No-Sweat Workout
Soon it will be cold enough in Vermont to do “no-sweat” workouts.
The good thing about not sweating when exercising is that one can save time on changing and showering. . . .
The bad thing about not sweating when exercising is that one’s liver and kidneys have to process all the metabolic waste produced by the exercise.
This is a sample of a short no-sweat workout. It was recorded in the fall of last year. It shows one of exercises I do to rehab my destroyed right shoulder.
I am using puny weights here because this is a rehab and I have a long way to go before I will be able to use my normal, heavier weights.
On a more serious note:
One of our authors and my friend, Piotr Drabik, has disappeared in September of 2006 after he landed on the island of Kaua’i, Hawaii, where he was seen on airport security cameras. He arrived there from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada), through Salt Lake City, Utah, and Honolulu, Hawaii. We (his friends at Stadion Publishing) were assisting in the investigation of his disappearance. The investigation was ineffective and eventually the case was dropped by all involved authorities.If you have seen him on or after September of 2006, or know anything about his whereabouts, please e-mail us at infoATstadionDOTcom.
More about Piotr Drabik and his disappearance is at http://www.stadion.com/author_drabikp.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | 4 Comments
Tags: exercises, kettlebells, no-sweat workout, Piotr Drabik, shoulder rehab, Thomas Kurz, weights
Honest Health Care Reform
Several progressive groups call for a boycott of Whole Foods and resignation of Whole Foods CEO, John Mackey. This is because John Mackey wrote about simple and inexpensive solutions to the health care problem in the U.S.A.
Solutions he listed would lower the costs of health care to taxpayers and to patients, and limit government involvement in it. Well, that is a blasphemy! How dare he point out the obvious facts?! What gall! Off with his head!
But seriously, if intentions of these progressive groups are pure why such hostility toward John Mackey? I guess it is because he makes a good argument. Read it here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html
And some more articles, from other writers, that state the obvious:
http://www.consumercenteredhealthcare.com/
Request for help:
One of our authors and my friend, Piotr Drabik, has disappeared in September of 2006 after he landed on the island of Kaua’i, Hawaii, where he was seen on airport security cameras. He arrived there from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada), through Salt Lake City, Utah, and Honolulu, Hawaii. We (his friends at Stadion Publishing) were assisting in the investigation of his disappearance. The investigation was ineffective and eventually the case was dropped by all involved authorities.
If you have seen him on or after September of 2006, or know anything about his whereabouts, please e-mail us at infoATstadionDOTcom.
More about Piotr Drabik and his disappearance is at http://www.stadion.com/author_drabikp.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | 4 Comments
Tags: health care reform, John Mackey, Whole Foods
Injuries happen even to the best trained athletes. One day you too may need to see a specialist or have a surgery. . . . So you want to buy medical insurance . . . and here begin politics. . . .
Medical insurance is too expensive and going without it is too expensive—because of politicians. Not because of the actual cost of the medical treatments, or insurance cost based on your risks. See for yourself. . . .
First, how politicians have increased the insurance cost beyond reach of many Americans.
Downsize DC shows how on the example of the state of New York, where politicians mandated the medical insurance covers:
* Maternity (even if you are a single male)
* Infertility treatments (even if you don’t want a family)
* Alcoholism therapy (even you don’t drink)
In New York state, if you buy insurance, the law forces you to pay for such things.
Other states are worse.
More at downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/113
and at
downsizedc.org/blog/you’ll+regret+it+for+the+rest+of+your+shortened+life
Second, a story on the actual medical costs.
I had a big surgery on my shoulder. The surgery was covered by my insurance, but I got a copy of the hospital bill for my records. Total charges for the surgery, hospital stay, and so on, came up to $18,335.00. On the bill there are five columns, and the last three deal with charges, payments and adjustments, and patient balance (what I am still due).
