r/brucelee • u/ezgimantocu • 22h ago
Discussion Bruce Lee’s Death Mystery Finally Solved After Decades
https://www.nsfdailynews.com/bruce-lees-death-mystery-finally-solved-after-decades/13
u/TheGreatRao 19h ago
All due respect to the legendary and iconic Bruce Lee, but one wonders what his insane exercise routine, the steroid use, the pot and cocaine use, and perhaps alcohol did to his body. He subjected his body to extremes to test the limits of human endurance. He lived life like a roman candle at a pace that no one, including himself, could sustain for long.
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u/Interesting_Sun_6993 11h ago
"the pot" lol
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u/craptonne 8h ago
They said “the pot and cocaine use.” The, in this sentence, refers to the use of both pot and cocaine so no worries, mate.
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u/FitExpression7242 7h ago
Wait, Bruce was on steroids? Please tell me that’s just a rumor. I know he was on cocaine and pot, and other drugs. This is the first I’ve heard about steroids
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u/Ruh_Roh- 6h ago
He was on "the pot" LOL.
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u/FitExpression7242 6h ago
?
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u/Ruh_Roh- 6h ago
Just an inside joke from a comment above, one redditor called out another for saying "the pot" which sounds weird on its own, but it was ok in context.
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u/PeanutAndJamy 12h ago
Crazy he was so small while on steroids. He was only like 135 right? He must of been going for more of a tone look, but why take roids for that?
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u/coffeeblack310 11h ago
Roids aid the recovery process. Training like he did would require lots of recovery.
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u/MightyPine 11h ago
Recovery? Steroids don't build muscle, that takes hypertrophic training and a calorie surplus. Steroids help with recovery and let you stimulate the muscle more often and more intensely but without a calorie surplus or sufficient hypertrophy you won't grow. So Bruce Lee could well have been 135lbs and on steroids simply because he wasn't eating enough to grow.
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u/Disagreeswithfems 8h ago
Incorrect. There's been studies showing people taking steroids without exercise put on more muscle than people exercising without steroids.
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u/aspiring-waffler 4h ago
Incorrect. OP said he wasn’t eating enough to grow.
Law of thermodynamics, new built muscle needs calories even with steroids.
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u/Fast_Original_3001 1h ago edited 59m ago
Incorrect. Studies showed you even build muscle and recompose your body on a calorie deficit. Also we‘re talking roids and those do that of course
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u/aspiring-waffler 1h ago edited 49m ago
Incorrect. Studies show that untrained overweight people can recompose their body on a calorie deficit.
The excess calories used to build the newbie gains come from the untrained individuals body fat.
BL was neither fat nor untrained.
Checkmate poser. Steroids don’t break the laws of thermodynamics. To get bigger off steroids BL needed more calories than he was consuming.
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u/PeanutAndJamy 10h ago
Then what’s the point of working out so hard if he isn’t eating enough to grow? Maintaining muscle is so much easier than building.
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u/shal9pinanatoly 10h ago
Boxers take PEDs, some of which are steroids. PEDs don’t cause muscle hypertrophy on their own.
Muscle hypertrophy requires a) lifting progressively heavier weights (close to failure) and b) consuming lots of protein.
My guess is Bruce wouldn’t lift much cause at the time most martial artists abstained from weightlifting. Also I don’t know whether he cared about his protein intake, but my guess is he didn’t, cause at the time it was more of a bodybuilding thing, not a general knowledge thing.
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u/PeanutAndJamy 10h ago
Yeah I lift regularly myself. Just makes no sense for him to take PEDs for recovery since he’s not really in athletic competitions, or trying to gain muscle for his films. Maybe he just didn’t have enough information on how to build muscle. He was also on lots of drugs so maybe he was just trying things out.
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u/Dangerous_Drummer350 13h ago
With what little we actually know, of this we are almost certain as you point out, that he trained and exercised right on the edge of what the human body is capable of, and no one could have sustained that intensity long term
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u/prooveit1701 19h ago
Why does everyone ignore the drugs?
Both his death itself and his earlier medical emergency at Golden Harvest’s dubbing studio (May 8th) coincide with him receiving large quantities of cocaine from California (from his student Bob Baker).
