Bruce Lee Training – The Tensioner

Why is there so much mystery surrounding Bruce Lee’s training?

His workouts have been well documented and he even left notes. Bruce Lee tested just about every piece of exercise equipment available in his day. One of them was called Tensolator.

What is the Tensioner?

Essentially, it consisted of two tubes, one that slid into the other with handles at each end, and a steel cable covered in plastic wrap. I know it’s hard to visualize. You really have to see it, I’ll show you what it looked like in a moment.

The Tensolator used a coil spring to provide resistance, and he incorporated isometric exercises into his training program. The creator of the Tensolator, Gert F. Kolbel, a German inventor, designed this portable home gym from a device that was being used for research at a major German Think Tank.

Bruce Lee’s training included the use of the Tensolator to increase punching power, speed, and muscle size. There are photos of Bruce Lee, using it instead of dumbbells to increase the power and speed of his 1-inch punch.

In the book, The Art of Expressing the Body by Bruce Lee and John Little, he detailed his Tensolator training program. Although the original Tensolator only allowed for 24 full-body exercises, it was enough for Bruce Lee.

Here is Bruce Lee’s training for the Tensolator as per Bruce Lee’s notes:

Chest-

Chest compression.

Cramp.

Arms-

bow and arrow

vertical compression

Biceps: standing and kneeling

Forearm

Back-

Behind the head compression.

Over the head compression

Door corner press.

Stomach-

sitting pulling down

Knee compression.

oblique compression

Behind-

Kneel Pull Down

Vertical Thigh Compression

Compression behind the buttocks

inclined compression.

Dead weight.

Leg-

Stiff-legged stretch

Outward Knee Stretch

Standing calf press down.

Knee squeezing in on the grip

Elevation in step up.

circulation exercise

Bruce Lee was obsessed with making his body as powerful as possible and he certainly achieved his goal.

Here are some of the feats of strength he performed:

* Lee’s punching speed from one meter with his hands at his sides reached five hundredths of a second.

* Lee’s combat movements were sometimes too fast to capture on 24fps film, so many scenes were shot at 32fps to put Lee in slow motion. Normally, martial arts movies are sped up.

* In a display of speed, Lee could snatch a dime from a person’s open palm before they could close it and leave a penny behind.

* Lee could perform push-ups using only his thumbs

* Lee would hold an elevated V position for 30 minutes or more.

* Lee could launch grains of rice into the air and then catch them mid-flight with chopsticks.

*Lee performed one-handed push-ups using just his thumb and forefinger

* Lee performed 50 reps of one-arm pull-ups.

* From a standing position, Lee could hold a 125 lb (57 kg) barbell upright.

* Lee could break 6-inch (15 cm) thick planks of wood.

* Lee performed a side kick while training with James Coburn and smashed a 150 lb (68 kg) punching bag.

* In a move that has been dubbed the “Dragon Flag,” Lee could perform leg lifts with just his shoulder blades resting on the edge of a bench, suspending his legs and torso perfectly horizontal in the air.

* Lee could stick his fingers through unopened steel Coca-Cola cans, in a time before cans were made of the softer aluminum metal.

* Lee could use a finger to leave dramatic indentations in the pine wood.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *