Kicker Jay Mattox will be heading to the San Francisco 49ers for a minicamp tryout. The Las Vegas, Nv. native is the eighth Miner to receive an invitation to an NFL camp.
Jay Mattox was a four-year starter who played in all 49 games for the Miners. The kicker finished his collegiate career tied no. 1 in program history with 137 career PATs.
Mattox also rates no. 2 in program history with 257 career points (kickers only) and ranked no. 3 with 40 career field goals made. He concluded his senior campaign ranked second on team in points (54) and finished 39-of-40 on PATs. Mattox connected on a career-best 7-for-7 on PATs and tied his career high in points (10).
As a junior, he connected on a career-long 50-yard field goal during a win over Incarnate Word.
During his sophomore season, Mattox took over punting duties and averaged 41.1 yards on 41 punts (1,687 yards), putting nine inside the 20-yard line and booting eight 50-plus yard punts.
Watch this video and follow along as celebrity instructor and Health contributing editor Kristin McGee guides a 10-minute Pilates workout that�s perfect for beginners and pros alike.
During this sequence, McGee focuses on targeting your abs, especially the transverse abdominals, the deepest layer of muscle in your core. According to McGee, we should lead all of our daily activities from those muscles. They support us, give us good posture, and help us with twisting and movement. Plus, that deep transverse core muscle is what helps make your spine nice and long.
As you do this workout, there are a few crucial things to keep in mind. For starters, tune into your body, and really try to feel the connection both to your pelvic floor muscles and to your transverse abdominals. McGee suggests imagining you�re wearing a wetsuit, and it�s pulling everything in your torso inward.
While your core and pelvic floor should feel tight and engaged, be sure to keep your shoulders soft. It also helps to maintain a slight �C curve� in your spine, which allows your lower abs to be pulled even farther in, helping to activate and tone them.
Finally, use your breath to connect to your pelvic floor muscles and scoop in your abs as you go through each move.
Some of the moves may seem really subtle and simple�but don�t be fooled! This sequence is sure to have your abs aching the next day, in the best kind of way.
Football�s Aaron Jones and Track & Field�s Tobi Amusan were named the UTEP Male and Female Athlete of the Year, respectively, at the 43rd annual �Dinner With the Miners� banquet on Thursday�night at the Wyndham El Paso Airport.
Soccer�s Aleah Davis received the Golden Miner Award, presented to UTEP�s top all-around senior student-athlete based on athletics, academics and community service.� Former Miner volleyball player Christine Brandl was recipient of the Silver Anniversary Award.
Houston Baptist vs UTEP
Jones became UTEP�s all-time leading rusher (4,114 yards) in 2016, breaking a school record that had stood for 28 years.� He ranks seventh on the all-time Conference USA rushing list.� Jones set a school single-season record with 1,773 rushing yards.� He was named a third team All-American by the Associated Press and first team All-Conference USA.
Jones became only the second player in school history to rush for 300 yards in a game, and the first in 51 years, when he rambled for 301 yards against North Texas.� He was named the Tyler Rose Award National Player of the Week for his effort.� Jones compiled 17 rushing touchdowns (third in school history), 2,006 all-purpose yards (fourth) and scored 120 points (third).
He led Conference USA and rated third nationally in rushing this season, collecting 147.8 yards per contest.� He went over the 100-yard rushing mark seven times, and had 200+ yards in three games.
Amusan made her mark during the 2016 outdoor season, receiving numerous accolades including first team NCAA All-American,
UTEP�s Tobi Amusan in the Women�s 200 meter dash at the 2017 UTEP Invitational, Kidd Field El Paso, TX
Conference USA Track Athlete of the Year and C-USA Freshman of the Meet.� She competed at the 2016 Olympics and World U20 Championships.� She broke a 33-year old school record, and posted the fourth-fastest time in the nation in the 100-meter hurdles (12.83 seconds).
She claimed titles in the 100-meter hurdles and the 200 meters at the C-USA Championships, while adding a runner-up showing in the long jump.� She was NCAA runner-up in the 100-meter hurdles.� Amusan achieved another school record in the 60-meter hurdles during the indoor season (7.98 seconds).� She claimed six first-place finishes during the indoor campaign.� She won two events (60-meter hurdles, 200 meters) at the C-USA Indoor Meet for the champion Miners.� Her time in the 200 meters (23.35 seconds) was a UTEP record.
