5BX: Retro Fitness With The Royal Canadian Air Force
Northern Canada circa 1965: A Bear Cadre with Communist Advisors
Who can forget the derring do of the Royal Canadian Air Force in sixties, when they quelled the dreaded Bear Uprising? Now you too can follow the exercise program of this elite force (although the dietary recommendations e.g. “…quaff at least one gallon of maple syrup daily to preserve manly vigor..” can safely be ignored).
But seriously, 5BX was developed in the late fifties by Bill Orban at the request of the Her Majesty’s Canadian government to provide a way for pilots and other RCAF personnel to stay in shape with no facilities and in inclement climates (like Canada).
What’s great about this program is exactly what makes Convict Conditioning great, simplicity and progressions. Plus, it’s free.
Six charts of five exercises requiring no equipment (a push up, a bend and reach, a sit up, a lower back raise, and running in place punctuated by a different lower body calisthenic every 75 steps) progress forward to more and more difficult variations.
My only tweak would be to replace any exercise that doesn’t feel right on your joints. I can definitely see some of the exercises not being for everyone (for example, I don’t do the lower back strengtheners in the pamphlet, they seem to irritate rather than strengthen). If you take nothing else away, five basic exercises is a great way to simplify, which always makes any program easier to actually stick to (although not necessarily less intense, because you can definitely get your blood pumping).
By the way, it was also adopted by an actual elite force the USAF Air Commandos. Look here at the last paragraph.
This is also the greatest fitness program no one has every heard of (except my parents who still have it sitting on a vintage fake-wood-grain metal bookshelf in their basement). It sold literally millions of copies world wide over a period of decades, and then just kind of dropped off the face of the map.
A few intrepid guys over at goodbyecouch.com are trying to update the program and have the original on their website as well. They have received loads of e-mails from people all around the world saying how they used to follow this program, it worked great, and can’t believe they stopped. Pretty good track record for a free product.
Of course if you want your own dead tree version
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Hi Michael
It was rumored to have sold 23,000,00 copies which is not bad considering there was no internet then!
You wrote “A few intrepid guys at goodbyecouch.com are trying to update the program”
intrepid
from L. intrepidus “unshaken, undaunted.
I am not sure we would come under that description!
We were looking at reproducing 5BX for the next generation but the copyright holders stopped that in it’s tracks as research has shown that some of the exercise are no longer safe to do.
Hence the reason why we began and have nearly finished creating a gym free fitness program that faithfully holds to the same 5BX principles but is safer and more portable than the previous one with the introduction of our PocketCards.
We see this as one initiative that when embraced will cause people to move more again and avoid some of those ‘avoidable’ sedentary diseases.
BTW our new site and the original site do not have any downloads of 5BX or XBX due to the safety concerns over some of the exercises as stated before.
Thanks for the mention in your article!
Cheers
Chris
Goodbye Couch.com