Bruce Lee aimed for the stars when he entered Hollywood in the 1960s. Being an actor from a young age in Hong Kong, he dreamed of playing heroic roles in the States. However, Lee soon realized that his small body frame would block his endeavor to achieve a lead role in Hollywood movies. Thus began Lee’s grueling efforts at building a body as shredded as Arnold Schwarzenegger, the epitome of bodybuilding. Although Lee’s physique had the sculpt of Arnie’s, he had yet one aspect to fulfill. 

In Lee’s biography, Bruce Lee: A Life, author Mathew Polly talked about how the master’s conscious efforts helped him build an unbelievable physique. Polly also compared him to Schwarzenegger, and explained why Lee’s frame was different from him. 

How did Bruce Lee build a shredded physique like Arnold Schwarzenegger?

When Bruce Lee got his first breakthrough show, The Green Hornet, in 1966, he was chubby. His co-actor in the series, Van Williams, described him in the biography as. “…a little pudgy and had a little baby fat on him when I first met him.” However, Lee worked hard to get bigger and leaner from his The Green Hornet days. Through rigorous training and perseverance, he built a physique that “looked like it was sculpted out of marble” in his 1972 film, Way of the Dragon.

Moreover, his transformation was so dramatic that people speculated he used steroids for faster results. Lee would love to share his dietary and workout experiments with his near and dear ones. However, none of his colleagues and friends remember the master mentioning steroids in his everyday workout. He even told them about drinking cow blood, but never anything about consuming steroids. Also, anabolic steroids help gain weight and muscle mass. But Lee’s weight never rose more than 145 pounds. 

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Furthermore, author Mathew Polly revealed, “He was shredded, not pumped like Arnold Schwarzenegger.” This was because Bruce Lee concentrated on cutting his subcutaneous body fat down to almost zero with constant training. To build a similar physique to Arnie, the legend had to follow a typical bodybuilder’s workout regime that focused on increasing the body pump. 

When it comes to his diet, Bruce Lee shocked many of his actor friends with his mind-boggling regime, like his student-turned-actor friend, James Coburn. 

James Coburn was once stunned by Bruce Lee’s bizarre diet

Bruce Lee was meticulous about his diet and training regimes. He had a high-protein shake made of Rheo Blair Protein Powder, ice water, powdered milk, eggs, eggshells, bananas, vegetable oil, peanut flour, and chocolate ice cream.

However, the mind-boggling aspect of Lee’s diet was extracting benefits from ginseng and queen bee honey. In fact, he would consume raw hamburger beef with smoothies at times. His student and co-actor James Coburn commented on his beef blood consumption in his biography, “The thing that really scared me was when he was drinking beef blood.” Although, drinking animal blood might sound bizarre to some, it is healthy if consumed in smaller quantities.

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It was Lee’s dedication to making something big of himself that drove him to push the limits of his comfort zone. Even though he did not sport a bodybuilder’s physique, his fans drooled over his sculpted body. That’s an achievement in itself!