In those three columns the bottom line amounts are:
Total Charges 18,335.00
Total Payments 7,134.70
Total Adjustments 11,200.30 (this is the discount the hospital gives to the insurance company)
Amount Due 0.00
All that means that the hospital is perfectly satisfied with the $7,134.70—it covers the expenses of the whole surgery and the hospital’s profit. But if I didn’t have the insurance I would have to pay $18,335.00. Now, imagine what if the hospital charged everybody the same low price. . . . I would not buy insurance coverage for orthopedic or sports injuries, because I could save up enough to cover such accidents, instead of paying several times that much in insurance premiums every year. I would like to buy insurance for truly catastrophic emergencies (a serious illness, a massive injury). Many others would likely do the same, and so insurance companies would have to lower their premiums to make their offer attractive and the health insurance crisis would be solved (assuming no government interference).
Why do you think we don’t hear about such solution from U.S Congress and U.S. President?
Read more, scratch your head, and you will see why. Here is the “more”:
money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news/economy/health_care_reform_obama. . . .
downsizedc.org/blog/will+you+be+nationalized
www.independent.org/blog/?cat=11
Request for help:
One of our authors and my friend, Piotr Drabik, has disappeared in September of 2006 after he landed on the island of Kaua’i, Hawaii, where he was seen on airport security cameras. He arrived there from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada), through Salt Lake City, Utah, and Honolulu, Hawaii. We (his friends at Stadion Publishing) were assisting in the investigation of his disappearance. The investigation was ineffective and eventually the case was dropped by all involved authorities.
If you have seen him on or after September of 2006, or know anything about his whereabouts, please e-mail us at infoATstadionDOTcom.
More about Piotr Drabik and his disappearance is at http://www.stadion.com/author_drabikp.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | 6 Comments
Tags: health care reform, medical insurance, sports injuries
“Scientists have long known they could increase the lifespan of mice, and [...] worms, flies—with deep, long-term cuts from normal consumption.” (Monkeys live longer on low-cal diet; would humans? by Lauran Neergaard AP Medical Writer | July 9, 2009)
Question: How normal is a laboratory animal’s “normal consumption” when compared to a free animal’s consumption? How does a laboratory chow for rhesus monkeys compare to their natural diet—leaf for leaf, bug for bug, fruit for fruit?
In a study headed by Dr. Richard Weindruch, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, 76 rhesus monkeys were fed “a normal diet of captive monkey, a special vitamin-enriched chow plus some fruit treats.” Half the monkeys had their chow intake cut by 30 percent. So far, 13 percent of the monkeys in the cut-chow intake have died of age-related diseases versus 37 percent of the monkeys on the regular diet.
Also, the monkeys on the lower-calorie diet (less chow) had “less than half the incidence of cancerous tumors or heart disease of the monkeys who ate normally [had their fill of chow—TK].”
Question: Is it really only the calorie restriction that made the monkeys healthier or is the lab chow so vile, the more they eat it, the sooner they die?
Request for help:
One of our authors and my friend, Piotr Drabik, has disappeared in September of 2006 after he landed on the island of Kaua’i, Hawaii, where he was seen on airport security cameras. He arrived there from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada), through Salt Lake City, Utah, and Honolulu, Hawaii. We (his friends at Stadion Publishing) were assisting in the investigation of his disappearance. The investigation was ineffective and eventually the case was dropped by all involved authorities.
If you have seen him on or after September of 2006, or know anything about his whereabouts, please e-mail us at infoATstadionDOTcom.
More about Piotr Drabik and his disappearance is at http://www.stadion.com/author_drabikp.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | 6 Comments
Tags: calorie restriction, lower-calorie diet, rhesus monkeys, Thomas Kurz
Recently someone asked me this question on losing weight:
Mr. Kurz, I am coming off a 7 year break. Back in the day I was very flexible (but lacked your kind of strength). I damaged my meniscus cartilage (push from the outside in) and stopped training.
I have gained a considerable amount of weight, and would like to know if you the material I have will point me in the right direction, or if you had any suggestions on losing weight.
I have Stretching Scientifically, Science of Sports Training (not having read yet but looked through a bit), and 4 of your DVDs, Secrets of Stretching, Power High Kicks with No Warm-Up!, Clinic on Stretching and Kicking, and the Basic Instincts of Self-Defense.
