My program of choice

So, how am I getting fit?

To this point, I've been a bit of an exercise equipment hoarder. I'm one of those people. The hope-springs-eternal-if-only-I-had-the-right-equipment-I'd-be-fit-people. Or I fall back to my tried and true program of hand weights and a whole lot of dog walking. Which has worked in the past, but I clearly need something I can stick to.

Then I saw this on Slate. Sarah Wildman describes watching her dad follow JP Muller's program. This is a century old fitness program that will look very familiar to anyone who had a gym teacher that loved a good old-fashioned round of calisthenics. Wildman's video of her father is pretty compelling evidence.

I'm not using this program. It reminded me, though, of the calisthenics my grandfather did every day. And he was quite fit into his 70s.

From my grandfather, my mind jumped to my aunt. When I was little, my aunt worked out according to the Royal Canadian Air Force program. For men, this is the 5BX or five basic exercises program. Wikipedia has an article about it, of course. I remembered that my aunt was very fit then.

I found the women's program called XBX. You might get lucky and find a copy at a used bookstore. But there's various versions online.

There's 10 exercises. You progress through 4 levels following charts. The charts lay out how many days you spend at each level. Apparently, it should take only 12 minutes a day.

I'll begin tomorrow at the easiest level and give a full report on my daily progress.