Fads: Eleven Minutes a Day

Fifty-mile hikes are not the half of it: gyms are jumping, bar bells are booming, restaurants are splashing safflower oil in all directions. But the major measure of America’s continuing fitness fixation is an item small enough to fit in any purse or pocket that costs only $1, yet has floors creaking under the weight of leaping 200-pounders, bedroom windows steaming with the heat of executive pushups, and dogs barking excitedly at the sight of whole families doing leg-overs, toe-touches, and rocking situps.

This is an appropriately slim, trim, red-white-and-blue booklet issued in 1958 by the Royal Canadian Air Force, consisting of two exercise systems known as “5BX” (Five Basic Exercises) for men and “XBX” (Ten Basic Exercises) for women. First offered to the public about three years ago, the manual has been a snowballing bestseller that has so far sold 650,000 copies in the U.S. (600,000 in Canada, 130,000 in Australia and New Zealand).

D Minus to A Plus. There is nothing particularly unusual about the exercises themselves; the secret of their success is that they are carefully graduated as to age group and difficulty, can be done in privacy and small space without bar bell, medicine ball, trapeze or well-muscled instructor, and take no more than eleven minutes a day (twelve minutes for women).

There are six charts in 5BX, each with five exercises increasing in difficulty from chart to chart. The aspirant to fitness is expected to work up through twelve different levels of quantity and speed on each chart before progressing to the next. Thus the D-minus level of chart 3 must do 20 sit-ups in one minute, but the A-plus level should do 32 in the same time. Ordinary civilians 40-to-44 are advised to aspire to nothing higher than Level C of Chart 3 (see cut): Exercise 1, 26 times in two minutes; Exercise 2, 24 times in one minute; Exercise 3, 34 times in one minute; Exercise 4, 17 times in one minute; Exercise 5 (stationary running, with ten half-knee-bends every 75 steps), 465 steps in six minutes. Anything beyond that is a triumph of mind over the actuarial charts.

Present-Cum-Hint. 5BX enthusiasts distribute the R.C.A.F. pamphlets with missionary zeal worthy of the Gideon Bible Society. Company executives find them in their in boxes—a kind of corporate present-cum-hint. U.S. Steel ordered some; Young & Rubicam, the advertising agency, bought 2,500 copies; the entire Cleveland Symphony Orchestra is doing the exercises, as is the Swope Ridge Home for the Aged in Kansas City.

Though the exercises are designed for physical fitness rather than specifically for weight reduction, the two things usually go together, as in the case of one of 5BX’s biggest boosters—Movie Actor Red Skelton. “He began the exercises—plus a bit of dieting—six months ago,” said a friend last week, “and today he’s lighter, slimmer and more ept than ever.”