Thank you very much…
Pete
My answer:
I presume that when you say “gained a considerable amount of weight” you mean that you gained fat weight. I make this presumption because you say that you stopped training and then that you want a suggestion “on losing weight.”
Well, I am not interested in the weight-loss business. I eat so to perform up to my standards, both mentally and physically. I don’t eat stuff that would mess up my metabolism and make me store fat instead of using it as fuel (more on it later). Here are some truths on nutrition to guide you:
When you eat the right foods in right proportions you don’t get fat.
A good meal (good foods, right proportions) energizes, a bad meal stupefies.
Gaining fat is done by shutting off metabolic pathways for use of fat as the main energy source. When those pathways are shut off, the fat—both the consumed fat and the fat made from consumed carbs—is stored. This shutting off is done by eating stupefying meals.
If the above are hard to remember here is a simple ditty:
If it is sweet it is s**t. Don’t eat s**t. Unfortunately, not all s**t is sweet.
And yes, the material you have will point you in the right direction. That material is in chapter 4, “Nutrition” of Science of Sports Training.
More reading at
Listen To Your Body!
http://blog.zeroinginonhealth.com/?p=1009
Diet, Nutrition and Health
http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.com/2009/06/diet-nutrition-and-health.html
PaNu
paleolithic nutrition – duplicating the evolutionary metabolic milieu
http://www.paleonu.com/get-started/
Request for help:
One of our authors and my friend, Piotr Drabik, has disappeared in September of 2006 after he landed on the island of Kaua’i, Hawaii, where he was seen on airport security cameras. He arrived there from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada), through Salt Lake City, Utah, and Honolulu, Hawaii. We (his friends at Stadion Publishing) were assisting in the investigation of his disappearance. The investigation was ineffective and eventually the case was dropped by all involved authorities.
If you have seen him on or after September of 2006, or know anything about his whereabouts, please e-mail us at infoATstadionDOTcom.
More about Piotr Drabik and his disappearance is at http://www.stadion.com/author_drabikp.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: carbs, fat, losing weight, nutrition, sports training, Thomas Kurz, weight-loss
One reader wrote me an e-mail with questions:
> I have owned your books Science of Sports Training and Stretching
> Scientifically for many years as well as your DVD’s Secrets of
> Stretching and Clinic on Stretching. Due to my own misunderstanding and
> bad practices at martial arts schools I have attended I have never made
> the progress I wished on my flexibility and conditioning. More recently
> I have been training at a good martial arts school in the arts of MMA
> and BJJ. I am looking for the best way to organize my workouts to get
> the best results.
>
> My training apart from that done in class, has to consist of power
> training, strength endurance training, flexibility and cardiovascular
> endurance. Regarding the strength training I am having trouble. Is it
> best to have power training, strength training and endurance training in
> separate workouts? I understand the idea of doing high rep endurance
> exercise after the higher intensity strength training, and was wondering
> if this is the best way to go. I am trying to fit the power workouts as
> well as the strength workouts into my week, to of course get the best
> results with the best recovery. Also I do find that if I do high rep
> exercises after my heavy strength workouts in the same workout, it
> becomes a rather long workout. I am keen to increase my strength and get
> an increase in my kicking power and performance as well as the long
> awaited suspended splits once I have prepared my body better this time.
>
> Are you able to point me in the right direction with my workouts please?
> I know my understanding of the material is limited and that is what I am
> trying to rectify.
My answers:
First, think how good really is your new martial arts school if you have to design your conditioning program and do it on your own. Considering that in m.a. conditioning in itself is an essential weapon. . . .
> Regarding the strength training I am having trouble. Is it best
> to have power training, strength training and endurance training
> in separate workouts?
Yes, but explosive power exercises may be done in a strength workout. It depends on specifics of your power exercises and your strength exercises.
> I understand the idea of doing high rep endurance exercise after
> the higher intensity strength training, and was wondering if this
> is the best way to go. I am trying to fit the power workouts as
> well as the strength workouts into my week, to of course get the
> best results with the best recovery.
Information on sequences of workouts in a week is on pages 69-72 in Science of Sports Training.
> Also I do find that if I do high rep exercises after my heavy strength
> workouts in the same workout, it becomes a rather long workout.
