WHETHER YOU’VE SUCCESSFULLY survived the Dublin Marathon or just chased after the bus, fitness is a topic of huge importance in today’s Ireland. So we’d like to get a snapshot of what health really looks like for readers of TheJournal.ie.

That’s why we’re launching The Health Check with Irish Life Health, who hope to transform how people think about their health. We want to really get to the bottom of how your health factors into your life – what you do to look after it, your daily habits and your biggest worries about it all.

Over the course of The Health Check, we’ll ask you to rate your health over six distinct topics including fitness, sleep and sex – and see how you compare to other readers. Based on your concerns and habits, we’ll follow this with expert advice designed to help you to improve your ratings.

Here’s how it’ll work: you rank each of the following questions from 0-10, with 10 meaning ‘very likely’, ‘strongly agree’ or ‘very important’, and 0 essentially meaning ‘not at all’.  

Our first topic is fitness. Some half a million of us are members of a gym or fitness club. We’re expected to spend €773 million on fitness next year as a nation and 40% of us would like to be fitter.

So, how do you really feel about your own fitness? Would you ever train with wearable tech? Do you worry about your safety when you’re exercising outside on these dark, winter nights? What do you think about mandatory fitness classes at work?

Tell us by giving us your rating on the questions below…

 Unfortunately, some research would suggest that Ireland is still on course to become the most obese nation in Europe and new campaigns from organisations like The Irish Heart Foundation warn that ‘sitting is the new smoking’. But what’s the answer? 

Whether you like or loathe the idea of an Apple Watch, wearable technology (watches and other devices that monitor things like heartbeat and your number of steps) is now worth an estimated $325 (€285) million worldwide and Irish researchers are even looking into using it for dementia patients. But what do you make of it all?

And lastly, we want to know about how safe you feel when you’re breaking a sweat. Unfortunately, the RSA estimate that almost two-thirds of fatal pedestrian collisions happen at night, making up about 16.5% of all collisions last year. So, is safety a concern for you?

Over the next few months as part of The Health Check, we’ll be capturing a snapshot of our health as a nation with Irish Life Health. We’ll be compiling anonymous, real-time ratings and talking to experts about the results and what they mean for our health. We know Irish Life. We are Irish Life Health.