Here’s a shocker: Exercise is good for you. Even short-term bursts of activity can help you lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety and help you sleep better. Medical professionals say that anything helps, or doing something is better than doing nothing. Perhaps that message will help inspire the vast collection of American couch potatoes to get up, get out and move around a little, since they don’t have to go to the gym every day to see benefits.

That said, we are nevertheless curious about why the federal government feels compelled to weigh in on the matter. The feds this week issued new guidelines basically spelling out what we noted above. It’s the government’s first update of its recommendations in 10 years. This government involvement, we believe, is symptomatic of the larger problem of collectivism in our society.

Health and exercise are personal decisions, to be made in consultation with — and perhaps prodding by — one’s own physician. Does the federal government need to be wasting time and money coming up with fitness plans for Americans? That most will ignore anyway? No.

Too many people want the government to spell out remedies or provide funding to “solve” every conceivable human problem, whether derived from our own bad habits, stupidity, personal choices or the simple facts of aging and illness. Maybe getting the government to stop issuing exercise guidelines would be a good first step in pushing society away from groupthink and toward individual responsibility.