5 ms·

5BX

77 points by MikeCapone 16y ago

ojbyrne 16y ago
One of the sadder sentences I've seen lately: "Orban, creating the program as a public servant, received no additional income from the success of the plan" From following the link to his article, it does look like it helped his career some at least.
- jarek 16y ago
  How do you figure? He was an academic. He became a dean two or three years after receiving his PhD, which is extraordinarily successful. If he was just in it for the money, he probably would have stayed in the U.S. to begin with.
gchucky 16y ago
The Hacker's Diet (http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/ http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/), a guide to losing weight for hackers, has an exercise component based around this. It's a little outdated now, but the concepts behind it are pretty good.
- wazoox 16y ago
  Exactly. I used it as a basic guide, and lost 12 kgs. I simply replaced the "step in the bedroom" part with "jogging outside" :)
mattsidesinger 16y ago
11 minute abs.
- varaon 16y ago
  Not really; you'd want to do other ab exercises besides sit-ups, and diet is a big component as far as looks. (Unless that was a criticism of the program. If so, please elaborate.)
- gaius 16y ago
  Best ab exercise bar none is pull-ups holding a dumbbell between your ankles. You won't see it in "get ripped quick" programmes because if you can even do it, you probably already know what you're doing.
  - jules 16y ago
    Do you mean lifting the weight up with your feet? Pull ups don't really use the abs, do they?
    - jergason 16y ago
      Try a pull-up and see how tense your abs feel. I am not sure how exactly they are used in pull-ups, but I feel like my entire body flexes when I do a pull-up. Abs especially.
    - peterwwillis 16y ago
      to show how the abs can be worked, go to a pull up bar with a spotter. have them hold your legs bent while you hang directly below the bar. do 5 or 10 pull ups. now have them pull your legs back about a foot or more and do 5 pull ups. usually i can feel my abs strain pretty hard. kiping pull ups work a lot of your core but can be dangerous on temporary pull up bars attached to door frames.
    - gaius 16y ago
      Ho ho ho, try 3 sets of 10 with even 5 kilos, then tell me that :-)
- JacobAldridge 16y ago
  See, but then I'd just release 10 minute abs.
10ren 16y ago
How do you do the Back extension one without a machine?
- varaon 16y ago
  See here, exercise #3: http://osalrex.110mb.com/HTML/5BX_chart1.html http://osalrex.110mb.com/HTML/5BX_chart1.html The variations get harder on higher-numbered charts.
- Alex3917 16y ago
  All you need is an elevated board and something to tie your feet down. Add two tires and you now have a bench pull.
- jules 16y ago
  Lay on your belly and lift shoulders and legs up?
scott_s 16y ago
The modern incarnation of this is CrossFit, http://www.crossfit.com http://www.crossfit.com.
- studer 16y ago
  Requires a bit more equipment, though: "An Olympic weight set and a place to do pull-ups and dips is essential to doing CrossFit. Gymnastics rings and parallettes, plyometrics boxes, a Dynamax medicine ball, dumbbells, kettlebells, climbing rope, Concept II Rower, and a glute-ham developer will equip your garage with more than enough to follow the WOD very closely."
  - scott_s 16y ago
    Do what you can with what you got. The training philosophy is more what I had in mind.
keefe 16y ago
http://exrx.net http://exrx.net join a gym, setup a proper plan, really not too hard.
charleso 16y ago
This program is really superb. I used it for a year or so to get myself up to my target level and then started going to a gym to train on weights. If you want to start getting in shape but feel too shy to go to a gym just yet, start with this. You will honestly see amazing results if you set aside that 11 minutes a day and eat right along the way.
marknutter 16y ago
It seems to me that us geeks are constantly in search of some clever exercise program to get in shape with, but the simple and unavoidable truth is that all it takes to get in shape is going to the gym at least 3 times per week to lift weights and do some sort of cardio, and being consistent. All these wacky techniques and programs we find are just distractions, and no better than the latest ab machine you see on infomercials at 3am, which by the way would work great but do nothing to help people with the one thing they actually need: motivation to be consistent.
- charleso 16y ago
  5BX isn't 'wacky'. It was designed by the RCAF to ensure airmen could remain in top physical condition without the need for fitness equipment. Consistency is at the core of the program and it ramps up slowly to build good daily habits with deceptively easy exercises. Challenge comes quickly after those habits are in place. I found it the perfect program while in the startup phase of my company. Taking an hour or two out mid-day to go to a gym was impossible during that time, but going into another room to exercise 11 minutes each day was no trouble at all.
  - marknutter 16y ago
    Well, I guess what I mean by wacky is unusual, unique, outside of the norm, etc. It just seems like instead of just working out regardless of what the program is, people often times get jazzed up about some new exciting approach they hear about on the internet like 5BX or P90X or 300's kettle-ball training only to stop doing it after a few weeks because in the end it's just hard work like any other routine.
- randallsquared 16y ago
  the simple and unavoidable truth is that all it takes to get in shape is going to the gym at least 3 times per week to lift weights and do some sort of cardio, and being consistent. It helps far more to eat less, since you can certainly eat enough to offset any reasonable amount of exercise. Also, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but lots of people do go to the gym a regularly and it doesn't help. There were some news stories recently around this ( http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/earlyrelease201006.pdf http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/earlyrelease2... ), which has buried in it the interesting fact that Americans are exercising more, and also fatter. So, exercise not the silver bullet. What we really need is just to eat less. We mostly do not have the option to be active all day nearly every day as our forebears did, even up until a few decades ago, because so many people have so much to do that requires being in a single spot for hour after hour every day.
paulhart 16y ago
I was going to develop an iPhone app around the 5BX/XBX programs. Related to that (and especially because I'm a Canadian citizen), I contacted the Canadian government about receiving the rights to use the information in a commercial product. The body of the response I got back was: "On behalf of the department of National Defence, we were advised that the Royal Canadian Air Force - 5BX Exercise Plans for Physical Fitness are not to be reproduced. These exercises programs are outdated and have been discontinued by the Canadian Forces since they could cause physical injury." Just so you know.

