This Week in Bowie State Athletics

For complete team schedules, visit www.bsubulldogs.com

Saturday, September 6               Cross Country at McDaniel College                                                               9:45 am

                                                            (Westminster, MD)

                                                            Football hosts Saint Anselm College                                                     1 pm

                                                            (Bulldogs Stadium)

                                                            Community / BSU Faculty and Staff Day

                                                            For ticket information, call (301) 860-3793

                                                            Volleyball vs. American International College                                    2 pm

                                                            (Played at East Stroudsburg (PA) Univ.)

                                                            Volleyball vs. Fairmont State University                                              6 pm

                                                            (Played at East Stroudsburg (PA) Univ.)

Sunday, September 7                  Volleyball at East Stroudsburg University                                           12 pm

                                                            (East Stroudsburg, PA)

                                                            Volleyball vs. Le Moyne College                                                             2 pm

                                                            (Played at East Stroudsburg (PA) Univ.)

A Favorite Food of the American South Zaps Breast Cancer Cells

It’s not known exactly how okra seeds came to the U.S., but the vegetable stems from Africa. Some believe it came via the slave trade in the 1600s. Others think it was brought by traders from Mediterranean ports.

Either way, okra became popular in the American South (and elsewhere, too) -- and it’s a good thing, because it has striking health benefits.

Read more...

How Your Body Responds To Exercise

The more you know about exercise and the different intensities, the better you can apply these principles. At US Sports Online Strength and Conditioning, we design and deliver customized workouts to take advantage of the different applications of exercise and varying intensities. 

-Nate

When you lace up your exercise shoes and head out the door for your morning walk, or push off from the wall of your favorite swimming pool, you're responding to the orders of your conscious brain to move your muscles in a more vigorous way. As soon as those movements begin, however, a number of rapid, automatic changes also occur throughout your body.

Your working muscles immediately start to burn more energy to fuel their contractions. They do this by stepping up the conversion of oxygen and nutrients into ATP (the fuel that all cells run on) inside each individual muscle cell.

During sustained, aerobic activity, like a brisk walk or steady running, your working muscles might use 15 to 25 times more energy than they do at rest, burning carbohydrates and stored fat in about a 50-50 mix. During an intense, short anaerobic effort, such as running a 100-yard dash or sprinting the length of the swimming pool, your muscles may require up to 120 times more energy than at rest!

Your heart immediately begins to beat faster in order to pump more blood to your muscles and other body tissues. During vigorous exercise, your heartbeat may rise to 150 beats per minute or more (compared with 70 or 80 heartbeats per minute at rest, for the average person).

Why this happens: As soon you start a physical activity, nerve receptors in your blood vessels, muscles and joints signal your sympathetic nervous system to release epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) into your bloodstream. These quickly act to speed up your heartbeat. The brain's cortex also contributes to this speeding up, in fact, scientists have found that people's heartbeats begin to beat faster even before they start to exercise, as the brain anticipates what's about to happen.

Whereas the average heart pumps about five liters of blood per minute at rest, the amount may increase to 20 liters per minute during vigorous exercise. (The hearts of trained endurance athletes have been measured to pump as much as 40 liters in a minute!)

Your blood vessels also go through rapid changes when you start exercising. Stimulated by nerve and chemical signals, the walls of the arteries leading to your working muscles relax, causing the arteries to widen. At the same time, peripheral veins constrict, forcing more blood into your central circulation. The smaller arterioles leading to your muscle fibers also widen, and millions of dormant capillaries (which feed blood directly to the fibers) open up. (At rest, only about one in every 30 capillaries is open.)

The result of all these changes is a vastly increased flow of blood (along with the all-important oxygen and nutrients it carries) to your exercising muscles, including your heart muscle, which receives several times more blood flow than it does at rest. This blood flow is maximized when each muscle relaxes, and then stops as it contracts, creating a "milking" action that helps pump blood throughout your body as you move.

Increased blood flow to the skin during light and moderate exercise provides an enhanced cooling effect (you'll start sweating more heavily, as well). Meanwhile, blood flow is temporarily shunted away from the kidneys, liver, digestive system and other organs not directly involved in exercise.