Amusan was the C-USA High Point Scorer of the Meet.� She recorded a sixth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles at the NCAA Indoor Championships to earn All-American honors.
Davis earned All-Conference (first team) and All-Region (second team) accolades for the fourth time in as many years, making her the first Miner to achieve the feat.� She started all 22 matches, tallying six goals and eight assists for a team-high tying 20 points.� She posted five game-winning goals.
She helped the Miners register their most wins (13) in seven years and advance to the semifinals of the Conference USA Championships.� She was voted to the NSCAA Senior Women�s College Scholar All-America Team and the C-USA Women�s Soccer All-Academic Team.� Davis also compiled over 100 community service hours during her UTEP career.
The Silver Anniversary Miner Award is presented to an individual who had a distinguished college athletic career, and has continued to contribute to UTEP and the El Paso community.
Brandl played for the Miners from 1988-91 and is the school�s all-time leader for assists (4,210) and service aces (148).� She was a second team Verizon Academic All-American as a junior and senior and was the recipient of an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship in 1992.
Brandl finished her Premedical Education at UTEP in 1992.� She completed her Medical Education from Texas Tech in 1996 and her Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas in 2000.� She became a certified OBGYN in 2002 and today operates her own private practice, Lifesteps OBGYN, in El Paso.� She has received numerous awards in the medical field and is a former Vice Chairman for Providence Hospital.
Brandl has also volunteered as a volleyball coach at St. Mark�s School and Mount Franklin Christian Academy in El Paso.
The grade point average award was presented to the tennis team, and the community service award went to volleyball.
In addition, team MVP awards were presented to Dominic Artis (men�s basketball), Sparkle Taylor (women�s basketball), Jonah Koech (men�s cross country and outdoor track & field), Winny Koech (women�s cross country), Emmanuel Korir (men�s indoor track & field), Tobi Amusan (women�s indoor and outdoor track & field), Aaron Jones (football), Frederik Dreier (men�s golf), Lily Downs (women�s golf), Bailey Powell (rifle), Alyssa Palacios (soccer), Kaitlin Ryder (softball), Raven Bennett (tennis), Lindsey Larson (volleyball), Bailey Sarver & Omar Gardea (Cheerleading), Jeanna Mullen, James Bias & Will Hernandez (strength & conditioning) and Ariana Rodarte (athletic training).
�Dinner With The Miners� is made possible by the El Paso Downtown Lions Club. The event was inspired by past Lion president John Phelan. In 1979, a $10,000 memorial endowment was established. Due to the overwhelming community support of the event, the memorial fund was raised to $100,000 in 1983.
A second endowment has already been established and continues to grow each year. These two endowments provide funds annually to offset the cost of student-athlete scholarships.
American toddlers are more likely to eat french fries than green vegetables on any given day, according to a new national survey on children’s eating habits.
Many young kids also go without any vegetables at all, the survey found.
One in four 6- to 11-month-olds and one in five 1-year-olds had no reported vegetable consumption at all on days they were surveyed, the researchers reported.
“The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends vegetable consumption with every meal and snack,” said lead researcher Gandarvaka Miles, a doctoral candidate with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. “On two random days, parents didn’t report any vegetable consumption for these children.”
The survey also found that nearly three out of every five infants aren’t getting any breast milk at all.
These numbers are concerning because kids’ eating patterns develop at a young age, Miles said. Poor eating habits when young can put infants and toddlers on a road to continued poor nutrition into adulthood, she added.
“As we learn more about how dietary habits are established, we are seeing that even as early as infancy, breast milk consumption and consumption of fruits and vegetables can help lay the foundation for healthy eating habits,” Miles said.
She and her colleagues used data from 2005 to 2012 taken from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to track health and diet trends among Americans.
In the survey, mothers were asked to provide a detailed description of what their children ate on two randomly chosen days, Miles said.
About 26 percent of 1-year-olds ate french fries the day before the survey, compared with 7.5 percent who ate dark green vegetables and about 17 percent who ate deep yellow vegetables, according to the results.
The survey also revealed a decline in consumption of healthy fruits and vegetables among 1-year-olds.
The percentage of 1-year-olds eating canned or frozen fruit decreased by more than 10 percent between 2005 and 2012, and consumption of dark green vegetables decreased by more than 50 percent.
