Keeping fit in the oval office: through the years, our presidents have sometimes had a hard time keeping fit. As a leader of our country, should our commander-in-chief also lead us in recreation? A look back at past presidents.

Finding time to remain fit can be difficult--most people have to juggle multiple tasks that always seem to get in the way. Dealing with jobs, planning family activities, taking care of day-to-day duties--they are all responsibilities that usually take the place of staying in shape.

Yet, in today's complicated world, no one can argue that one of the busiest people in the United States is our president. He looks after our country, makes thousands of stressful decisions every day, and still tries to spend time with his own family. With all of these balls to juggle, almost every president has found time for some form of recreation. Who could forget the images of Bill Clinton jogging through Washington, D.C.? Or the photos of George H.W. Bush playing golf during his time off? If the president can find time to stay in shape, certainly the rest of America can.

Before the days of expensive weights and complicated machinery, Americans enjoyed riding horses for their daily dose of exercise.

The father of our country, George Washington, was an excellent rider from his days leading armies, and kept 12 horses available for his weekend pastime--fox hunting. Thomas Jefferson once said that Washington was the "greatest equestrian of his age."

Another president, Ulysses S. Grant, also enjoyed riding, and set several equestrian records during his time at West Point. While in office, he kept 10 horses on the grounds, one of which was named Jeff Davis, after the president of the Confederacy.

Some presidents didn't like horses, but were drawn to another animal to aid them in their recreation--the bird. Both Roosevelts, Theodore and Franklin D., were avid bird-watchers. Theodore Roosevelt was a lifelong ornithologist, who even wrote a birding book while in his second term as president.

Theodore's cousin, Franklin, also turned to recreational birding in times of crisis, to give him a break from the matters of the day. In 1942, during the height of World War II, Franklin led an expedition that included several top birding scientists. They managed to identify 108 different species that day, and his wife Eleanor always said that he could point to any bird and tell her what it was. In his day, being a birding enthusiast also meant you liked to hunt them, and in his boyhood, he managed to collect 300 specimens, some of which are still displayed in his home in Hyde Park, N.Y.

His interest in birds and the out doors no doubt led to his numerous conservation efforts while in office, including the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps and adding millions of acres to national forests and parks.

From birds to bats, our national pastime has lured many presidents away from the Oval Office. Since the days of Babe Ruth, presidents have gone to the baseball diamond to get away from the rigors of the job. When the baseball season almost ended during WWII, Roosevelt wrote what was known as "the green light letter" to the baseball commissioner, urging him to keep the sport going. He said, "Baseball provides a recreation, which does not last over two hours, and which can be got for very little cost."

Calvin Coolidge also enjoyed the game, and attended games of the Washington Senators. He attended the Senators' first World Series game in 1924, enjoying a cigar and chatting with the fans. He even urged Congress to adjourn early so members could attend the game (they did not, however).

Instead of enjoying someone else's game, Herbert Hoover created his own. With the help of White House physician Admiral Joel T. Boone, the president wanted to create a game to stay physically fit. The outcome? Hoover-ball. "It required less skill than tennis, was faster and more vigorous, and therefore gave more exercise in a short time," Hoover wrote in his memoirs.

The game was played every morning at 7 a.m. with several White House staff members. Teams of two to four people would stand on one side of a volleyball-type court. The server throws a six-pound medicine ball over the net to the opposite side of the court, where the other team has to catch it and return it. Whichever side misses first, loses the point.

Hoover played every day except Sundays while in Washington, and held several games in the freezing cold of winter. Only once did Hoover cancel a game, and that occurred when he awoke early to deliver a speech to the Senate. Hoover's love for sport far out lived his presidency, as he was instrumental in developing the Boys Clubs of America, which help children get involved in recreation.

Maybe the most popular recreational activity with presidents, at least recently, has been playing golf. According to journalist Don Van Natta Jr., author of "First Off the Tee," 14 out of the last 17 presidents liked to go out and swing a club. Although William H. Taft weighed in at 350 lbs., he was an active president and enjoyed hitting the links, He was the first avid presidential golfer (although not very good at it), and even once cancelled a meeting with a Chilean diplomat to play. According to Van Natta, Taft said, '"I'll be damned if I'm going to give up my golf game to see this fellow."

Woodrow Wilson also liked to play, and played every day except Sundays. lie even hit the fairway when it was covered with snow. Wilson would make the Secret Service paint his golf balls red so he could find them in the snow-covered course.

Dwight D. Eisenhower might have been the best golfer, playing more than 800 times during his eight years in office. He was the first president to score a hole in one during a golf game (Feb. 6, 1968, in Palm Springs, Calif.), and even had a putting green installed on the south lawn of the White House.

Bill Clinton also loved the game, but made his own rules as he went along. According to Van Natta, the president would follow the rules for about two holes, then would ask for "do-over shots and gimme putts" until the end of the round, eventually giving himself a score of 82 when in reality he probably had taken 200 swings.

History is filled with presidents who take their recreation as seriously as they do the rest of their responsibilities. There is even a story of John Quincy Adams, who took pre-dawn walks from the White House down to the Potomac River. If the weather was nice, Adams would take off his clothes, and dive in for a swim The tale goes that one day, a female reporter named Anne Royall, who had been turned away for an interview, sat on Adams' clothes until he agreed to speak with her. It's rumored that this might have been the only interview in history with a nude president.

Although this article was written before the country knows the outcome of this year's presidential election, whether it is John Kerry or George W. Bush leading the United States for the next four years, both are very active. Kerry likes to snowboard, ski, play football, and frequently watches the Boston Red Sox baseball team. Bush begins each day with a vigorous workout of weightlifting, and tries to run at least five times a week. No matter who is in office, maybe we should follow the leadership of our president, and find time for fitness.