You get the kids to school with lunches and matching outfits, pack in a full workday, rush to soccer practice, throw together a quick and healthy dinner, make sure homework gets done and wash the dishes. You finally have some free time in the evening, but by then it’s too late to drag yourself to the gym and too dark for a bike ride or jog. Some moms set the alarm to go off before dawn so they can exercise before their families even wake up, but isn’t sleep important, too?

There’s no excuse not to exercise if you work at one of the many 2012 Working Mother 100 Best Companies that encourage health and fitness right in the workplace. Some offer on-site gyms, walking trails and swimming pools, while others provide fitness classes and even at-the-desk exercise equipment.

“I usually work out with an on-staff personal trainer once a week,” says Hyun Mee Graves, product manager at General Mills and mom of Samantha, 5, and Oscar, 3. “A lot of employees here take advantage of the fitness facilities, so I thought, If they can make time to work out, so can I.”

Hyun Mee’s employer is one of the companies that earned the highest overall scores on health and wellness issues, ranging from insurance coverage to fitness programs to caregiving referrals, on our Best Companies application.

Some of these companies encourage team spirit through group activities, like Discovery communications’ four-month fitness challenge, in which 65 percent of the workforce participated. The result: they logged more than 2.5 billion steps and lost more than 2,000 pounds collectively.

Verizon Communications offers 44 on-site health centers, where more than half a million employee workouts were logged last year. “It gives me the ability to come in after my shift and get a workout in with a trainer—free!—before my daughter gets home from school,” says Shirahna Pierce, a customer service representative who also brings daughter Malia, 13, with her on Verizon-sponsored hiking club outings.

Working moms need to remind themselves that keeping fit and energized is as important as taking that business call or getting the kids to dance class, says fitness expert Traci D. Mitchell, creator of the 40 Day Shape Up plan and mom of Elly, 6, and Isla, 3. Although it often falls to the bottom of our to-do list, exercise is essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. “Working moms are pulled in a lot of different directions, so they need more ‘me time’ to reconnect with their own priorities and goals—physical, mental and even social,” mitchell adds. “Exercise covers all three of these bases.”