77 points by MikeCapone 16y ago

One of the sadder sentences I've seen lately: "Orban, creating the program as a public servant, received no additional income from the success of the plan" From following the link to his article, it does look like it helped his career some at least.

jarek 16y ago
How do you figure? He was an academic. He became a dean two or three years after receiving his PhD, which is extraordinarily successful. If he was just in it for the money, he probably would have stayed in the U.S. to begin with.

gchucky 16y ago

The Hacker's Diet (http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/ http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/), a guide to losing weight for hackers, has an exercise component based around this. It's a little outdated now, but the concepts behind it are pretty good.

wazoox 16y ago
Exactly. I used it as a basic guide, and lost 12 kgs. I simply replaced the "step in the bedroom" part with "jogging outside" :)

mattsidesinger 16y ago

11 minute abs.

varaon 16y ago
Not really; you'd want to do other ab exercises besides sit-ups, and diet is a big component as far as looks. (Unless that was a criticism of the program. If so, please elaborate.)
gaius 16y ago
Best ab exercise bar none is pull-ups holding a dumbbell between your ankles. You won't see it in "get ripped quick" programmes because if you can even do it, you probably already know what you're doing.
- jules 16y ago
  Do you mean lifting the weight up with your feet? Pull ups don't really use the abs, do they?
  - jergason 16y ago
    Try a pull-up and see how tense your abs feel. I am not sure how exactly they are used in pull-ups, but I feel like my entire body flexes when I do a pull-up. Abs especially.
  - peterwwillis 16y ago
    to show how the abs can be worked, go to a pull up bar with a spotter. have them hold your legs bent while you hang directly below the bar. do 5 or 10 pull ups. now have them pull your legs back about a foot or more and do 5 pull ups. usually i can feel my abs strain pretty hard. kiping pull ups work a lot of your core but can be dangerous on temporary pull up bars attached to door frames.
  - gaius 16y ago
    Ho ho ho, try 3 sets of 10 with even 5 kilos, then tell me that :-)
JacobAldridge 16y ago
See, but then I'd just release 10 minute abs.

