“GET ACTIVE” Yet Another Government Website We Don’t Need

“Get Active” is the title of a government website that suddenly appeared in June 2026, encouraging Americans to exercise more frequently and intensely. Because physical activity is good for virtually all of us, it may seem churlish to criticize this message. Nevertheless, here are some reasons to do so:

The website claims that increased physical activity combined with “real food” and something called “real life” will enable Americans to get to the “root cause” of disease. They will do no such thing. Medical researchers increasingly focus on the “social determinants” of health, including poverty, stress, poor working conditions, lack of access to good food and health care. Although the website claims that there are “No Excuses” for not exercising or eating healthier food, plenty exist. People who live in dangerous neighborhoods far from parks may decide the safest thing to do is to stay inside. Those who have extensive childcare responsibilities and long work hours often lack the time to engage in physically activity. And the many people who live in areas without supermarkets or grocery stores cannot buy healthy, fresh food.

By exhorting everyone to “Take Back Your Health,” the website also diverts attention from the government’s role in reducing health care access. The failure to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies led to an average increase of 58 percent in premiums in 2026. As a result, approximately three million people dropped their coverage. Premiums are expected to rise again in 2027.

The photographs on the website change regularly, but three are especially noteworthy. One features RFK, Jr. and Pete Hesgeth looking fit and smug in T-shirts, suggesting a link between exercise and the manosphere; the recurrent use of the word “stronger” makes the same point.

In another photo Kennedy, this time dressed in a shirt and tie, pulls himself up on a high bar. This photo presumably calls attention to the “Pete & Bobby Challenge,” which urges “every American to Get Active, push their limits, and discover what they’re capable of.” The goal is to do 100 push-ups and 500 pull-ups in ten minutes or less. Every American? The high prevalence of disabilities, including fifty percent of those 75 and older (the fastest growing group), makes this an insensitive recommendation for a high proportion of the population.

The third photo displays Kennedy gazing at a national park, a reminder that visiting a national park is high on his list of good ways people can increase physical activity. Does Kennedy really not know that the parks are underfunded and overcrowded (“like LA at rush hour,” one visitor recently reported). After the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” cuts, the National Park Service lost nearly a quarter of its workforce. While attendance at the parks has soared, they now have approximately $24 billion in deferred maintenance. Trump has long advocated returning public lands to private interests, and his administration has diverted $67 million of park funds to his “beautification” projects, including those at the White House.

Some commentators remind us that advice to get more exercise is not new. Every president since Eisenhower has made the same plea. A recent New York Times article dates our current fitness craze to the decade between 1972 and 1982.

In fact, we can go back much farther. After the Civil War, enthusiasm for “physical culture” (a term akin to “physical fitness”) swept many sectors of American society. As compulsory public education expanded rapidly, a growing proportion of schools instituted physical education. Trained coaches and teachers gradually replaced the physicians who previously directed exercise regimens. In 1892, public schools in 83 cities employed a total of 137 specialists. By 1904, more than 100 settlement houses existed; most provided children and adolescents with other opportunities for supervised athletic recreation.

The American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education (later the American Alliance for Health, Physical, Education, Recreation and Dance), established in 1885, announced that its goals were “to awaken a wider and more intelligent interest in Physical Education; to acquire and disseminate knowledge concerning it; and to labor for the improvement and extension of gymnastics, games, and athletic pastimes in the education of children and youth.” Organized sports also grew. The National Association of Base Ball Players was established in 1867, the Rowing Association of America in 1871, the National Bowling League in 1875, and the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America in 1879. And people of all ages flocked to gymnasiums, where they trained and strengthened their muscles with the help of health lifts (weight lifting machines).

Although advocates argued that everyone needed strenuous physical activity, they deemed it especially critical for those who showed signs of neurasthenia, a term previously used for mental and physical exhaustion believed to be caused by a lack of nervous energy. After neurologist George Beard identified neurasthenia as a distinct disease entity in 1869, more and more people stressed the importance of strengthening muscles to combat the deleterious effects of excessive brain work.

Noting that children as well adults were at risk of neurasthenia, physical education advocates raised the alarm about the impact of mental strain and overwork at school. An 1885 article in The Sanitarian, a New York City public health journal, asserted that parents who believed education was “solely a matter of books and school-rooms… exhaust the children’s brains and nervous system with complex and multiple studies, and ruin their bodies by protracted imprisonment.” A Philadelphia doctor who studied the contribution of overwork to nervous disease found that more than one tenth of children suffered from nervousness. A major solution was to require various forms of exercise throughout the school day.

The belief in exercise as a neurasthenia cure also added to the lure of the west. Health seekers sent back glowing accounts not only of restorative scenery, but also of eating and sleeping outdoors, riding horses, and hunting buffalo, conquering ill health while conquering other forms of nature. Theodore Roosevelt’s apparent success in transforming himself from a sickly child into a vigorous cowboy provided a model for many men diagnosed with neurasthenia. Among them was Owen Wister, one of neurologist Weir Mitchell’s patients. Wister is best known for his famous cowboy novel, The Virginian, which he dedicated to his friend, Theodore Roosevelt. Set in Wyoming in the 1870s and 1880s, the book chronicles the adventures of the hero, known only as the Virginian. By the end of the book, he has vanquished his enemy and rescued a New England school teacher, whom he later marries. Published in 1902, the book sold 300,000 copies in its first year.

Exhortations to people to engage in more physical exercise have a long history, but they cannot solve the health problems that beset Americans. For that we need broad social and economic reforms, vaccine endorsements and mandates, and health care for all.

“Get Active,” getactive.gov.

Danielle Friedman, “The Decade that Changed Fitness Forever,” New York Times, January 14, 2025.

Grace Sparks, Lunna Lopes, Alex Montero, Marley Presiado, and Liz Hamel, “Americans’ Challenges with Health Care Costs,” KFF, April 30, 2026.

Jen Rose Smith, “’LA at Rush Hour.’ American National Parks Feeling the Strain thus Summer,” CNN, July 20, 2026.

Maxine Joselow and Andrea Fuller, “National Park Entrance Fees Are Funding Trump’s D.C. Projects,” New York Times, May 27, 2026.

Emily K. Abel, Sick and Tired: A Intimate History of Fatigue (University of North Carolina Press, 2021).

Cynthia Cox, “ACA Marketplace Enrollment Is Down by 3 Million after Big Jump in Premium Payments,” KFF, June 29, 2026.

“In Preliminary Rate Filings, ACA Marketplace Insurers Largely Propose Double-Digit Premium Increase for 2027, Following a Steep Climb This Year,” KFF, July 8, 2026.