Prince Philip, my dad, and me

Question

So this news story popped up in my RSS feeds the other day:

• Olsen, Emily, "Saskatoon educator created Prince Philip's exercise program." Global News, April 21, 2021.

It's pretty standard for reporters to try to find some kind of local angle any time somebody famous dies, so I wasn't at all surprised to see a sort of Saskatchewan spin on Prince Philip's passing. But the mention of "5BX" and "XBX" caught my attention. I remember seeing those booklets around our house when I was a kid. Apparently, they were wildly popular back in the day, and I think my Dad brought them home.

A little more research revealed that Bill Orban also worked on developing the Participaction program, which was pushed in schools across Canada when I was a kid. (I may even still have a Participaction badge kicking around somewhere.)

So huh. 

Answer 1

I remember those 5BX and XBX booklets too!  My dad swore by them! Maybe because he was in the Air Force, and posted to the Aleutian Islands off Alaska, which sounds exactly like the kind of remote place the exercises were made for!

I saw in the recent articles on Prince Philip that he was a fan.  It made me want to try the exercises again, except maybe not sit ups - those have been discredited, i think?  

Now i'm curious to see how much similarity the BX programs have with sun salutations!

Cheers

Shirlea

Comments

Here is a soft copy of the 5BX booklet, in case anyone wants to see!

http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rfburger/5bx-plan.pdf