Bruce Lee’s fitness regime and diet made him a pioneer among athletes and martial artists alike
- Enter The Dragon star was ahead of his time, reaping benefits of strength and conditioning training 50 years ago
- Lee also drank protein shakes – including a blend of entire raw hamburgers – long before they became commonplace for modern athletes
Bruce Lee is known as the “Godfather of MMA” but he was also a pioneer when it came to his training regime and diet – which included drinking a blend of raw hamburger meat.
Biographer Matthew Polly’s Bruce Lee: A Life, which was released in paperback last month, details how Lee was the first martial artist to train like a modern athlete.
The Enter The Dragon star reaped the benefits of strength and conditioning training 50 years ago, long before it became a habit of professional sports stars to hit the gym to improve their game.
As with his jeet kune do fighting style, which consisted of taking bits and pieces from multiple styles and blending them into one, Lee took training methods from other athletic spheres and forged them all into his own unique regime.
Polly writes that Bruce Lee recognised that strength and conditioning training was crucial to becoming the ultimate fighter. Whereas athletes to that point would simply practise their own sport, Lee was the first to integrate outside gym work to his routine.