To keep your workouts brief you need to be selective about your exercises and periodize your training.
Do only those exercises that give you most benefit in the least workout time. So, for any two exercises with a similar purpose: If doing A improves your performance in B, but doing B does not improve your performance in A, then drop B. Test effectiveness of your exercises periodically. Drop some off your schedule and do their alternates for say 2-4 weeks, and then measure your performance in those dropped exercises. If it has improved, then perhaps you don’t need them. To make sure, you can test again switching those exercises.
Also keep in mind what I wrote in one of my previous posts:
You say you need to work on power, strength, strength endurance, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility. While you may need to work on all those abilities all year round, the amount of time and effort that you dedicate to each should change. That is what periodization is about.
Having read Science of Sports Training you must know that to work on power or explosive strength one has to have a sufficient maximal strength (for more info and exact numbers see pages 156-161 in SST). If you don’t have that maximal strength don’t do explosive power work. If you do have the sufficient maximal strength, then just maintain it, which takes less workout time than building it. The same goes for other abilities. Read about periodization in Science of Sports Training.
BTW, flexibility takes just a few minutes a day to develop and then to maintain—if one uses a rational training method—so the time it adds to a workout is negligible.
Request for help:
One of our authors and my friend, Piotr Drabik, has disappeared in September of 2006 after he landed on the island of Kaua’i, Hawaii, where he was seen on airport security cameras. He arrived there from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada), through Salt Lake City, Utah, and Honolulu, Hawaii. We (his friends at Stadion Publishing) were assisting in the investigation of his disappearance. The investigation was ineffective and eventually the case was dropped by all involved authorities.
If you have seen him on or after September of 2006, or know anything about his whereabouts, please e-mail us at infoATstadionDOTcom.
More about Piotr Drabik and his disappearance is at http://www.stadion.com/author_drabikp.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: BJJ, conditioning program, endurance training, explosive strength, Flexibility, martial arts school, maximal strength, mma, periodization, power training, Science of Sports Training, strength, strength training, Thomas Kurz, workout
In its July 2009 issue, the Black Belt magazine published my article on stretching. The article got a sloppy edit. If you have read it (say, in the course of researching the m.a. market), you probably wondered why would I have written such a disorganized piece. I would not.
Here is the real deal:
In this article I will dispel three common misconceptions about flexibility training:
- That most people can’t do splits because their hips are too tight (Not!)
- That static stretches, such as attempts at doing splits, should be done during a warm-up to increase range of motion and prevent injuries (Not!)
- That it takes a long time to achieve great flexibility (Not!)
Read more at http://www.stadion.com/stretching_splits.html.
Request for help:
One of our authors and my friend, Piotr Drabik, has disappeared in September of 2006 after he landed on the island of Kaua’i, Hawaii, where he was seen on airport security cameras. He arrived there from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada), through Salt Lake City, Utah, and Honolulu, Hawaii. We (his friends at Stadion Publishing) were assisting in the investigation of his disappearance. The investigation was ineffective and eventually the case was dropped by all involved authorities.
If you have seen him on or after September of 2006, or know anything about his whereabouts, please e-mail us at infoATstadionDOTcom.
More about Piotr Drabik and his disappearance is at http://www.stadion.com/author_drabikp.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Tags: Flexibility, splits, strength, stretching, Thomas Kurz, warm-up
A good idea can be turned into a fad by mindless followers. Mindful people use whatever tools they come across to their best advantage because they understand each tool’s function and use it accordingly. Fad followers adopt a tool not because it is appropriate for them but because others are using it.
An example: A strength coach who trains both American football players and combat athletes (mostly wrestlers) has them work with a big tire. They laboriously lift the tire, then flip it, then slowly lift it again . . . and so on. They could get a similar exercise effect by lifting a barbell or a log. But flipping big tires is in fashion, so the coach has them flip the tire. It doesn’t dawn on him what the essential difference is between the tire and those other weights: The athlete can safely push the tire over after lifting it up. The faster and more dynamic the switch from pull to push, the better. Further, the tire has a bounce to it, so when flipped with enough power, its near side will come up off the ground. This is why flipping the big tire is appropriate for developing explosive power and the ability to apply it in a quick succession of movements. Ideally, the tire should be in constant motion: an explosive lift flowing into an explosive push, immediately followed by an explosive lift, and so on. If the tire is too big for such use, then a lighter one should be used (there are ways of making tires lighter, too). This training method of flipping a tire is functional for American football and wrestling. But for those whose goal is to increase strength and not power, simple deadlifts can be done more conveniently and safely with a bar.
