NUTRITION AND RECOVERY |
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THIS SPREAD: WARNER BROS / GETTY IMAGES; PHOTOS 12 / ALAMY |
ENDURANCE
In Lee’ s day, roadwork and a jump rope were the gold standards in cardiovascular training for combat. Although this can still be a way to challenge the body and help a fighter clear his mind, the repetitive pounding can break an athlete down. In its place, I’ ve used sprints and metabolic circuits designed to increase endurance, maintain strength, and burn fat. These workouts take less time and allow for greater recovery. These circuits also utilize a number of tools that were greatly underutilized in Lee’ s day, like heavy ropes, an agility ladder, a sandbag, and a slam ball.
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CORE
Lee was a big fan of abdominal work, but in his day, most abdominal exercises like situps and crunches were done for extremely high reps. Lee could often be found banging out hundreds of reps of abdominal work. These reps cost time, and presently there are more efective ways to develop core strength. To increase productivity and recovery, the thousands of body-weight reps Lee performed are replaced with more heavily loaded exercises that require both stability and rotation, helping transfer even more power to punches and kicks.
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Lee took vitamins and ate clean in order to achieve his legendary physique. Yes, he had great muscle definition, but he also had a body weight that fluctuated between 125 and 145 pounds on a 5 ' 7 " frame; the increase in information about nutrition, supplementation, and recovery would have helped him to pack on more muscle and size today. Lee, the student that he was, would surely have stayed on the cutting edge of this information and taken advantage of the improvements. If he had been able to add supps like creatine and hydrolyzed whey protein to his diet and use current recovery methods, Lee could’ ve been even sharper. |