Orban was born on 21 April 1922 in Regina, Saskatchewan. His parents were immigrants from Hungary. Orban played many sports at the Jesuit high school he attended. In 1941 he was offered a hockey scholarship to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where he initially studied engineering. Orban attended the School of Physical Education at McGill University and graduated in 1949. In 1953, he went on to study a Ph.D. at the University of Illinois.\n', '

Orban accepted a job offered by Wing Commander John Tett and returned to Canada in 1956, despite offers of employment from several American universities. He took a position at the Department of National Defence and was tasked to develop a fitness programme for Royal Canadian Air Force pilots, a third of whom were not considered fit to fly.\n', '

In response to this brief he created the 5BX (5 Basic Exercises) plan for men and the XBX (10 Basic Exercise) plan for women. The plans were innovative in two respects. Firstly, they did not require access to specialised equipment. Many Air Force pilots were located in remote bases in northern Canada, with no access to these facilities, so it was important to offer a means of keeping fit without their use. Secondly, the plans only required 11 minutes (for men) or 12 minutes (for women) per day to be spent on the exercises. While studying the effect of exercise at the University of Illinois in the 1950s, Orban noticed when testing oxygen intake that long periods of exercise did not necessarily lead to significant improvement. This led him to the conclusion that the intensity of exercise was more important that the amount of time spent on it. This aspect of the plan drew a negative reaction from others in the field but the 5BX programme proved its worth. 23 million copies of the booklets were sold, being translated into 13 languages. The popularity of the programs in many countries around the world helped to launch modern fitness culture. Orban, as a public servant, received no additional income from the success of the plan.\n', '

Return to Bill Orban Autograph Profile