Teens may need extra push to get outdoors

It's a familiar refrain in homes with teenagers: "Shut off that television, get outside and get some exercise!"

But parents, here's the bad news: If you want your teens to exercise, you need to get out there with them and show how it's done.

"Parents have an incredible, powerful ability to model behavior," says Daniel Kirschenbaum, a professor at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago and clinical director of Wellspring, which provides treatment services for overweight youths and adults at several U.S. locations.

"You are your own best ally," he says.

Besides being active, parents may need to get creative. And tough. Experts offer a variety of strategies for getting teenagers out for some fresh air.

"Sometimes you have to be a little subtle," says Robyn Spitzman, co-author with Evelyn Sacks of "Eat, Nap, Play" (Health Communications, 2009). Even the word "exercise" can induce adolescent eye-rolling, so substitute that word with "adventure," Sacks says.

Or less subtle: Kirschenbaum advises making outdoor family time mandatory, and tying it to allowances.

"It's another thing they have to do, like make their beds," he says. "I'd encourage families to do that — make movement a part of what's required."

The problem is often one of wresting teens away from screens and phones. Teenagers up to age 18 are exposed to nearly 11 hours of media in a typical day, according to a January report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which several years ago noted high rates of media exposure as a contributing factor to childhood obesity.

Todd Christopher, author of "The Green Hour: A Daily Dose of Nature for Happier, Healthier, Smarter Kids" (Trumpeter Books, 2010), notes that teenagers often use more than one form of media at a time: They may text while watching TV or talk on the phone while using the computer.

Making media part of an interaction with nature can help get teens' attention, he says, citing treasure hunts as an example — either devised by neighborhood parents, or by geocaching and letterboxing. In letterboxing, teens download clues off Internet sites. Geocaching is a higher-tech form of hide and seek, requiring a GPS into which teens can punch the coordinates of hidden treasure.

Both activities are "a pretense to get outside and have these adventures," says Christopher.