Most other vegetable categories also saw a decline in consumption among 1-year-olds — even french fries, which fell from about 32 percent to 26 percent.
The researchers found that nearly 60 percent of infants younger than 6 months did not consume any breast milk. However, they did find that more families are exclusively breast-feeding during the first six months of life, in alignment with AAP recommendations.
It can be difficult to find fresh fruits and vegetables in many parts of the country, said Dr. Annemarie Stroustrup, an associate professor with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. She was not involved with the study.
“In the wealthier parts of town, you can walk a block and you find a grocery that has a wide variety of fruits and vegetables,” Stroustrup said. “When you go to some of the lower-income neighborhoods, it’s often quite a distance to travel to get somewhere that has a greater variety of fresh foods.”
Toddlers also don’t make it easy on parents, she added.
“Toddlers are not necessarily going to be developmentally ready to try new foods. Toddlers are newness-averse,” Stroustrup said. “You often have to offer a new food to a toddler up to 10 times before that toddler will accept it as something they will eat.”
But it’s important to be diligent and keep trying, both Stroustrup and Miles said.
“Food preferences that we develop begin to be established as early as transition to solid foods, and that usually happens around 6 months for U.S. children,” Miles said.
Stroustrup agreed. “Although your toddler may say they don’t like fruits or vegetables, if you keep offering it, as they enter childhood, they will end up with better eating habits and eventually they will likely accept it,” she said.
Local governments can also take steps to help people improve their children’s eating habits, Stroustrup said.
For example, in New York City the mayor’s office has promoted the institution of farmer’s markets across the city, and supported the acceptance of food stamps at those markets, Stroustrup said. That gives lower-income people a chance to buy healthier foods for their families.
The new study was published online May 1 and appears in the June issue of Pediatrics.
Science and experts alike say high-intensity interval workouts reign as fitness royalty. Touted as a top-notch method for weight loss, improving your VO2 max and even helping you run faster, it�s no wonder this approach to exercise holds such high wellness honors.
Of course, just like any workout you do over and over, the routine can get stale. That is, until you learn the foundation of HIIT workouts and then switch it up every time you go to break a sweat. Allow trainer Adam Rosante, creator of Two Week Transformation and author of Super Smoothie Revolution, to break down the basics so you can turn up the benefits.
�The foundation [of HIIT] is a series of intervals of intense activity, coupled with intervals of less-intense activity or complete rest,� says Rosante. �Beyond buzz, it�s popularity can largely be attributed to its efficiency. HIIT�s a great way to get fit in a short amount of time. But the key is to ensure that the high-intensity intervals are truly performed at your highest intensity.�
How do you know if you�re HIIT-ing it hard enough? Rosante says to go at 80 to 95 percent of your maximum heart rate during the work intervals, and 60 to 65 percent during your rest periods. (To find your max heart rate, just subtract your age from 220. Then take the percentages from there.) If you don�t have a heart rate monitor, push hard enough through the work intervals that you�re sucking wind. You shouldn�t be able to hold a convo, Rosante says.
You can do a HIIT workout with almost any exercise, from plank hip dips to jumping jacks to everyone�s favorite: burpees. That�s because it�s more about intensity than the specific movements, Rosante explains. But to help you narrow down what to do, Rosante says he prefers a mix of moves that force the glutes, quads and hamstrings (the body�s biggest muscles) to work explosively. Some of his go-to�s include jump squats, plyo lunges and sprints.
But don�t stop there. Rosante often alternates between a lower body and upper body move, or a lower body and total body exercise. �The alternation forces your heart to pump blood out to the muscles in a much higher volume, which, naturally, means your heart rate is significantly elevated,� Rosante explains. �When you boost your heart rate like this, you disrupt your metabolic pathways in such a way that they�re scrambling to return to normal long after the workout has ended.� This concept of burning calories even after you stop busting a move � known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC � will blast fat and calories, fast.
Spike your heart rate, tone your body and break through plateaus with this HIIT formula from Rosante. Start with a goal intensity, then pick an option from each layer. No two workouts have to be the same � but you�ll get sweaty and fit with each round. We�ll call this one smash HIIT.