Your lungs also begin breathing faster and more deeply, supplying your body with more oxygen. This response results from a wide array of stimuli, including a rise in blood carbon dioxide (the by-product of utilizing more oxygen), increased body temperature and messages sent from chemoreceptors in your body's periphery.

At rest, about 12 pints of air pass in and out of the average person's lungs every minute. During vigorous exercise, this rate may increase to as much as 200 pints per minute.

Your metabolic rate,which depends on how many calories you're burning, goes up anywhere from four to 20 times your resting metabolic rate, depending on how hard you exercise.

LIU Post Narrow Favorite to Capture ECC Volleyball Championship

Central Islip, N.Y. - In a tightly contested vote, LIU Post came in two points ahead of Bridgeport as the coaches’ favorite in the 2014 East Coast Conference Volleyball Preseason Poll. Bridgeport’s Biljana Savic (Novi Sad, Serbia) a senior outside hitter/setter has been named the Preseason Player of the Year.

LIU Post finished with four first place votes and 75 points to top the poll. Last season, the Pioneers earned the program's first-ever berth into the NCAA Division II Elite Eight by winning the East Region Championship. LIU Post returns seven players from the squad that finished with a 25-10 record and ranked No. 25 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Top 25 poll last season.

Bridgeport, who won their second straight ECC title in 2013, also received four first place votes in the preseason poll but finished two points behind LIU Post for the top spot. The Purple Knights, who finished the season with a 22-3 overall record and a 15-1 ECC mark, advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the sixth straight year. Gary Mullin, who takes over for reigning ECC Coach of the Year, Leo Uzcategui, returns a talented roster with only two players and one starter gone from the Purple Knights' 2013 roster.

Daemen and New York Institute of Technology received 55 points to come in a tie for third in the poll. Daemen, who is not yet eligible for a conference championship berth as NCAA Provisional members, had a successful first year in the ECC. The Wildcats finished with a 23-10 record and a 10-6 mark in ECC play that would have qualified them for the ECC Championship if eligible. NYIT, who made their third straight NCAA Tournament appearance last season, tied for third despite a huge turnover. The Bears lost seven seniors from last year's roster and only return five players in 2014.

Dowling, who comes in at No. 5 with 50 points, received the final first place vote following a season which also ended up with their 12th straight trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Savic earns the Preseason Player of the Year honor after capturing the conference's Player of the Year award last season. The three-time All-Conference First Team selection was a versatile player for the Purple Knights, excelling both as a setter and an outside hitter. She finished in the top 10 in the ECC with a .260 hitting percentage, 578 assists, and 5.90 assists per set. She also finished the season with eight triple-doubles, including two in one week to be named the AVCA Division II National Player of the Week.

2014 ECC Volleyball Preseason Poll
School                         Pts.       2013 Record
1. LIU Post (4)               75         25-10 (11-5 ECC)
2. Bridgeport (4)             73         22-3 (15-1 ECC)
T3. Daemen                   55         23-10 (10-6 ECC)
T3. NYIT                        55         27-7 (12-4 ECC)
5. Dowling (1)                 50         19-14 (10-6 ECC)
6. Roberts Wesleyan      39         12-17 (5-11 ECC)
7. Molloy                        24         9-20 (3-13 ECC)
8. Queens                      21         10-14 (4-12 ECC)
9. Mercy                        13         11-20 (2-14 ECC)

( ) – first place votes

***********************************
About the ECC

Founded as the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference in 1989 and rechristened the East Coast Conference in July 2006, the ECC was formed to enhance intercollegiate athletic competition among member institutions and to assist them in integrating athletics into their academic program in a fiscally sound way. The ECC is committed to the highest standards of scholarship, sportsmanship, teamwork, and citizenship. Its mission is to promote the total person concept in its student-athletes, which stresses the abilities to excel in academic achievement, athletic competition, and positive character traits. East Coast Conference members include: University of Bridgeport (Bridgeport, Conn.); University of the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.); Daemen College (Amherst, N.Y.); Dowling College (Oakdale, N.Y.); LIU Post (Brookville, N.Y.); Mercy College (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.); Molloy College (Rockville Centre, N.Y.); New York Institute of Technology (Old Westbury, N.Y.); Queens College (Flushing, N.Y.); Roberts Wesleyan College (Rochester, N.Y.) and St. Thomas Aquinas College (Sparkill, N.Y.). Associate Members include: Chestnut Hill College (Philadelphia, Pa.), Dominican College (Orangeburg, N.Y.), and Georgian Court University (Lakewood, N.J.).

