 1-4 for devestating strikes.

Answer 2

Bruce Lee's "strength" was not in his ability to lift or press mass amounts of weight. In most martial arts like Jeet Kun Do (which Bruce invented), “severe tensile strength” is the result of massive calisthenics and light weight training. So, was he strong? Absolutely, for his relative size! However, Bruce used this overly developed strength and never sacrificed his flexibility and dexterity, by enlarging his muscle mass. He then could apply the principles of martial arts with a highly developed sense of speed and power, which was evident his style.



Be Good,

Andre M

Answer 3

Speed bone strength and technique can also be a way to build stength.thats why a bullet hurts so much more than a rock. some people also have a little fat under there muscle so there muscle isnt all muscle. Bruce lee had rock hard muscle.

Answer 4

I think his strength had more to do with his technique than anything else. Anyway, more muscle mass (obtained by increasing your red fibbers cells) means more strength, but you loose speed and reaction. When you obtain a better muscle mass (that is, not larger but harder, white fibred muscle cells) you get strength, speed and reaction time improvements, and that's what I think happened with Bruce Lee.

Answer 5

Muscle mass does not equal strenght,if it did,body builders would be as strong as power lifters.What Bruce lee had was tensil strenght,he was not exceptional strong at all,but strong for his size

Answer 6

People get usually martial art “sports” confused with “true self defense”.

“Sports” such as Tae Kwon Do, Boxing, Karate, Wrestling etc… are based on physical ability to be effective, such as flexibility in Tae Kwon Do, physical strength in Boxing and subsequent all other stiles. That is the reason why we do have weight classes in such events. Imagine a 150lb guy in a fight against a heavyweight!

Facts are that in realistic encounters you (given you are not the aggressor) will encounter one of three categories of opponents.

First, someone who is obviously stronger built than you.

Second, if this is not the case, he has a few friends with him who get the advantage back on his side.

Or third, if he is smaller and alone, watch out for weapons. These are the circumstances usually surrounding real encounters. Someone who is obviously in a disadvantage would not pick a fight with you.

These are the obvious reasons why “Self-Defensive Sports” work only partially or rarely when faced with an opponent in one of the above mentioned three categories. Not to lesson the effectiveness, yet it becomes obvious that such stiles effectiveness depend on the athletic ability of the applicant. Hence his/her conditioning, speed, flexibility and strength.

Realistic Self Defense teaches arts that takes physical disadvantage into consideration. There are few “true” stiles which work on such a level and a warning here - sadly many of them are taught with the wrong philosophy and under misconceptions, because only few people who claim the fame of having learned such systems know how to apply them.



Bruce Lee studied such stiles. One was called Wing Chun. He studied under Grandmaster Yip Man who was very thin and physically weak; an old man suffering from throat cancer! – yet Bruce Lee in his youth, even hot headed, listened very careful! Showing his strongest developed muscles was his brain! He studied under Yip Man for 5 years in Hong Kong and later on added also Filipino Martial Arts from his actual student Dan Inosanto, commonly referred to as Arnis, Escrima and Kali. (You can watch his introduction of Escrima to the western world in “Enter the Dragon”). Often falsely described as stick fighting system it is actually a multifaceted self defense system that also includes complex empty hand techniques. The empty hand stile is commonly referred to as Kadena de Mano and includes also training techniques to teach the senso-motoric nervous system rather than eyesight for response.



Long answer to a short question.

Bruce Lee was considered highly effective in terms of self-defense, which could be considered “strong” and at his time had no peers, but with his approximately 150lb body weight would have had many successors in terms of sheer physical strength. You will find most likely in every gym dozens of people who would have out bench pressed him, but anyone with good developed brain muscles should have refrained from picking a fight, because of Lee’s ability to apply true self-defensive skills most brilliantly, any obvious so-called apparent physical advantages as mentioned in the above 3 categories would have been negated.



P.S. Even though he applied many high kicks for show purposes in his movies he did not teach such techniques to his students.



If you like more info about realistic self-defense check out my web site at www.tcescrima.com

The site is outdated, but the technical information still applicable. If you have more questions you can email me at [e-mail]



Have a nice one

Answer 7

no forget about mass

is how u train, which parts of ur body u train and how, technique and speed!!

for example if check out some kung fu arts u will see that they have a lot of different hand training, or taek won do has really good training that it helps u acquire speed,technique and power without pumping u!! also try to find a jeet kune do book or school and check out their technique in training....brilliant !!! u can achieve great power in ur strikes by proper martial art training and not with traditional body building

Answer 8

I think it was because after years of Martial Arts training, he knew how to focus his strength. He learned how to channel his energy. He was strong for his size, but also because of all the conditioning exercises and routines that he did.

Answer 9

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