Hello mr. Lamar,

I have read a lot about you and you seem to be a nice guy.
I dont know (of course) how your fighting capabilty is, because I dont have you seen in action).
But true all your answers in this forum you look like a good guy.
Lets begin with introducing myself.
My name is Wim, 46 years of age, male and I live in Holland. So sory for my bad Englisch, hope you can understand what I am trying to ask.
Since the age off 15 I practice all kinds of martial arts.
Starting with karate, then boxing, pencjac silat, kick-boxing etc. etc.
Of course I am a great fan of Bruce Lee and I have folowed some seminars from Ted Wong and Richard Torres.
I try to read everything about his trainingsmethodes and try to incoperate that into my own routine.
Every monday-evening I teach adults the things that I have learned true all these years. I try to teach fighting so I dont do any kata's or forms.
I try to train as much as possible on my own but since Internet I got quit confused about my own trainingsroutine.
Everybody is talking about the importantcy off strengthtraining for the martial artist.
And I have tried everything. Almost every bodybuilderroutine (Arnold Zwarzenegger, Frank Zane, Franco Columbo), I have tried dynamic tension, H.I.T. Training, whole body workouts, splittraining, bodyweighted exercises etc. etc.
Of course I have read the book: Expressing the Human Body with the schedule of Bruce Lee in it.
But when I ask people about that they say that that routine is rubbisch and that these days there are much better routines.
Now I want to incoperate strengthtraining into my own weekly routine.
I have 3 times a week my own martial arts routine with kicks, punches (in the air and on the bag) etc. etc.
This routine is great (for me it is) but I want to incoperate strengthtraining to get stronger and muscular (I dont get any younger )
When I was young we never did any strengthtraining. We only did the normal things as push-ups, sit-ups, cartwheels (for fun) walking on the hands etc.
Can you help me with making a routine for strength to incoperate into my routine?
My lenght is 1,86, my weight is about 87 kilo's (so I am not skinny or fat). I train at home so I have acces to a barbell, dumbells, bench, I can pull-ups, dips, I have a bullworker, expansers.
I dont have pully-things, so I cannot do latpulley pulldown, leg curls etc.
And what do you think about running. Because if you run 3 times a week, train with weights 2-3 times a week and train martial arts 2-3 times a week its seems that you dont have time to do other things.
Can you please help me and if you want let me know what you think off the routine off Bruce in the book Expressing the human Body.
Sorry for the long mail. Hope you dont mind.

Sincerally
Wim
lokate@home.nl

HELLO MY NAME IS CURTIS OWENS I HAVE SOME ADVICE FOR YOU HAVE YOU SEEN SIFU LAMARS DVDS THEY ARE ALL AWESOME ITS THE BEST INFORMATION ON REAL JKD ON THE MARKET IF YOU GET VOLUME 17 PHYSICAL TRAINING IT IS FULL OF GREAT ADVISE ON TRAINING ALSO VOLUME 15 TRAINING WITH EQUIPMENT IT IS ALSO GREAT IN ALL SIFU LAMARS DVDS HE BREAKS EVERYTHING DOWN AND EXPLAINS EVERYTHING IN GREAT DETAIL ITS JUST LIKE HAVING A PRIVATE LESSON I HAD JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING ON JKD THAT YOU COULD GET FROM INOSANTO,POTEET,JKD FEDERATION,VUNAK ONCE I GOT SIFU LAMARS I SOLD EVERYTHING ELSE I HAD ON JKD IM NOT THROWING OFF ON ANYBODY BUT TO ME SIFU LAMARS DVDS ARE THE BEST HE IS A GREAT INSTRUCTOR AND IS FULL OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL I HOPE THIS HELPS

GOOD LUCK IN YOUR TRAINING,
CURTIS OWENS

Thanks for your reaction.
I know that there is a lot of DVD's you can buy but I live in Holland and that is not easy to do.
I dont have a credit card or something like that.
I hope Lamar will react to.
Thanks again and take care

Wim

Hello!

I will soon be 49 years old, and I am in excellent physical condition! I can only tell you about what I do! Maybe it will work for you as well since we are so close in age! I will also say this ... the information in the book, "The Art of Expressing The Human Body" is great! You cannot go wrong by choosing and following a routine from that book! Ignore what others say about that book! The information contained in the book is just as valid today as it was when Bruce Lee was alive! You have to do what is right for YOU!!!!

I personally follow a routine where I train with weights three days per week. I workout on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. I alternate back and forth between working Chest/Shoulders/Triceps and working Back/Biceps. I work my abs and forearms every workout, and try to do some ab and forearm work every day. I do not do any lifting for my legs other than calf raises, but I do incorporate lots of walking, some rope skipping and JKD footwork training to keep my legs in shape. That seems to work very well for me!

I normally do three or four sets of eight to twelve reps per exercise. I do my first set with a lighter weight, then increase weight with each set. For my chest I normally do flat bench barbell bench presses and flat bench dumbell flyes. I also occasionally incorporate incline bench press and dips into my chest workout. For my shoulders I do seated barbell presses and dumbell side raises. For my triceps I do close grip straight bar cable pressdowns palm down and palm up, seated triceps presses and bench dips. Since you don't have cables, you may want to do some dumbell kickbacks. Another good exercise for triceps is tiger pushups, also sometimes referred to as diamond pushups. For my back I do wide grip pulldowns, close grip seated rows and close grip palm in pulldowns. Since you do not have cables, do one arm dumbell rows and a variety of pull ups/chin ups on a overhead bar. For biceps I do straight barbell curls, standing alternate dumbell curls and one arm dumbell concentration curls!

