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5BX and XBX At-Home Workouts Still
Make You Feel and Look Better, Here's Why
When Dr. Bill Obran's released his time-shaving 5BX and XBX fitness plans nearly sixty-years ago, he knew they were innovative. But, what he didn't realize was that they would launch the new era of modern fitness culture.
Today, busy people around the world turn to them to achieve their fitness goals in the least time possible and without specialized equipment. The 5BX (Five Basic Exercises) workout for men takes only eleven minutes to complete, while the XBX (Ten Basic Exercises) for women workout takes 12 minutes.
At the same time, modern day trainers use Dr. Obran’s methods for their fitness routines.
Research and Testing
The Royal Canadian Air Force asked Dr. Obran to design a fitness plan to improve the health of its pilots, many of whom were deemed unfit to fly.
After studying and testing over 600 people, Dr. Obran concluded that exercise intensity meant more than the time spent exercising and that the body must under-go increased levels of stress to improve.
Today, two concepts in sport science confirm his conclusions: FITT or frequency, intensity, time and type of exercise, and SAID or specific adaptation to imposed demands.
To make the program easy to follow, Obran made a series of Charts with the exercises and number of reps to do. The exercise difficulty and the number of reps increase as you advance through the Charts.
The result is the 5BX and XBX fitness plans.
The 5BX Plan
- Six workout charts arranged in increasing order of exercise difficulty.
- Twelve fitness levels within each Chart, and the number of repetitions to perform for each exercise increases with each level.
- Five exercises per workout performed in eleven minutes.
- Warm-up: 2:00
- Sit-up: 1:00
- Back extension: 1:00
- Push-up: 1:00
- Stationary run 6:00 or substitute a walk or run for a prescribed distance and time.
The XBX Plan.
- Four workout charts arranged in increasing order of exercise difficulty.
- Within each Chart, there are twelve fitness levels, and the number of repetitions to perform for each exercise increases with each level.
- Ten exercises per workout performed in twelve minutes.
- Toe touching 2:00
- Knee raising 2:00
- Back extension: 1:00
- Lateral bending 2:00
- Arm circling 2:00
- Sit-ups 2:00
- Chest and leg raising 1:00
- Side leg raising 1:00
- Push-ups 2:00
- Leg lifting 1:00
- Running and jumping in place 3:00
- Two optional supplementary exercises 1:00 each for feet and ankles, and posture.
Do the 5BX and XBX programs actually work?
According to two leading experts in the new field of high-intensity interval training, Jenna Gillen and Martin Gibala, HIIT is no longer a novelty to improving cardio health indices.
"If you're willing and able to go hard, it would appear that you can get away with a surprisingly small dose of exercise and still boost your fitness," said Martin Gibala. Martin is a Ph.D., professor, and chair of the department of kinesiology at McMaster University.
Gibala's work shows that very short, intense bursts of exercise may be the most potent form of workout available.
Just as Dr. Obran concluded that exercise intensity meant more than the time spent exercising, Gibala's work proved "intensity trumps duration." His study showed that inactive people got the fitness benefits of 150 minutes of traditional endurance training doing an interval protocol that took 80 percent less time and three minutes of hard exercise per week.
And, here's even more proof of the benefits you can reap from 5BX and XBX routines.
Hidden Benefits of HIIT
According to a new study published in the October 30th Journal of Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, researchers from McMaster University found that compared to moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) at a steady level of exertion, HIIT improves memory function in older adults more significantly.
Here again, the present study infers that exercise intensity may be a critical factor. The study illustrates that exercise can improve memory in older adults over a short intervention. But, the activity may need to be at a higher intensity. Overall, the findings imply that a relatively short-term program of high-intensity interval exercises may help older adults improve memory. Thus, it may be an effective strategy for promoting physical fitness and brain health in aging.
Perform and Track Your 5BX and XBX Workouts with
New App Enabled Format
Now you can get 5BX and XBX training cues from your mobile devices. Surprisingly, the ability to do that was never an option until now. TriadXP digitally recreated every exercise and every workout for every Chart.
Three easy steps:
- Select your Chart,
- Select the level, and
- Get moving.
TriadXP will guide you step-by-step through your workout and capture your results. It even has GPS to track and record your runs or walks.
