8 Ways to Get Your Kids Fit

Fit Kids = Fit Adults

Sometimes it seems that today's children are far more motivated to give their fingers a workout playing video games or using the remote control than they are to move bigger muscles in their bodies. In fact, research shows that 50 percent of 12- to 20-year-olds are not getting the exercise they need. And 34 percent of those kids would fail an eight-minute treadmill test.

"Children watch an average of 3 to 5 hours of television a day", according to Jennifer Trachtenberg, MD, author of Good Kids, Bad Habits: The RealAge Guide to Raising Healthy Children (Harper Collins, 2007). "That really doesn't leave much time to shape up their bodies and their brains."

According to Dr. Trachtenberg, children who enjoy doing physical activity are more likely to exercise as adults. "It's much easier to keep a good habit than it is to break a bad habit," she says.

So the question is, how do you get the good exercising habits started? Here, Dr. Trachtenberg shares her tips for making exercise entertaining for even the most confirmed couch potato kid.