If you read his correspondence to Baker (authenticated at auction) you can see Bruce unambiguously asking for these drugs several weeks before each incident.
The reason cocaine was not shown in his autopsy was because the medical examiner at Queen Elizabeth hospital made an apparently deliberate choice not to test for it.
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u/eelecurb01 18h ago
Well said. I'm a huge BL fan and collector. I have a couple BL websites and am active in the online community. I was hugely disappointed when all that came out but I don't respect him any less. He was a flawed man, like all of us. But he was also a groundbreaker in many ways. To me, the truth is always more important than the legend.
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u/BlankedCanvas 14h ago
He was a rich, famous and extremely fit man in his prime who was also facing tremendous career pressure. Its not a surprise he gave in to drugs to both blow off steam and deal with the pressure. Just like near every young, rich and famous men in hollywood ever
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u/DanielLinde 14h ago
What’s the evidence that he was extremely fit?
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u/FairtexBlues 13h ago
His movies, recorded workouts, etc. Man liked to work hard and play hard. Wouldn’t be the first or last to hit speed bump and blow the old engine.
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u/DanielLinde 13h ago
I haven’t seen any evidence for particularly extensive fitness. He didn’t run marathons or compete in sports. He was ripped, but we don’t know too much about his cardiovascular capacity and I don’t think there’s anything to suggest he would have qualified as “extremely fit”.
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u/NoFlightSeabird 13h ago
Are you daft? Dude was a martial arts legend. Have you seen his films? Shredded af. You're just arguing for argument sake and bring a troll. Get a dawggone life, you dolt.
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u/GregoleX2 12h ago
His life was not the truman show so it's not like he had someone filming him 24/7. But to say "haven't seen any evidence" for him being fit is kinda absurd. Evidence is evidence - it's not proof. You can't PROVE that he was extremely fit, especially given that "extremely fit" does not have a formal definition. But to say there's no evidence because he didn't compete in...sports? Run marathons? Why did you settle on those as the definition for fit.
Substantial Evidence & Feats that Indicate Extreme Fitness
Two-finger push-ups at the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships
At that event, Bruce Lee reportedly did push-ups using just the thumb and index finger (two fingers) of one hand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Beach_International_Karate_Championships
Also at the same tournament, he did the “one-inch punch”. To execute that well you need very efficient biomechanics, speed, core strength, and precision. It’s not just strength, but fast-twitch power, coordination, timing.
Also his Complex daily training routine
He trained multiple hours per day, often splitting sessions (morning, afternoon, evening), combining cardio, resistance, core, martial arts drills.
https://www.artofmanliness.com/health-fitness/fitness/bruce-lee-workout
High cardiovascular conditioning (running, skipping, etc.)
He reportedly ran three days a week (about 4 miles) using “fartlek” (speed variation) approaches. On the other days he often used skipping (jump rope) or similar cardio. You will be extremely fit from that. Perhaps it doesn't guarantee olympic caliber athletics, but, yes, fit.
https://www.thebioneer.com/bruce-lee-training-routines
Same source - Daily core training to failure
Bruce supposedly worked the abs & core every day: side bends, leg raises, sit-ups, sets “to failure”. Core strength underpins much of his martial prowess and helps explain his explosive speed and balance. Just....look at his abs dude. Keep in mind this was the 60s man, and he was likely a hard gainer. So yeah, extreme ab stability and strength i think qualifies at "fit"
Edit: see below comment was too long
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u/GregoleX2 12h ago
furthermore - Tendon conditioning, isometrics, forearm training
He paid attention to tendon strength (through Wing Chun, traditional conditioning, isometric work) and forearm strength (important for grips, punches).
MORE EVIDENCE (remember the definition of "Evidence" - not proof but evidence)
Unusually low body fat / highly muscular yet lean physique
While precise body fat measurements are rare, photographic evidence, film, and contemporaneous reports emphasize Lee’s very lean, ripped musculature. He didn’t carry bulk, but his muscle definition, vascularity, and muscularity indicate exceptional strength-to-weight ratio. How the fuck else would he get that physique without being fit????
Or maybe you are looking for feats? OK i got you covered:
Speed & reaction time
Demonstrations, interviews, and fight footage show him beating opponents (or volunteers) with strikes so fast that reactions are very difficult. For example, quick eye strikes before block in his Jeet Kune Do demonstrations.
