7 Weeks into 5BX: Small Steps, Real Results

It’s been 7 weeks since I started the 5BX program, and while it’s not that challenging yet, some exercises are beginning to bite. The app I’m using doesn’t exactly follow the original program—it gives you a timer for each of the five exercises, whereas the booklet just tells you to complete everything within 11 minutes. I actually like the timed approach, but I can see how it might become tricky to finish some exercises in just 1 or 2 minutes.

That said, I’m definitely seeing results. My flexibility has improved—I can touch my toes again—and the crunches are easy. So are the leg pushups at my current level. I’m tempted to upgrade to full pushups, but that raises a question: how do I progress later if I go off-script now? One idea is to alternate styles—wide pushups one week, narrow the next—but I haven’t implemented that yet. Maybe I'll do that when I get to my goal level to make things interesting. What I have started doing is increasing the range of motion using yoga blocks, which feels like a useful tweak.

The hardest exercise for me right now is the alternating-leg “supermans.” They’re meant to be done quickly, but as a posterior chain movement, they feel too rushed. Still, once I move up to the next chart, they’re replaced by full supermans with the reps going way down again, so the pacing issue should resolve itself.

I’m still hitting the gym in parallel, and I can feel myself getting stronger week by week. If you’re looking for a simple, free program that can be done at home in under 15 minutes, I can see how 5BX could help maintain a fitness baseline far above that of most sedentary people. It’s gradual, accessible, and surprisingly effective.

As someone with a heart condition, I’m always balancing the need to stay active with the importance of not overdoing it. That’s one of the reasons 5BX appeals to me—it’s structured, gradual, and scalable. So far, it’s been an excellent way to build consistency without putting too much strain on my system.

A new mission?

It's been a long time since I posted anything. Almost 10 years! We are still in Taiwan, although we now live in Hsinchu. Home of the now world famous TSMC. 

My exercise journey has been through quite a slump. Renalda and I both did some yoga for a few years, which was great, I love the mental calm that comes after a good session. I would get super irritated when the instructor interrupted the quiet time after a 90 minute workout. While in Yilan we also continued walking regularly in the early mornings all the way up to Covid. Then we mostly stopped. 

I tried my hand at a PhD which meant we needed to move to Hsinchu in mid 2022. The National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University campus is on a hill, so I got quite a bit of walking in, but not much else. We didn't manage to consistently restart our early morning walking habit, things got busy, I got heavier and less keen. I continued with the PhD for 18 months, but it felt like a further qualification was too far off with me not contributing to our budget, so I went back to teaching 60% of my day, and started studying some AWS and SAP courses and brushing up on my Chinese reading. 

Exercise wise I started feeling worse and worse, it felt like my body was very unhappy. Without going into details there were worrying symptoms that perhaps my circulation wasn't as good as it should be. Along with some inspiration from a church friend, I decided to go to the gym late last year. I've never succeeded in going to the gym regularly. I have paid for at least 2 full year long memberships in SA without going more than 5 times each year. I did much better at Run Walk for Life, but there's nothing like that in Taiwan that I know of, and to be honest, walking outside in the afternoons, in summer is downright unpleasant. So no wonder.

At first I tried going along with what my mate was doing, but he's been lifting for years, and I'm in a body that has never run optimally, so I soon abandoned that idea. I went back to the Primal Blueprint Fitness plan, which I modified to suit me as I've progressed (and to make some use of all the available equipment). It includes 2 full body "Lift Heavy Things" days with three "Move Slow" days and one "Sprint" day. I added swimming as my move slow days, because there is a pool at the gym. Haven't added back a sprints day yet... I'm considering doing that in the pool.

Swimming? Move slow you say? I agree with you, it used to be that swimming=drowning. However, after reading Tim Ferris's "4 Hour Body" I found that I can swim quite easily with breast stroke, interspersed with freestyle. The trick is in the waterline length. Keep your body as long as possible for as long as possible and you will move far, with little effort.

This has been working well, I've been going to gym more than 50% of the week days, and I'm enjoying my lifting days a lot. I'm just worried about the time. I'm not sure I'll always have 1-2 hours to spare most days to spend in the gym... so, here's the mission. I'm going to do the ANCIENT 5BX Royal Canadian Airforce fitness plan. It takes 11 minutes for men, and 12 for women (XBX).

I will continue with my gym plan for now too, as long as my heart and body can stand it, and see where I end up. At my current age, it should take me just 24 weeks to get to the recommended level, A+ of Chart 2. That is if I move up every week. I'm considering taking pics and videos weekly, no guarantees, but it would be nice to see the progression. I do plan to continue my usual workouts at the same time. 5BX is so gradual, that it should be fine, certainly to start with. 

I found an app called "XBX and 5BX" which we are both using to guide our workouts and track our levels.