Exercise for Kids and Teenagers

Here are a dozen easy ways to be more active every day without even working up a major sweat. Which ones could you try?

1. Dance and dress : Energize first thing in the a.m. While you're getting dressed for school, crank up the tunes in your room and dance like nobody's watching. (They aren't.)

2. Burn some calories before the bus : No need to feel bored just standing there while you wait for the school bus to show up. You can rock, sway, move from side to side, or pace. Any motion burns calories. For a bonus, use your backpack as a weight to do some arm curls.

3. Walk the lot : Drive to school? Pick a parking spot a little bit farther from the door than you usually would. Each week park farther and farther away. You'll walk more steps, and your car might be less likely to get dings.

4. Stealth strength-training : When you walk through the hallways at school, get in a few minutes of core muscle-work on the sly. Pull your belly button in, roll your shoulders back, and breathe in and out deeply. It'll help you look good, too.

5. Straighten and stretch : At your locker or in the bathroom, s-t-r-e-t-c-h! Lace your hands together with your palms facing out. Straighten your arms and hold for 10 seconds. Relax, and then repeat a couple of times.

6. Talk eye to eye : After school, give your thumbs a break. Skip texting with your best friend. Instead talk face to face while you go for a walk together. The bonus round? Try to make a whole day text-free.

7. Do abs during ads : Challenge your brother, sister, or friend to a contest during a TV commercial break. See who can do more crunches or sit-ups, or who can race around the backyard and get back inside faster.

8. Chores challenge : Sneak in more steps when you're on garbage duty. Head upstairs and get the trash from one room, then back downstairs to take it outside to the garbage can. Then go back upstairs and get the trash from a different room and take it outside.

9. Stand up : You can get on your feet while you are on your phone or watching TV, instead of lying down or sitting on the couch or bed. (Yep, it's that simple.) To mix it up, strike a yoga pose or do a stretch or squat every few minutes, or every time you hear a certain word on television.

10. Be an energetic babysitter : Get active when you're watching kids. Play tag with them, climb on the playground equipment, or challenge them to a jumping jack contest.

11. Calorie clean-up : Vacuum, organize your closet, wash the car, or mow the grass. Yeah, they're chores, but they're ones that can burn around 200 calories an hour.

12. Play to sweat : Go with video games that get you moving, like Just Dance, Rock Band, Shaun White Skateboarding, Sports Active, or Wii Fit. Or make other games more active by standing while you play.