Dr. Bill Orban - creator of the 5BX plan

The following is an extract from a more extensive article published in the 'Ottawa Citizen' Sunday, October 19, 2003. Text and photos © The Ottawa Citizen. Reproduced with permission.

Dr. William (Bill) Orban was often called a pioneer, but it's a description that barely scratches the surface of accomplishment he packed into his 81 years.

He was a scientist, a professional football player, and a junior A hockey player good enough to be the first Canadian accepted, in 1941, into the University of California's physical education program. And if you wanted demonstrations on how to do the perfect pushup or situp, he would be the man to see. In fact, he wrote the book on it.

Mr. Orban, who died yesterday after a 12-year battle with cancer, had a doctorate in exercise physiology and spent his entire working life and retirement years studying the athletic capabilities of human bodies -- from young, élite athletes to elderly people in wheelchairs.

In the late 1950s, while with the Department of National Defence, he devised the 5BX

(5 Basic Exercises) fitness plan, a revolutionary method that debunked the notion that a person needs sustained, rigorous exercise to become fit. His

theory was simple: Spend 15 minutes a day, three days a week, repeating five simple exercises and you'll get fit.

Mr. Orban's 5BX booklet was met with a barrage of skepticism and criticism, but the federal government sold a remarkable 23 million copies, in 13 different languages.

The program, which he originally developed as a fitness regimen for the Royal Canadian Air Force, is now part of conventional fitness wisdom and was the forerunner of Participaction, the 1970s federally sponsored nationwide fitness campaign. The widely used Canada Fitness Test is a modification of his work.

Despite the booklet's phenomenal success, Mr. Orban, a public servant, didn't get a penny in royalties. He didn't even get a bonus......

.....In 1949, Mr. Orban was a member of McGill University's first graduating class in physical education, after which he became director of athletics at Montreal's Loyola College and a member of the Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation. He studied for his PhD at the University of Illinois which, in the 1950s, was at the leading edge of "energetics," the study of how the body uses energy.

For two years from 1956, he worked for the recreation branch of the RCAF in Ottawa specifically to work on a fitness program for air force employees.

The program had to be simple, take as little time as possible and be easily adaptable for everyone, from supersonic jet crews to office workers. He developed the 5BX Plan for Physical Fitness, which the government published in booklet form. Millions sold and the government made millions of dollars in profit but, until later editions were printed, his name wasn't even mentioned in the booklet.

The astounding popularity of the program was an important vindication.

"Everybody in the field assailed Bill when 5BX came out," Dr. Jean Kozak, a fellow researcher, told the Citizen. "It took tremendous strength of conviction to withstand that onslaught but, in the end, he was proven right. Bill saw what no one else had seen before."

Mr. Orban's expertise became a much sought-after commodity and he subsequently became adviser to most of Canada's major sports bodies, including the Canadian Olympic Association and the national hockey team.

He was chairman of the National Conference on Health and Physical Fitness workshop in 1973, from

which the Participaction program emerged.

He was dean of physical education at the University of Saskatchewan from 1958 to 1966. From 1968 to 1976, he was dean of faculty of human kinetics at the University of Ottawa and was a professor of kinanthropology until 1987.

In Mr. Orban's case, the word retirement was a misnomer.

He dedicated his later years to the study and encouragement of active living in seniors, working at the Elisabeth Bruyère Health Centre. In 1991, he co-authored Healthy Happy Aging, a book of exercise tips and advice and he practised what he preached, exercising daily until a few weeks before his death.

The fitness pioneer saved his best until last and died at the peak of achievement, having developed what he considered the perfect fitness plan.

"I have discovered the formula for energetics and performance," he told the University of Ottawa's alumni magazine. "Laws of performance expressed mathematically can be applied to every individual. The equations will tell you your potential and what you need to do to reach it, very specifically."

He expected his Physical Energetics Systems of Equations (PESE), which he left in the final stages of development, to be universally adopted and be used, for example, to reduce athlete training time.

His son Jim, general manager of the Citizen, said PESE will be his great legacy.

"As a fitness pioneer," he said, "his legacy will help shape the health of Canadians for years to come."

Much honoured by the academic and sporting communities, Mr. Orban was inducted into the Saskatchewan Hall of Fame on June 16 and was to deliver the speech on behalf of all inductees but suffered a stroke in late May. The stroke badly impaired his speech. He attended the ceremony, but in a wheelchair.

Mr. Orban, a devout Catholic, was diagnosed with prostate cancer and melanoma 12 years ago. He fought the illness largely through a naturopathic diet and lifestyle. Although the melanoma remained in remission, the prostate cancer spread to his liver earlier this year.

Mr. Orban is survived by his wife Virginia, children Bill, Jim, Dan, Jerry, John, Patricia and Victoria, 11 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.