Ever since I can remember, dad did his 5BX around the house. He probably started some time in the early 1960s when he was attached to the Royal New Zealand Air Force, but it may have been earlier.

5BX stands for Five Basic Exercises. It is a calisthenics program developed originally in the 1950s by Dr W A R Orban for the Royal Canadian Air Force. It is essentially a formalisation of the traditional military exercise regime: touching toes, sit-ups, hyperextensions, push-ups, and running (on the spot). 5BX requires no equipment, no special clothing, hardly any space and only eleven minutes per day; it therefore takes away all your excuses for not exercising.

The program spread through the armed forces and then into the civilian world. It was first published by Penguin in 1964, and may well be considered one of the first exercise crazes. I saw a new reprint only a couple of years ago in a bookshop in Sydney. It still uses its original 1960s layout.

Dad has been described as a fitness fanatic, and was always naturally athletic. As a new RAF recruit he was cajoled into the boxing ring by a bullying sergeant who wanted to take him down a peg or two (it is astonishing how often people try to do this to tall people). The result was a broken jaw - for the sergeant. I remember one school sports day when dad took part in a parents' race. He was by far the fastest, and I had friends coming up to me over the next couple of days to express their admiration: 'your dad's a really fast runner!' He stayed fit for a long time, too. He was doing 100 press-ups every evening in his hotel room at the age of 50. I am hard-pressed to do half that many. He probably should have concentrated on flexibility rather than strength in his later years, as he succumbed to the tall man's curse: stiffness. Dr Femur suggested dad try stretching exercises and introduced him to Bob Anderson's book 'Stretching'. Like a true Spartan, he did his stretching routine on a towel laid on the kitchen floor, well into his seventies.

Nowadays his exercise consists of the occasional 1 kilometre walk around the block, or a walk to the mall and back, carrying six litres of milk (in two three-litre containers) plus his other purchases. Oh, and the very rare attempt to scratch some order into the garden.

I wonder what all this has to tell us. Dad is already long-lived and remains mobile; I guess that is a payoff already. Apart from his vascular problems (hypertension, orthostatic hypotension, and aortic aneurysm) there are only a couple of other relatively minor ones: macular degeneration and a wonky knee. He is probably a good advertisement for life-long exercise.

The question is: have I learnt the lesson? It amuses me to see that I have. I was never one for following in my father's footsteps, but when it comes to exercise I must sheepishly confess to being something of a chip off the old block. I've tried many different exercise regimes, types, variations in intensity, schedules and philosophies. And what do I do now? 5BX and Bob Anderson's stretches. However, in my defense (since being a follower is something I do not like to be accused of) I would like to point out that as I learnt, very slowly, about proper exercise I realised that there are a few prerequisites that are essential for me and probably very good for most people; exercise needs to be something:

  • I could do every day, since having to rest to recover from excessive exercise the day before seemed contrary to my goal of feeling fit every day
  • that could be done wherever I found myself, even in ordinary clothes in a small hotel with no gym room and torrential rain pouring down outside
  • that focused on the mid-section, since unless that is strong any other form of exercise is a waste of time
  • that worked on flexibility so that at the extremes of movement I felt control rather than pain
  • that raised the metabolic rate

It came as something of a shock to realise that the answer had been there all along: 5BX. I dug dad's old booklets (he had three copies) out of the shelves and started the programme in September 2003. I've modified some exercises slightly: making some harder, some easier, some safer. I don't push myself to finish the workout in eleven minutes either.

So there you go - there's something I learnt from my dad!

PS: I fool around with an exercise ball, too. I bet if I showed it to dad he would want one (very dangerous idea!). As for Bob Anderson: that was pure coincidence. I came across his book without knowing dad was already using it.