Time-starved schools across Texas are finding creative ways to squeeze in workouts without taking precious minutes or money away from other subjects. In some cases, schools count recess as P.E. time. More often, schools double and triple up P.E. classes, which means teachers spend more time corralling kids than teaching them about muscles and kickball. The overcrowded P.E. classes have sparked concerns from Fort Worth to Galveston.

"That type of approach undermines the long-term goals," said state Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, who warned area superintendents last month to take P.E. seriously. "It's not showing students that we're serious about obesity and health if we then treat the class like a stepchild."

Other schools are piggybacking parts of P.E. onto other lessons.

In Irving, some students twist and stretch while they sing in music class. Children in Richardson take a few minutes away from fractions and spelling tests to work in push-ups and other exercises by their desks.

Some Texas school officials acknowledge that recent laws have done little to push P.E. onto the front burner.

Principals say they do what they can at a time when they feel time and money are short. Many elementary schools have only one gymnasium, one certified teacher and certain windows of time to run hundreds of kids through P.E. Without more space and more teachers, teachers say, something has to give. In most cases, it's small class sizes.

"Most administrators are trying to follow the law; it's just hard when they don't have the funds to be able to hire an additional P.E. teacher or for a facility to put a class somewhere," said Diana Everett, executive director of the Texas Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

Plus, remedial, bilingual and other special classes, in addition to core subjects, have eaten into more malleable areas, like lunch, recess and P.E.

"Kids need so much, and it's hard to fit it all in in a day," said Sandi Cravens, health and physical education coordinator for the Irving school district. "Principals are not judged on physical education, so that makes it difficult. They have to focus on the area that determines whether or not they're doing well at their school."

Lawmakers had overbooked schools in mind when they started to toughen P.E. requirements in 2001. Specifically, the P.E. law requires a certain amount of "physical activity" instead of physical education. The two are not the same: a walk is physical activity, but learning how to run properly or how to measure a heart rate is physical education, teachers say.

State officials now worry that schools have used the flexibility as a loophole.

"I get questions about, 'Well, how about if I took away five minutes of recess and they walk from class to class?' " said Jeff Kloster, an associate commissioner at the Texas Education Agency. "I am a realist. There are school districts out there finding a way to get around the law. And the kids lose."

P.E. started to take a backseat about the time that state and federal accountability laws took hold, Mr. Kloster said.

Nationwide, the percentage of students who took P.E. every day dropped from 42 percent in 1991 to 28 percent in 2003, according to a 2006 study by the American Heart Association and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.

At the same time, adults have passed couch-potato lifestyles on to children, who are tipping the scales. By most accounts, more than a third of Texas children are overweight.

Texas lawmakers knew they couldn't force healthy habits into the home, so, in 2001, they turned to schools. At the time, P.E. was largely optional for students, Mr. Kloster said.

"If we don't do it in the school day, it's not going to happen," said state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, who has led P.E. legislation. "I truly believe that our children's poor health is the greatest health-related issue that this state is facing."

A 2001 law carried by Ms. Nelson ordered elementary schools to put children through 30 minutes of organized exercise every day. Lawmakers have tweaked the law since then, including this year's stricter definition of exercise and an annual fitness test for students in grades 3-12.

Officials also tacked on extra requirements for middle school students. High school students need a credit and a half of P.E. to graduate.

Texas has been credited nationally for bringing back P.E, followed by six other states that have adopted P.E. legislation, Ms. Nelson said.

Ms. Nelson dismisses the difference between "physical activity" and "physical education" in Texas as semantics.

Others say it's a shortcut.

"Physical activity is not education," Ms. Everett said. "We're still fighting that battle six years later and will be in the 2009 session, whereas other states did what should have been done. Texas was just, 'Oh, we're afraid we're going to offend somebody,' and so they watered it down."

P.E. is more than flag football, teachers say. Fourth-graders, for example, should be able to catch a ball, identify muscle groups, and win and lose with dignity.

Ms. Everett said it's tough to teach any of that when schools double and triple up classes because teachers and gym space are hard to come by. Class size limits don't apply to P.E., TEA officials said.

Teachers report class sizes of up to 70 students in Fort Worth, 90 in Mesquite and 100 in Galveston.

"Somebody's going to get hurt," said Julia Hatcher, a parent who complained to Galveston school officials. "A lot of parents are concerned that their kids are being bullied, that they're not getting the attention they need, that they're not getting physical activity because they're forced to stand in one spot."

Being creative about P.E. doesn't have to mean cutting corners, school officials say.

In Richardson, elementary schools fit 135 minutes of physical activity into one week with two P.E. classes and nine minutes of daily exercise in their homerooms.

At Stults Road Elementary recently, a group of giggly fifth-graders tossed around two large, soft dice – one with a number and one with an activity. One landed on "10," while the other landed on "pushups."

So, in jeans instead of gym shorts, the children dropped and gave their teacher, Consonya Owens, 10 pushups. They continued with arm circles, toe touches and jumping jacks. Then they sat down and started a spelling test.

Rick Urbanczyk, the district's health and physical education director, says the daily breaks help kids focus on their studies.

Mr. Urbanczyk, a former P.E. teacher, would like to go further, but "scheduling is always an issue," he said. "You're caught between a rock and a hard place."