Just like your other muscles you’ve got to look after your brain if you want to keep it whirring along in tip top condition. Here are three things you can do to help keep your grey matter feeling great.

Diet

For a complete brain-friendly meal, team low GI carbs like brown pasta, which steadily release glucose to improve concentration, with oily fish such as trout, mackerel or sardines. The omega-3 found in these foods can’t be made by the body but has been shown to stave off Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss, besides caring for your joints. If you can’t face fish, flaxseeds are an excellent alternative and may even lower cholesterol.

Finish off your brain-boosting dinner with lots of blueberries. Evidence suggests that these antioxidant-rich beauties may improve short term memory loss. For a doubly healthy hit mix them with blackcurrants, which are a great source of vitamin C. That humble fruit salad just became a mind-expanding must-try!

Exercise

Not just good for your blood pressure and strength, exercise also does wonders for your brain. We’ve all experienced that moment of walking into a room and forgetting what we’re looking for, or hunting furiously for our glasses just to find them on our head. This is more a source of annoyance than a cause for concern, but if you’re fed up with forgetting it might be time to head to the gym.

Studies have shown that high-intensity exercise can improve cognitive function in adults, including your ability to recall names and details. To make sure you’re helping your brain and getting your heart pumping, head down to your local gym. No matter your ability or fitness level, the vast range of classes now available means you’ll find one to suit. If you’re feeling nervous, exercising with others can help with motivation and be a brilliant way to socialise.

Activities

Unlike your feet, your brain doesn’t stop growing when you hit a certain age, provided you keep it active. If you always stick to familiar routines, you aren’t giving your brain the stimulation it needs to continue forming new connections. Try doing new things every day and you’ll find that you retain more information, improve your co-ordination and feel more creative. Sign up to a language, arts or craft class, or teach yourself to use the latest tech – shop laptops from K&Co and get plugged in. There are plenty of games on the internet which will keep your brain active. Having fun is really important – the more interested and engaged you are in the activity, the more likely you’ll be to continue doing it. Not only are you having a good time, but your brain will thank you for it!

Football is a game of fast paced acceleration, quick changes in direction and stamina; which is exactly why injuries are so common. Whether you are a football player yourself, or you take your children to play on a Sunday you will need to protect against injuries during a match. As with any sport one of the most important aspects is to have completed a thorough warm up before the game begins.

Here are some of the best warm up routines to keep you safe when you’re out on the field.

Start by warming up your muscles

Muscular injuries in football are extremely common, mainly because of the speed at which you will lunge for the ball. This puts strain on not only your leg muscles, but your back and arms. It is so important to start off your match with a thorough muscle warm up to get the blood pumping to the right areas and to protect against damage.

There are many tried and tested methods to warming up your muscles before any exercise and which one you choose really is your choice. The main one for footballers is to do as many repetitions of lunges as possible. This will work your inner thighs and groin, which are the most commonly pulled and torn muscles in this sport. Start with repetitions of ten lunges on each leg, for a total of 5 repetitions.

Along with lunges, you will also want to warm up your feet, calves, back and arms. For this you can do toe touches and don’t worry if you can’t touch your toes; your lower back and legs will still feel the strain. Try some trunk twists, neck rotations, push ups and arm rotations. Make sure that you do adequate repetitions of each of these muscle stretches to maintain their strength. A full stretching warm up should last between 15-30 minutes as long as it is mixed with some cardio.

Cardio Warm Ups

A cardio warm up is just as important as the above, firstly because it will prevent injury and secondly because it will aid in your muscle warm up by pumping the blood to the right areas. Cardio workouts before a football match will keep you going throughout the quick sprints and quick play changes that are expected in football.

Cardio warm ups can follow many forms, with the easiest being running laps of the pitch before the match starts. If you choose to do a warm up this way then there are two important things to remember. Firstly, you will need to mix together sprinting and jogging; don’t stay at one speed the entire time. This will get your body used to the quick pace changes during the match. Secondly, you need to do more than just a single lap, obvious to say and it is tiring, but it is equally important.

Other cardio warm ups can include:

• Star jumps for 15 minutes
• Running on the spot
• Skipping
• Speed walking

Once you have covered both types of warm ups you will be ready to play the game. Don’t forget though that afterwards you need to cool down, this will cut out pain and swelling after the match ends.