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Book Review: “The Art of Expressing The Human Body”

Author: Bruce Lee (compiled and edited by John Little)

The Art of Expressing the Human Body by Bruce Lee compiled and edited by John Little

Among martial artists, perhaps none is more talked about, argued over, worshiped, and idolized than the late Bruce Lee. Thankfully, he left copious notes and documentation upon his early and untimely death; so much so that his widow appointed author and all-around Bruce Lee aficionado John Little to compile and edit his works into a new book series on the life and work of the Little Dragon.

The Art of Expressing The Human Body is one of those books – and, it has garnered quite a bit of attention and interest among martial artists. This is quite certainly due to the fact that the book contains an incredible amount of Lee’s notes and journal entries of his actual physical conditioning and workout regimens, dating from his early years (circa 1963) all the way up to his later years, including the training regimen he was purportedly doing just prior to his death.

It bears discussion that any book post-posthumously published will garner both praise and scorn from fans and critics alike. While I am the last person willing to enter the street fight that is jeet kune do politics, Little’s detractors should be reminded that the first such book was Lee’s
Tao of Jeet Kune Do, followed a few years later by the Bruce Lee’s Fighting Method series… the former being considered the JKD bible, and the latter the definitive primer on Lee’s art.

Bruce Lee heads will find this book to be both fascinating and illuminating for all the insight it provides into Lee’s personal daily workouts. Martial arts fitness buffs will certainly enjoy reading the many anecdotes and stories regarding Bruce Lee’s legendary physique and abilities, as well as seeing the actual workouts he did to develop those attributes. And, jeet kune do practitioners of every lineage will find this book to be a valuable addition to their JKD libraries.

Personally, I was skeptical that this work would mostly be derivative of Bruce Lee’s notes, and not substantially of his notes; I was wrong. The book is full of his actual notes and journal entries, interspersed with brief but insightful commentaries by Mr. Little that offer additional insights into the mind and training process of Lee Jun Fan.

I greatly enjoyed reading this book. As a martial artist who was weaned on both The Tao of Jeet Kune Do and Bruce Lee’s Fighting Method, I have a special nostalgia for the works and writings of Lee Jun Fan. Reading his works takes me back to the days when I would spend hours reading, studying, and recreating his workouts in the basement and backyard of my dad’s house in central Missouri.

Now, thanks to Mr. Little’s work in bringing more of Bruce Lee’s notes to the public, I have a whole new collection of Lee’s workouts to experiment with and emulate… and my wife will have ample opportunity to gripe about all the “new” workout equipment I’ll be buying on Craigslist and eBay as well.

- M. Massie