When is the best time to introduce children to exercise? The fact is that when children start to be young, they have already been exercising for most of the year. Raise head, roll over, sit up, crawl, then walk. Before you know it, they’re running around the house like football players bloated on too much Gatorade.

The problem is not what happens when they are 16 months old. It’s what happens when you’re 16. A typical teenager may wake up and then spend the rest of the day sitting up. They sit on the bus to school, they sit in class, they sit in the lunchroom, they sit on the bus home, they sit in front of the TV, they sit in front of the computer, and if you’re really lucky, they They will sit on the couch and tell you how their day was. Although unhealthy eating is definitely part of the reason young Americans are overweight, lack of daily exercise is the main culprit.

What changes between the preschooler who wants to run all day and the teenager who would rather choke than play a game of basketball in physical education? I daresay it’s the lack of good role models during those intervening years. If you want your children to grow up healthy and active, you need to set a healthy and active example. “Do what I say and not what I do” is the #1 path to failure. In the end, as much as it pains them to hear it, most children will follow in their parents’ footsteps, so we need to show them how to live the right way.

The good news is that it’s easy to exercise, and it’s easy to hook your kids, too. My wife Alison and I exercise around our 2-year-old daughters, Ainsley and Sierra, almost daily. Ali takes them with her to a “Baby Bootcamp” class designed for moms who want to get back in shape after pregnancy. On days off, she makes Pilates videos at home where our twins can watch and mimic. I also do calisthenics with the girls in the living room and game room, and in the warmer months, we take a multigenerational afternoon walk every day with the girls’ great-grandmother.

So our daughters have already learned that exercise is a normal and fun part of the day, and now they do it without being asked. They’ll be playing in her room, and then we hear one of them yell, “exercise, exercise!” He glances around her room and sees them doing their own little versions of push-ups, sit-ups, squats and jumping jacks, laughing as they go. They mimic what they see and turn jump ropes into resistance bands for miniature tricep curls, while steps become a great place to practice calf raises.

Even more fun is on Saturdays when we go hiking together as a family. They are still too young to walk very far on their own (although they sometimes insist), but they have already developed an affection for being in nature. Every rock, tree, and stream is interesting to them, much more so than all the flashing lights and loud noises found at the local Chuck E Cheese.

By cultivating their interest in the outdoors, we make it more likely that they’ll want to spend their weekends outside, rather than sitting on the couch watching reruns of Beverly Hills 90210. Now, what could be more rewarding as a parent than? that?

So if you want your child to grow up healthy and active, don’t just send him to soccer practice. Put your own legs in gear and show them that this is how adults should live too, not just children. Set a good example now and your children will naturally follow suit.

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Copyright Paul Martin, Noss Galen Baby LLC 2006