10ren 16y ago

How do you do the Back extension one without a machine?

varaon 16y ago
See here, exercise #3: http://osalrex.110mb.com/HTML/5BX_chart1.html http://osalrex.110mb.com/HTML/5BX_chart1.html The variations get harder on higher-numbered charts.
Alex3917 16y ago
All you need is an elevated board and something to tie your feet down. Add two tires and you now have a bench pull.
jules 16y ago
Lay on your belly and lift shoulders and legs up?

scott_s 16y ago

The modern incarnation of this is CrossFit, http://www.crossfit.com http://www.crossfit.com.

studer 16y ago
Requires a bit more equipment, though: "An Olympic weight set and a place to do pull-ups and dips is essential to doing CrossFit. Gymnastics rings and parallettes, plyometrics boxes, a Dynamax medicine ball, dumbbells, kettlebells, climbing rope, Concept II Rower, and a glute-ham developer will equip your garage with more than enough to follow the WOD very closely."
- scott_s 16y ago
  Do what you can with what you got. The training philosophy is more what I had in mind.

keefe 16y ago

http://exrx.net http://exrx.net join a gym, setup a proper plan, really not too hard.

charleso 16y ago

This program is really superb. I used it for a year or so to get myself up to my target level and then started going to a gym to train on weights. If you want to start getting in shape but feel too shy to go to a gym just yet, start with this. You will honestly see amazing results if you set aside that 11 minutes a day and eat right along the way.

marknutter 16y ago

It seems to me that us geeks are constantly in search of some clever exercise program to get in shape with, but the simple and unavoidable truth is that all it takes to get in shape is going to the gym at least 3 times per week to lift weights and do some sort of cardio, and being consistent. All these wacky techniques and programs we find are just distractions, and no better than the latest ab machine you see on infomercials at 3am, which by the way would work great but do nothing to help people with the one thing they actually need: motivation to be consistent.

charleso 16y ago
5BX isn't 'wacky'. It was designed by the RCAF to ensure airmen could remain in top physical condition without the need for fitness equipment. Consistency is at the core of the program and it ramps up slowly to build good daily habits with deceptively easy exercises. Challenge comes quickly after those habits are in place. I found it the perfect program while in the startup phase of my company. Taking an hour or two out mid-day to go to a gym was impossible during that time, but going into another room to exercise 11 minutes each day was no trouble at all.
- marknutter 16y ago
  Well, I guess what I mean by wacky is unusual, unique, outside of the norm, etc. It just seems like instead of just working out regardless of what the program is, people often times get jazzed up about some new exciting approach they hear about on the internet like 5BX or P90X or 300's kettle-ball training only to stop doing it after a few weeks because in the end it's just hard work like any other routine.
randallsquared 16y ago
the simple and unavoidable truth is that all it takes to get in shape is going to the gym at least 3 times per week to lift weights and do some sort of cardio, and being consistent. It helps far more to eat less, since you can certainly eat enough to offset any reasonable amount of exercise. Also, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but lots of people do go to the gym a regularly and it doesn't help. There were some news stories recently around this ( http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/earlyrelease201006.pdf http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/earlyrelease2... ), which has buried in it the interesting fact that Americans are exercising more, and also fatter. So, exercise not the silver bullet. What we really need is just to eat less. We mostly do not have the option to be active all day nearly every day as our forebears did, even up until a few decades ago, because so many people have so much to do that requires being in a single spot for hour after hour every day.

paulhart 16y ago

I was going to develop an iPhone app around the 5BX/XBX programs. Related to that (and especially because I'm a Canadian citizen), I contacted the Canadian government about receiving the rights to use the information in a commercial product. The body of the response I got back was: "On behalf of the department of National Defence, we were advised that the Royal Canadian Air Force - 5BX Exercise Plans for Physical Fitness are not to be reproduced. These exercises programs are outdated and have been discontinued by the Canadian Forces since they could cause physical injury." Just so you know.