By John Little (Taken from “Knowing Is Not Enough”, Summer 1998) I’ve been involved in weight training and bodybuilding, primarily as a journalist, for well over ten years. In that time I’ve interviewed every top bodybuilder and strength athlete in the business, from Mr. Olympia winners Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dorian Yates and Lee Haney to the late Olympic weightlifting champion, Paul Anderson, a man considered by many to have been the strongest man who ever lived. In any event, being around such paradigms of strength and muscle, I became very influenced by the beliefs that abound within bodybuilding circles indicating that weight training will benefit all aspects of an athlete’s game. To a large extent, this is certainly an accurate belief. However, the one area where weight training does not hold that much sway is in the realm of endurance. Granted, you can use light weights and circuit train, which will provide some aerobic effect, but this is a very inefficient way to obtain aerobic fitness when compared to such tried and true (and far more efficacious) methods as cross-country skiing or running. Anyway, to my point. Not that long ago I lived in California and, as it happened, perhaps ten minutes away from Bruce Lee’s old house on Roscomare Road in Bel Air. In the course of researching this book I had the good fortune of being able to speak with many individuals who had the good fortune of being able to train alongside Bruce Lee, such as NBA legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Kareem particularly waxed euphoric about Lee’s “incredible” aerobics program, and their running route on Roscomare Road. “Bruce and I used to start most of our workouts by running from his house on Roscomare Road out to Mulholland and back. It was a distance of about two miles and, because of the hills, it was a killer on the legs and cardiovascular system.” With Kareem’s words ringing in my ears, I decided that I would get up early one morning, take a drive past Bruce’s old house, park the car and go for a little jog. You know, just for sentimental value – in addition to testing the accuracy of ole Kareem’s recollective faculty. After all, I reasoned, I’d been lifting weights for well neigh 16 years, was strong as a bull from “Power Factor Training,” a body-building method that I’d co-created along with Peter Sisco, and my cardiovascular system was (or so I reasoned at the time) more than a match for such a piddly little two-mile trek. At least was my mind set as I started out on my nostalgic bit of early morning roadwork. It was very early into the run when I realized I’d missed the side of the proverbial barn by at least eight yards in my estimation of my fitness levels. My body started sending none-to-subtle signals to my brain that I was not nearly in the kind of condition that I’d foolishly allowed myself to believe I was. I learned a lot about Bruce that morning, the most vivid lesson being that Bruce was evidently quite into hills as Roscomare Road is loaded with them! And by hills I’m not talking about little bumps in the ashvault but inclines that, at times, make Gibraltar look like an anthill! As I continued pounding away I noticed that my legs were now burning form lactic acid build up – I’d misjudged the tempo I needed to employ to pace myself for this distance and at this intensity. After what seemed an eternity, I made my way up to the summit of a (painfully) steep hill that – finally! – intersected Mulholland Drive, the “turn around point,” according to Kareem. At this point, Mr. Weight Training’s heart was pounding like a jack rabbit’s as I turned around and continued back toward Bruce’s house. Down the steep decline I went, then over a brief level stretch pavement before yet another steep hill reared up before me – another obstacle to overcome! I found the hills on the return trip were even more brutal than when I’d first crossed over them and I found myself slowing down with each succeeding step until I finally ended up walking the remainder of the route. I finally made it back to Bruce’s house and then from there to the comfort of my van. I opened the door and flopped down onto the driver’s seat, breathing like a racehorse and watching a pool of sweat form on the floor beneath me. A Lesson from Brandon Lee I realized then and there the validity of a point made to me by Brandon Lee during an interview I’d conducted with him shortly after he had finished his fourth feature film, Rapid Fire. We’d been discussing various training approaches and eventually got around to the subject of cardiovascular conditioning and its utility in day-to-day encounters – as opposed to training solely for strength and power. “I’ve always done a lot of cardiovascular work because that’s “real world” power, Brandon explained. I mean, I suppose having large muscles from weight training is good if you want to pick up heavy objects, but cardiovascular stamina is something that seems to come in handy a lot more often that large muscle would. I mean, if you go down to the Inosanto Academy (where Brandon was training in the martial arts) and you try and do a three minute round on the Thai pads – I don’t care how big your muscles are – if you don’t have a real good cardiovascular system, your going to be dead in about 45 seconds and I’m still going to be going.” Brandon had a point, I remembered thinking to myself (in between gasps) after having just completed his father’s old running route. Indeed, I was for all intents and purposes “dead,” but I could well imagine Brandon’s superbly conditioned father blowing past my pathetic-looking excuse for a runner on this very same road – with energy to burn! I retained a sharp image of this in my mind as I drove the van back toward Mulholland Drive and, en route, discovered an interesting fact: the route that Bruce, Kareem (and now I) had jogged was only three-quarters of a mile each way – a total of only a mile and a half. Not a huge distance by any stretch, but then, if the intensity (as provided by the hills) is adequate, you really don’t need a huge volume of such training to solicit a dramatic cardiovascular response. Again, remember Bruce Lee’s point that regarding the nature of cardiovascular adaptation: “The other way [to train one’s cardiovascular system] is progression; you must start out slow and then gradually build speed as your conditioning improves.” In other words, such training has to be progressive and intensity (the difficulty of the exercise) is a factor that can be altered on a progressive basis through a process of either adding weight to your limbs while your running or by increasing the grade upon which you are running. The Roscomare route is obviously an example of the latter (although, in reading Bruce’s training diaries, he would also do a form of double-progressive running, by adding up to 15 pounds of resistance to his limbs while he was running these hills!) I should mention that the point of cardiovascular exhaustion that I reached in front of Bruce Lee’s house on Roscomare Road that day served as my starting point in revamping my beliefs toward training for total fitness. From that moment I implemented jogging as an adjunct to my own training, employing Bruce’s principles of progression. And guess what? Last week I tried the old Roscomare route again and, with a better head toward pacing and a more seasoned cardiovascular system, I found that I was now able to complete the route without feeling like I’d just gone ten rounds with Bruce himself. Cardiovascular conditioning is a wonderful tool, and not just for martial artists but for anyone who wishes to become healthier. Just as Bruce Lee taught us that a “style” of method of doing something automatically imposes limitations and represents at best a segment of a totality, the same holds all the answers to total conditioning. Experiment with Bruce Lee’s training methods and find that “sweet spot” that perfect combination of endurance, strength and flexibility training that will result in your achieving total fitness and optimum health, and becoming the absolute best that you can be. Don’t fall into the fitness trap that I and others before me have done, that of allowing your five senses to atrophy, while you search blindly for a so-called “sixth.” Apply the teachings of Bruce Lee to your training; be your own investigating agent, and you’ll be a far healthier person for doing so. As a postscript, I should mention that I bumped into Kareem Abdul-Jabbar again, this time during taping of a “Biography” television episode about Bruce Lee. “Hey Kareem,” I called out, “I tried out the old running route you told me about when you used to train with Bruce.” Kareem didn’t ever have to wait to hear the rest of my sorry tale to figure out what the inevitable result would have been. He just looked over and then flashed me a Cheshire Cat grin. “Man, it kicked your ass, didn’t it?” | 
