Bruce Lee Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Bruce Lee’s Dumbbells

Posted on Wednesday, June 9th, 2021 by John Wood

Bruce Lee was a big fan of dumbbells for various forms of training. Here, Bruce is doing some jumping drills (on a trampoline which you can’t see) with some added dumbbell resistance. These dumbbells weight eleven and a half pounds each and Bruce trained with them while he lived in Los Angeles. They aren’t marked but given the location and the style, I’d guess that they were made by the Bell Foundry Co. These dumbbells sold at auction a few years back; the winning bid was over $6000!

Bruce Lee’s Thumb Pushups

Posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017 by John Wood

The great martial artist Bruce Lee was a big proponent of physical training and with good reason. He understood… he “got it” … which is why he also made it a point to train his grip. Building stronger fingers, wrists, hands and forearms is obviously very important in combat settings. Here’s Master Bruce doing pushups on only his thumbs in between takes while filming Game of Death – an incredible feat. Can anyone today do this?

Bruce Lee’s Grip Machine

Posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2015 by John Wood

Bruce Lee was described by many as a “forearm fanatic” which makes perfect sense when one is devoted to the martial science – stronger wrists and forearms translate to harder punches and better grappling. This style of gripper is a simple design and has been around for decades, well before Bruce Lee came along, yet many people still know and refer to it as “The Bruce Lee Grip Machine”

This particular piece was made for Bruce by his friend George Lee (no relation) and he used it often. We have our own version of this type of grip machine available from time to time. This device actually brings quite a bit to the table, most importantly in our opinion, is to be able to train the crushing movement in different ranges of motion, much like one could use a power rack to improve various exercises.

York Isometric Power Rack

Posted on Sunday, October 23rd, 2011 by John Wood

Isometrics were all the rage in the 1960s although you don’t hear much about them these days.

Here’s a special rack made by The York Barbell Company created just for performing Isometrics (model W.W.) This is also the very same type of rack that Bruce Lee trained on.