I was researching about aerobic respiration just now and has anyone heard of XBX routine? Quote wikipedia.com:
The XBX (Ten Basic Exercises) Plan is an exercise program developed for the Royal Canadian Air Force for women. The program consists of charts that get progressively more difficult, and takes 12 minutes per day after users get past the beginning levels.Interesting huh? I was highly attracted to bolded words, which stood out so much when I was reading the entry on the page. (actually the wikipedia entry only has that one paragraph) Royal Canadian Air Force does sound cool too. We all know how brands work on products and this is not an exception. To me, at least (might make me sound gullible, but WTV!). Like woahhh mannn aren't female soldiers potrayed as those super fit, uber awesome toned body, daaaaamn cool figures! Even if some of them are too buffed and may not look feminine, it still reflects better than bulging fats, thunderous thighs full of unsightly dimples, inserts-other-adjectives-to-describe-obese-and-myself ect. So anyway, interest started to develop and I yahoo-ed it. I don't google FYI.
While I was waiting for the results to show up, I was actually wondering how challenging can XDX be? I mean, come on it's only 12 minutes. Furthermore, there's like 10 exercises you have to do within that time. Also, the kind of exercise involved is like toe touching, side leg raising, knee raising, you get the drift. Ok fine, some of the exercises can be quite tough. I've tried like >20 minutes of side leg raising before (back in CCA days) and IT'S HELL TIRING. But in 12 minutes... you'll be too busy switching from one exercise to another.
However, do NOT look down on the routine. Apparently from the results that I've got, it's really tedious. The wikipedia entry is actually quite misleading... or rather I've mislead myself. 12 minutes is actually what you aim for. You have 10 exercises to do and for each one of them you will have to do finish all of the required repeats before moving on to the next exericise. You will have to finish all of repeats and exercises in 12 minutes before moving on to the next level of difficulty. There are by the way, a staggering 48 levels of difficulty. I have the whole .pdf file. Someone actually uploaded it. It's genuinely the female Royal Canadian Air Force workout.
I know the challenge is not well illustrated from what I've said... so maybe pictures will be able to prove something :)
Doesn't look that tough, yes?
But thy eyes shalt not deceive...
LOOK AT THE NUMBER OF REPEATS YOU HAVE TO DO!!! This is not the most difficult chart yet.
Imagine doing that for a couple of hundred of times.Oh well, I guess working towards and maintaining a toned body is not an easy task. Especially when you do not have a high metabolic rate to begin with. How I wish...
Oh oops!(Wts, I spent so much time on this post)
P.S. this was created back in 1960s.