The ECC sponsors the following championship sports: baseball; men’s and women’s basketball; men’s and women’s cross country; men’s and women’s lacrosse; softball; men’s and women’s tennis; men’s and women’s indoor track and field; men’s and women’s outdoor track and field; men’s and women’s soccer; and women’s volleyball.

The East Coast Conference is a proud member of the NCAA and Division II. Division II is a dynamic and engaging group of colleges, institutions and conferences of varying sizes and educational missions. Division II members encourage and support diversity; value sportsmanship, fairness and equity; and place the highest priority on the overall educational excellence of the student-athlete.

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MoCo Ripken Players Hit Home Run for Manna

Manna Food Executive Director, Jackie DeCarlo, presents the Feed the Hungry Challenge Trophy to Homer. On Saturday July 12, nearly 80 college baseball players from across the county collected 3,940 pounds of food -- nearly two tons -- for the Manna Food Center. The Bethesda Big Train won the Fifth Annual Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League's Feed the Hungry Challenge by collecting 1,198 pounds of food. The Rockville Express collected the most at a single Giant Food Store with 999 pounds. Players from the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts and the Gaithersburg Giants also contributed to the nearly two tons of food collected. In the five years of the competition, the college players have collected 21,622 pounds of food -- more than ten tons of food for Montgomery County's neighbors in need. Thanks to Manna Food Center, Giant Food, the Gazette, and Text Design for supporting this community service program of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League. Jackie DeCarlo with the Big Train and Express before their July 12 game. Here's the history of the Feed the Hungry Challenge over all five years (TOTAL: 21,622 pounds): 2014 - July 12 Bethesda 1,198 Silver Spring-Takoma 1,084 Rockville 999* Gaithersburg 659 TOTAL: 3,940 pounds * Note that Rockville was denied access to one of two stores 2013 - July 13 Rockville 1,858 Bethesda 964 Gaithersburg 890 Silver Spring-Takoma 850 TOTAL: 4,562 pounds 2012 - July 7 Silver Spring-Takoma 1,863 Rockville 1,621 Bethesda 1,356 TOTAL: 4,840 pounds 2011 - June 18 Rockville 1,660 Bethesda 1,562 Silver Spring-Takoma 1,432 TOTAL: 4,654 pounds 2010 - June 12 Rockville 1,658 Bethesda 1,166 Silver Spring-Takoma 802 TOTAL: 3,626 pounds

Feature Exercise

Barbell Front Lunge Place the bar across your shoulders and trapezius muscles. Step forward 2.5 to 3.5 feet and drop straight down. Try to keep your forward knee above your foot as you lower your body down as far as is comfortable to you, or until your front thigh is parallel to the ground. If your knee moves out in front of your foot you will increase the stimulus to the frontal quadriceps muscles of your leg, but you will also greatly increase the stress to your knee joint. Maintain good posture throughout the lift. Exhale as your push off the front leg and return to the starting position. This is an excellent exercise for developing the muscles in your buttocks and thigh area. View a video of this exercise

If it's time to get serious about your fitness, you need a structured program. I'll tailor a program specific to your goals and abilities, that will contain:
Fully customized workouts, listing: exercises, sets, reps and weights. Exercise videos and descriptions demonstrating proper technique for every exercise. A built in feedback system and email contact with me anytime.
Using the world's most powerful online training tool I can design and deliver a 12-week fitness programfully customized to your personal fitness goals, abilities, and schedule.
For more information about my background, fee structure and how to get started, go to: US Sports Strength and Conditioning . Just fill out the brief contact form if you would like to get started. Contact Me: Nathan Lewis CSCS US Sports Strength and Conditioning
US Sports Strength and Conditioning