This is the routine that works for me! I also make sure that I take my nutritional supplements, get adequate protein and drink plenty of water! If you are trying to put on some muscle, I recommend an intake of at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight each day! In other words, I weight 200 pounds, which means if I want to gain muscle, my protein intake per day should be around 200 grams. Give this a try and see if it works for you! Remember, it doesn't matter what others say, it is what works for you that counts! Good luck with your training!

Keep Blasting!
Sifu Lamar M. Davis II
Senior Instructor
Hardcore Jeet Kune Do
Sifu@HardcoreJKD.com
http://www.HardcoreJKD.com
Kwoon (205) 274-9011

"Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit First - ALWAYS!"

"What is Jeet Kune Do (JKD)? Chinese martial art, definitely! It is a kind of Chinese martial art that does away with the distinction of branches, an art that rejects formality, an art that is liberated from tradition." __Bruce Lee

Hello mr. Lamar,

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question. Great answer by the way.
And you are right, I must follow my own way and not listen to all these so called experts.
Bruce Lee was in the greatest shape so that routine off him couldnt be that bad :-)
Again, thank you very much now I now what to do and thanks for sharing your routine with me.
I will take your advice and try the routine and see how it turns out.

Sincerally

Wim

Hello Sifu & everyone:

Could you please describe how these
"Tiger pushups" are done? Thanks
and God bless you.

Dick

Hello Dick!

Tiger push ups are also knows as "A Frame" or "diamond" push ups. Nothing will be touching the floor but your hands and the balls of your feet. Your body will form an a frame with your butt up in the air, and your hands will be positioned close together on the palms so that the index fingers and thumbs are touching (forming sort of a diamond shape between your hands). Your elbows are slightly out. Now, using only your arms (primarily triceps) and keeping your legs and back straight forming the sides of the a frame, lower yourself down and touch the top of your head in the space between your hands, then back up. Because of the extreme angle of the body, this is a tremendous triceps workout! Enjoy!

Keep Blasting!
Sifu Lamar M. Davis II
Senior Instructor
Hardcore Jeet Kune Do
Sifu@HardcoreJKD.com
http://www.HardcoreJKD.com
Kwoon (205) 274-9011

"Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit First - ALWAYS!"

"What is Jeet Kune Do (JKD)? Chinese martial art, definitely! It is a kind of Chinese martial art that does away with the distinction of branches, an art that rejects formality, an art that is liberated from tradition." __Bruce Lee

The routine as you have discribed is that a full body routine wich you do 3 times a week or do you split it up.

Sincerally

Wim

You say: I alternate back and forth between working Chest/Shoulders/Triceps and working Back/Biceps

Does this mean that you do one set of a chest exercise followed by one set for the shoulders then triceps and then do do whole thing 3-4 more sets?

Hello!

A very important thing to remember is that you always work muscle groups largest to smallest! Do ALL chest exercises before going to shoulders, then ALL shoulder exercises before going to triceps! Stick with one exercise until you finish all sets/reps, then move to the next exercise.

One week I will work chest/shoulders/triceps on Tuesday and Sunday and back/biceps on Thursday. The next week I work back/biceps on Tuesday and Sunday and chest/shoulders/triceps on Thursday. Of course, as I already stated, I will do abs and some forearm work every workout! I normally work my abs first, then the major muscle groups (chest/shoulders/triceps or back/biceps), then forearms last. I also try to do some calf raises every workout to keep my calves strong for JKD footwork.



Keep Blasting!
Sifu Lamar M. Davis II
Senior Instructor
Hardcore Jeet Kune Do
Sifu@HardcoreJKD.com
http://www.HardcoreJKD.com
Kwoon (205) 274-9011

"Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit First - ALWAYS!"

"What is Jeet Kune Do (JKD)? Chinese martial art, definitely! It is a kind of Chinese martial art that does away with the distinction of branches, an art that rejects formality, an art that is liberated from tradition." __Bruce Lee

Hello mr. Lamar,
thanks again for your answer, realy appriciated it.
I forgot one important question, hope you can answer that one to. Then I have all the information I need and can start with the training.
What are the best exercises for the abdominals and forearms and how many sets/reps is good?

Sincerally

Wim

Hello Again!

For a good ab routine, please see the "Nutrition & Fitness" section of my website:

http://www.hardcorejkd.com/nutrition.php

For forearms, do standing alternating palm down dumbell curls, leverage bar wrist rotations, standing reverse grip barbell curls, barbell plate finger curls (can only be done with olympic plates) and behind the back barbell wrist curls. Do three sets of everything, with between fifteen and thirty repetitions with lighter weight and between eight and twelve repetitions with heavier weight. That should get the forearms pumped and ready to explode!

Keep Blasting!
Sifu Lamar M. Davis II
Senior Instructor
Hardcore Jeet Kune Do
Sifu@HardcoreJKD.com
http://www.HardcoreJKD.com
Kwoon (205) 274-9011

"Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit First - ALWAYS!"

"What is Jeet Kune Do (JKD)? Chinese martial art, definitely! It is a kind of Chinese martial art that does away with the distinction of branches, an art that rejects formality, an art that is liberated from tradition." __Bruce Lee

Hello mr. Lamar,

thank you very much. You have helped me a lot.
Now I can go start training :-)
Ill keep you informed about how it goes.
Thanks again.

Sincerally

Wim

Hello mr. Lamar,

just forgot to tell you that its a a great thing that you have shared your personal routine with me.
There arent't many martial artist who are willing to that.
Great!!

Sincerally

Wim

Hello Again!

I am always willing to help someone any way that I possibly can! That is what I'm here for! :-) I wish you the best with your training!

Hello mr. Lamar,

thanks. I will let you know how it goes after a few weeks.
Take care.

sincerally

Wim

Thanks Sifu!

Think I'll give this a try.
Have a great weekend!

Dick