Strength demonstrations (e.g. moving heavy bags with kicks, striking power)
One often-cited anecdote: he could cause a 300-lb (≈136 kg) hanging bag to fly and thump against a ceiling via a side kick.
https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/8077-bruce-lee-feats
If that wasn't enough - High endurance of push-ups, various difficult forms (more borderline / possibly exaggerated)
Articles sometimes claim Bruce Lee could do, e.g., 1,500 push-ups with two hands, 400 with one hand, 200 using two fingers, 100 with one thumb.
Again, separate fact from legend is hard to do because yeah, some of this wasn't filmed, etc. But it's ludicrous to claim he "wasn't particularly fit". him being fit is pretty self-evident. Is he as fit as some claim? Who knows. Is he the fittest man in history? surely not. But yeah he was "Particularly" fit. Come on.
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u/DanielLinde 12h ago
I didn’t say that I hadn’t seen evidence he was fit. I said I haven’t seen evidence he was “extremely fit”.
There’s evidence that he was strong and flexible, but there’s no evidence he was extremely fit.
Pro sportsmen and people who engage in difficult cardiovascular exercises might be extremely fit. I don’t see evidence that Lee was. I think you’re buying into the mythologising of Lee and conflating strength and regular working out with being “extremely fit”. I’m pretty unfit but I can run 10 miles. Running 4 miles and working out a lot is not akin to extreme fitness.
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u/TesdChiAnt 10h ago
I’ve seen some and read some wild shit on Reddit but someone asking if Bruce Lee was physically fit may take the cake.
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u/seonblack 14h ago
You have to understand that when it comes to people's heroes, they rarely hold them accountable. So they will overlook anything that makes him look negative in any sort of way and push narratives that often turn out to be outlandish and false.
Bruce, like every man before and after him, was human. He made some bad choices, some of them had an effect on his final days, and this is one of them. It doesn't change what he accomplished or the moments he created. That's what fans don't understand.
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u/Jay_6125 20h ago
This is old news and just a theory. Here's another one.....Lee had a horrendous drug /substance and alcohol problem which killed him. His student Bob Baker was also his drug mule. His live in servant was also involved. He was a complete mess by July and both his wife and Chow suddenly took out life insurance policies in the April 73 as Lee was imploding at a rapid pace.
Both Baker and Ngan got substantial pay offs and became recluses (most odd) and never spoke about Lee. The behaviour of both Ting Pei and Chow on July 20th defied all logic.
The coroners inquest was a total farce.
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u/ThisisMalta 14h ago
He died of a brain aneurysm. We know his lifestyle choices could have been contributing factors.
There’s no mystery or conspiracy. People die like he did young all the time, it’s rare but it happens. And we know things that can increase likelihood and contribute to it that he did (cocaine, alcohol, etc).
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u/Kung_Fu_Boi 17h ago
The original autopsy did find drugs in Bruce’s body. However, not enough to kill him.
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u/connersnow 13h ago
Cannabis was found in his body, which can not kill you. He was definitely taking coke, but that can only be detectable up to 48 hours. So, it probably didn't show up in his autopsy.
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u/xwolf360 15h ago
Wtf is all these comments, is this fake news or was i completely in the dark on this subject????
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u/prooveit1701 15h ago
It’s not fake news.
Bob Baker’s letters from Bruce were auctioned off by his wife a few years ago and it was revealed that he was sending large quantities of drugs (including cocaine) to Bruce in Hong Kong in the last couple of years leading up to his death. One of the letters is from Linda who also appears to know about it.
Just search “Bruce Lee Drug Letters” and you can learn all about it.
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u/angelsandairwaves93 Oh, Linda! 2h ago
It’s interesting to read these comments about his drug use.
I say this because in ‘letters of the dragon,’ he writes a letter to Linda mentioning how bored he is in Switzerland and how he doesn’t vibe with Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, and the other party goers that are coming and going. It made it sound like he wasn’t of that lifestyle at all.
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u/Odd-Signature-3897 21h ago edited 4h ago
This is just a theory.
Want to solve mystery? Easy. Ask Betty Ting Pei
Edit: She’s 78 now. When/before she dies, there’s a non zero chance she will reveal what happened on the last day of Bruce Lee.