Another example: A fellow exercises with kettlebells that are too heavy for him to move correctly. Specifically, he does renegade rows with kettlebells so heavy that he can’t keep his spine from bending, which destabilizes his shoulder blades. So he develops neither strong shoulders and arms nor core stability.
Yet another example: A mixed martial arts instructor does a kettlebell clean and press. He doesn’t know how to use his core and hips (and the kettlebell’s shape) to rack it correctly, so he arches his trunk under the kettlebell. That weakens his core instead of strengthening it. Then he performs the press with the trunk arching, which causes poor shoulder mechanics.
With such wrong movement form, the strength gains will stop well short of the potential. And with repeated practice, the wrong coordination will be instilled. Correcting that will take time, effort, and understanding, which is missing.
By the way, standard lifts such as the deadlift, clean and jerk, and snatch are easier to learn with a kettlebell than with a barbell—but you still have to know the essential points of their form. Now a question: What is the one feature of kettlebells that makes learning those lifts easier with a kettlebell than with a barbell?
Conclusion: Fad followers adopt new, fashionable tools without understanding the connection between their form and function. Then they drop them for some other new things that in their hands will be equally ineffective.
Request for help:
One of our authors and my friend, Piotr Drabik, has disappeared in September of 2006 after he landed on the island of Kaua’i, Hawaii, where he was seen on airport security cameras. He arrived there from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada), through Salt Lake City, Utah, and Honolulu, Hawaii. We (his friends at Stadion Publishing) were assisting in the investigation of his disappearance. The investigation was ineffective and eventually the case was dropped by all involved authorities.
If you have seen him on or after September of 2006, or know anything about his whereabouts, please e-mail us at infoATstadionDOTcom.
More about Piotr Drabik and his disappearance is at http://www.stadion.com/author_drabikp.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments
Tags: american football, clean and jerk, clean and press, combat athletes, deadlift, explosive power, kettlebells, mixed martial arts, mma, snatch, tire flips, wrestling
“A spoonful of sugar may help your health—and even your workout.
“An Ohio State University study of female rowers found that those who consumed dextrose (a naturally occurring sugar found in syrups and jellies) improved their rowing times nearly threefold [actually, shaved off three times as many seconds off their 2000 m, i.e., 15.2 sec vs 5.2 sec—TK], significantly more than those who ate ribose, a sugar often used in performance supplements. Why? `Dextrose requires minimal digestion and can be used by the muscles quickly as an energy source,’ says Fitness advisory board member Leslie J. Bonci, R.D., director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.”
This mysterious dextrose, “a naturally occurring sugar found in syrups and jellies”, is also found in common table sugar as well as in all starchy foods—after all dextrose is another name for the only naturally occurring form of glucose, i.e., blood sugar. . . . That is why “Dextrose requires minimal digestion and can be used by the muscles quickly as an energy source.” So don’t wonder how it got into a jelly jar or some syrup—it got there with a heap of table sugar (which is composed in equal parts of glucose and fructose).
Then, after revealing the benefits of dextrose, erh, glucose, the editors of Fitness Magazine proceed to warn against eating table sugar (which breaks down in stomach to glucose and fructose) as it makes one look old, causes inflammation, and suppresses the immune system—all very true.
Now, about that Ohio State University study: Why not compare performance of rowers on glucose vs rowers on a high fat snack, say composed according to the Paleo diet or Optimal diet? That would be interesting.
Request for help:
One of our authors and my friend, Piotr Drabik, has disappeared in September of 2006 after he landed on the island of Kaua’i, Hawaii, where he was seen on airport security cameras. He arrived there from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada), through Salt Lake City, Utah, and Honolulu, Hawaii. We (his friends at Stadion Publishing) were assisting in the investigation of his disappearance. The investigation was ineffective and eventually the case was dropped by all involved authorities.