Infographic: Mallory Creveling / Life by Daily Burn
To warm up before you dive in, do a series of dynamic stretches and a few high jumps. After you HIIT it, cool down with a solid stretch of all major muscle groups. Rosante suggests holding each one for at least 3 to 5 deep breathes.
Standing Mountain Climbers
Start standing, arms bent at your chest, palms facing away from your body. Drive your right knee up toward your chest as you straighten your left arm toward the ceiling. Quickly switch to bring your left knee toward your chest and right hand toward the ceiling. Continue alternating.
Start in a high plank position. Without piking or dropping your hips, bend your elbows and lower your chest to the ground. Then push back up to a plank.
Speed Squats
Start with feet a little wider than hip-distance apart, toes pointed slightly outward. Drive your hips back and butt toward the ground to perform a low squat. Jump back up and bring your feet together. Then jump back into a wide squat position.
4-Point Plankers
Start in a high plank position with feet together. Jump your feet to the left side of your left hand, then hop them back to the plank position. Next, jump your feet to the right side of your right hand, then back to the plank position. Hop your feet between your hands, then back to the plank position. Finally, jump your feet wide, placing one on either side of your hands. Then return to the plank position. Continue jumping to each point, keeping your hands on the ground the whole time.
Start standing. Place your hands on the ground, wrists underneath shoulders and jump your feet back to high plank position. Drop your chest to the ground. Then, without arching your back, push yourself back up and jump your feet back up to your hands. Explode off the ground to perform a hop at the top.
High Plank Punches
Start in a high plank position. Keeping your hips still, punch your right arm out straight in front of you. Then your left. Continue alternating.
Run in place (or on a treadmill or track) as fast as you can, pumping your arms for more power.
Y-W-T Holds
Lie on your stomach, arms straight out in front of you. Lift your legs and arms off the ground, with your arms to a Y position. Hold for a few seconds, then lower back down. Lift your legs and arms off the ground again. This time pull your elbows back and shoulder blades together so your arms form a W. Hold for a few seconds then extend your arms again and lower back down. Lift your legs and arms off the ground another time, this time moving your arms into a T position with elbows straight and arms out to the sides. Lower back down and repeat from the Y.
Former Miner Kent Taylor will be heading to San Francisco, for a mini-camp tryout with the 49ers. Taylor is the seventh Miner to be heading to an NFL camp and the second tight end from UTEP.
Taylor transferred to UTEP from Kansas and played in all 12 contests during the 2016 season. The senior added depth to the tight end core catching eight passes for 50 yards.
Taylor hauled in a season-long 19-yard reception on a 3rd-and-8 play that helped lead the Miners’ first touchdown during a 5OT win at UTSA.
Prior to UTEP, Taylor played in 11 games at Kansas and was the leading tight end with 15 catches for 179 yards and a score.
Correcting your posture does feel difficult and challenging at first because your body has become habitual of sitting or standing in that wrong posture. Here we tell you 5 exercises to help
Postural problems are the common cause of concern these days and the culprits here are desk jobs and our addiction to smartphones. Experts say that correcting your posture does feel difficult and challenging at first because your body has become habitual of sitting or standing in that wrong posture. However, a bit of practice, consistency and determination can facilitate the task and later your body will definitely thank you for this correction. Desk hunch (when you feel pain in your upper back after sitting at a computer all day) and text neck (the neck pain and damage sustained from looking down at your smartphone) are the two most prevalent postural problems these days.
Over time, both these problems contribute to you developing a rounded upper back, which can cause shoulder and upper back stiffness. However, practicing the below-mentioned stretches and workouts can turn your saviour here. The list includes upper back, neck and rear shoulder strengthening exercises, chest stretches and neck posture drills.
Seated rows: This workout emphasises muscles around the back including the lats, the erector spine, rear delts, biceps, and forearm flexors.
Pull-ups: If you are new at this exercise, then using a chin assist machine is the way to practice it. These machines use weight to help you push your bodyweight.
T-Spine Mobility in Child’s Pose: This pose stretches the lower back, tones the abdominal organs, and stimulates digestion and elimination.
Lat Hang: It alleviates the tight lats, pecs, upper back, and opens up the shoulder girdle prior to upper-body pushing or pulling movements.
Prone Y extension: It rotates your shoulders outward, stretches your abdomen, chest, and strengthens your lower back extensor muscles, along with the upper back muscles.
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