Orban and his 5BX plan

January 5, 2007

Canada has seen several homegrown mass fitness movements and there has been a University of Saskatchewan connection with many of them. In the early 1960s, Canada experienced its first “fitness craze” called 5BX or Five Basic Exercises. Its author was Dr. William Orban, director of the U of S School of Physical Education from 1958 until 1966. His 5BX Plan For Physical Fitness would sell 23 million copies worldwide and be translated into 13 languages.

Dr. Orban developed the plan while a fitness consultant to the Canadian Air Force. Combining a Dale Carnegie salesmanship course and a PhD in Physical Education, Orban set out to “sell it just as you would sell anything else”. The plan needed no special equipment and advocated spending 11 minutes a day on the regimen of five exercises.

To Orban, the plan was a first step to better fitness. In his own life he and his family led a Spartan existence that seemed exocentric at the time. They did not own a car, they went on long family hikes and he jogged daily around campus. Dr. Orban was a pioneer in Canadian fitness. Born in Regina and the first Canadian to earn a PhD in Physical Education, he died in 2004 at the age of 81.

U of S Archives photo, MG 172. Photos by Dommasch.