If you have seen him on or after September of 2006, or know anything about his whereabouts, please e-mail us at infoATstadionDOTcom.
More about Piotr Drabik and his disappearance is at http://www.stadion.com/author_drabikp.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Tags: dextrose, Fitness Magazine, glucose, sugar
“You can observe a lot by watching”—Yogi Berra
Here are my thoughts on the dispute between proponents of separation of strength training from skill training vs proponents of integration of strength and skill training (i.e., progression of strength exercises from general to increasingly sport-specific with parallel technical training). Let’s begin with easily observable facts:
At any stage of training, those exercises that address the greatest deficit are the most effective (duh…).
Beginners have deficits of both general strength and of skill, so they improve with training that addresses either one or both of these areas. (However, if they neglect general strength, their skill training is likely to eventually hurt them. If they neglect skill training, they will perform poorly and may get hurt too.)
Another fact: Beginners improve with nearly any exercise program. The question is, for how long, i.e., how far below their potential will they stop improving?
Advanced athletes have both great general strength (just look at, for example, pro baseball players) and excellent skill. At some time in a career of a player comes a stage when increasing general strength does not carry over to improved performance, and practicing pure skill more (more reps) is not feasible. That is when the sport-specific strength and sport-specific speed exercises help. So says experience of millions of athletes trained in East European-style programs and of thousands of their coaches who tried many different ways of getting better results.
The bottom line: When in doubt, refer to everyday observations. An accurate observation is never wrong.
***
For those who don’t know what are sport-specific strength exercises:
Sport-specific strength exercises are very similar to the skill (in their intermuscular and intramuscular coordination) but provide an overload so the athlete can do more in fewer reps. Here are two quotes with examples of sport-specific strength exercises:
Science of Sports Training p. 171:
Six weeks of practicing volleyball spikes with a 1-lb. weighted glove increased the velocity of the players’ spike. . . .
Science of Sports Training p. 172:
The intermuscular and intramuscular coordination in throwing a 1.5 kg (3.3 lb.) ball using the technique of a javelin throw without a prerun is the same as in throwing a 0.8 kg (1.75 lb.) javelin. In throwing a 4 kg (8.8 lb.) ball in the same fashion, the external form resembles the javelin throw, but the muscular coordination registered by an EMG (Electromyograph) is different. The throw with a 1.5 kg ball can be used as a sport-specific strength exercise, but the throw of a heavier ball—up to 4 kg depending on athletic level—may be used only as a directed strength exercise by javelin throwers below the stage of maximal realization of their potential (Wazny 1992b).
More about sport-specific strength exercises at:
http://tomkurz.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/super-slow/#comment-54
http://tomkurz.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/super-slow/#comment-61
Request for help:
One of our authors and my friend, Piotr Drabik, has disappeared in September of 2006 after he landed on the island of Kaua’i, Hawaii, where he was seen on airport security cameras. He arrived there from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada), through Salt Lake City, Utah, and Honolulu, Hawaii. We (his friends at Stadion Publishing) were assisting in the investigation of his disappearance. The investigation was ineffective and eventually the case was dropped by all involved authorities.
If you have seen him on or after September of 2006, or know anything about his whereabouts, please e-mail us at infoATstadionDOTcom.
More about Piotr Drabik and his disappearance is at http://www.stadion.com/author_drabikp.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Tags: skill training, sport-specific strength exercises, strength training, super slow
Recent Entries
- No-Sweat Workout
- Honest Health Care Reform
- Sports Injuries and Health Care Politics
- Monkeys Eat Less, Live Longer—But Why?
- On Losing Weight and On Eating for Performance—Short and….
- So Many Exercises, So Little Time
- Three Misconceptions About Stretching and Flexibility
- On Kettlebells and Tire Flips: Or When Good Things Go Fad
- Editors of Fitness Magazine Reveal . . .
- Strength Training vs Skill Training or More on SuperSlow and Similar Approaches
- SuperSlow
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