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Bruce Lee's Amazing Feats_

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  • Bruce Lee's striking speed from 60cm (24 inches) away was five hundredths of a second.
  • Bruce did one-hand push ups using only 2 fingers.
  • Bruce was able to break a 70 kg (154 lbs) bag with a sidekick.
  • Bruce could throw grains of rice up into the air and then catch them in mid-flight using chopsticks.
  • Bruce could thrust his fingers through unopened cans of Coca-Cola. (This was when soft drinks cans were made of steel much thicker than today's aluminium cans)
  • Bruce once caved in a protective headgear made from heavy steel rods, rods that had previously withstood several blows from a sledgehammer.
  • Bruce's famous "One Inch Punch" was able to knock back and off balance a 200lb man into a chair, using only 1 inch of striking distance. The target stands with their feet squared and is unable to turn to a sideways stance because of the chair being in the way, thus being knocked off balance.
  • Bruce's last movie Enter the Dragon was made for US$850,000 in 1973 ($3.74 million in 2005 currency. To date, Enter the Dragon has grossed over $100,000,000.
  • Bruce was able to hold a 57 kg (125 lb) barbell at arms length in front of him (with elbows locked) for several seconds.

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Quotes_

These are some quotes from Bruce Lee's students and people who trained with him, about his feats of strength.

  • Chuck Norris
    • "Lee, pound for pound, might well have been one of the strongest men in the world, and certainly one of the quickest."
  • Dan Inosanto
    • "Bruce was only interested in strength that he could readily convert to power. I remember once Bruce and I were walking along the beach in Santa Monica. All of a sudden this huge bodybuilder came walking by, and I said to Bruce "Man, look at the arms on that guy" I'll never forget his reaction, he said "Yeah, he's big, but is he powerful???"
    • "Bruce was so obsessed with strengthening his forearms that he used to train them every day. He said "The forearm muscle was very, very dense, so you had to pump that muscle every day to make it stronger".
  • Bob Wall
    • "Bruce had the biggest forearms proportionate to anybody's body that I've ever seen. I mean, his forearms were huge. He had incredibly powerful wrists and fingers, his arms were just extraordinary".
    • "Bruce was pretty much of a five mile runner, but then Bruce was one of those guys who just challenged the heck out of himself. He ran backwards, he ran wind sprints where he'd run a mile, walk a mile, run a mile. Whenever I ran with Bruce, it was always a different kind of run. Bruce was one of those total athletes. It wasn't easy training with him. He pushed you beyond where you wanted to go and then some".
  • Taki Kimura
    • "If you ever grabbed hold of Bruce's forearm, it was like getting hold of a baseball bat".
  • Doug Palmer
    • "Bruce was like the Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali in his prime, somebody who stood above everyone else. It's not that the other martial artists weren't good. It's just that this guy was great."
  • Herb Jackson
    • "The biggest problem in designing equipment for Bruce was that he'd go through it so damn fast. I had to reinforce his wooden dummy with automobile parts so he could train on it without breaking it. I had started to build him a mobile dummy that could actually attack and retreat to better simulate "live" combat, sadly Bruce died before the machine was built. It would have been strung up by big high-tension cables that I was going to connect between two posts, one on either side of his backyard. The reason for the machine was simply because no one could stand up to his full force punches and kicks, Bruce's strength and skill had evolved to a point where he had to fight machines."
    • "He never trained in a gym, he thought he could concentrate better at home, so he worked out on his patio. He had a small weight set, something like a standard 100 lb cast-iron set. In addition, he had a 310 lb Olympic barbell set, a bench press and some dumbbells, both solid and adjustable."
    • "Bruce used to beat all other comers at this type of wrist wrestling and even joked that he wanted to be world champion at it."
  • James Coburn
    • "Bruce and I were training out on my patio one day, we were using this giant bag for side kicks, I guess it weighed about 150 lb. Bruce looked at it and just went Bang, it shot up out into the lawn about 15 ft in the air, it then busted in the middle. It was filled with little bits and pieces of rag, we were picking up bits of rag for months."
  • Jesse Glover
    • "When he could do push ups on his thumbs and push ups with 250 lb on his back, he moved on to other exercises."
    • "The power that Lee was capable of instantly generating was absolutely frightening to his fellow martial artists, especially his sparring partners, and his speed was equally intimidating. We timed him with an electric timer once, and Bruce's quickest movements were around five hundredths of a second (.05sec), his slowest were around eight hundredths (.08sec). This was punching from a relaxed position with his hands down at his sides from a distance between 18-24 inches. Not only was he amazingly quick, but he could read you too. He could pick up on small subtle things that you were getting ready to do and then he'd just shut you down."
    • "Bruce was gravitating more and more toward weight training as he would use the weighted wall pulleys and do series upon series with them. He'd also grab one of the old rusty barbells that littered the floor at the YMCA and would roll it up and down his forearms, which is no small feat when you consider that the barbell weighed 70 lb."
  • Jim Kelly
    • "Bruce, well I can basically say this. I have been around a lot of great martial arts fighters. Worked out with them. Fought them in tournaments. In my opinion, Bruce Lee was the greatest martial artist who ever lived. To me, that's my opinion. I think Bruce Lee is the greatest martial artist ever. I don't think anybody is in his class."
  • Joe Lewis
    • "Bruce was incredibly strong for his size. He could take a 75 lb barbell and from a standing position with the barbell held flush against his chest, he could slowly stick his arms out, lock them and hold the barbell there for 20 seconds, that's pretty damn tough for a guy who at the time only weighed 138 lb. I know 200 lb weight lifters who can't do that."
    • " I never stood in front of another human who was as quick as him. He not only had the quickness, but he had the inner confidence to muster the conviction to do so. I've seen others who had the speed, but lack conviction or vice versa. He was like Ali, he had both. I stood before both of these men, so I know."
    • "If Bruce Lee wasn´t the greatest martial artist of all time, then certainly he is the number one candidate."
  • Leo Fong
    • "Yes, I was on the receiving end of his side kick. It was like getting hit with a truck."
  • Mito Uhera
    • "Bruce always felt that if your stomach wasn't developed, then you had no business doing any hard sparring."
    • "He'd ride a stationary bike for 45 minutes straight (10 Miles) until the sweat would form in pools on the floor beneath him."
  • James Rage
    • "I think its important for people to realize that he was not only one of history's greatest martial artists, but also one of the finest athletes period. His devotion to physical exercise and healthy lifestyle was mind-boggling."
  • Jhoon Rhee
    • "You could show him a tremendously difficult technique that took years to perfect and the next time you saw him, he would do it better than you".

 

 

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