“The first generation to grow up exercising.”

If you say it over and over again like reps, in three sets of 10, will you build muscle mass?

“The first generation to grow up exercising.”

Will you burn a calorie or two?

“The first generation to grow up exercising.”

Will you get rid of flab?

Because for all the talk of jogging, playing basketball on new knees and lacing up skates for late-night ice hockey games, it turns out baby boomers may be in worse shape than the generation that came before. That would be the one that, if urged by an ad to “just do it,” might have replied, “Just do what?”

Writing this month in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers offered a portrait of boomerdom at odds with its popular portrayal, and perhaps with its sense of itself. They found that boomers were more likely to be obese, more likely to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes -- and less likely to be physically active.