How to do Pull Ups Properly - Notes - Part 1 05/05/2012
Don’t be misled by the idea that strength is everything..... listen, function is everything. Forget all the fancy equipment, and save your money and time. Forget all these alternative exercises other people are doing in the gym. You really don’t need them. You can get a pull up bar for your doorway for twenty bucks, or just go to the neighbor hood playground. It is free. The best—and safest—exercise to build a powerful upper back is the humble pull up. I know that pull ups are on of the best exercises because it is a compound routine. It is also the best biceps exercise known to man. Pull ups work the biceps through two joints, the elbow and the shoulder, and pull ups also works the muscles around them, to strengthen all of you and help make you Indestructible. Pull ups are one of the safest upper back exercises because humans are practically born to do it and because the movement works with your natural biomechanics, not against them. When performed consistently and correctly, pullups protect the body against injuries. In the book Convict Conditioning a pull up is any exercise where you pull the torso towards the hands against gravity, so the term casts a pretty wide net and author has a good set of instructions. The ideal range of motion for strength when you lift your bodyweight up to the bar goes from a point where your arms are nearly straight (but slightly kinked) to a point where your chin passes over the bar. Here are some notes on pull ups from the book Convict Conditioning and my own practice. Doing pullups until your chin passes the bar is best. The slightly kinked elbow position at the start position serves two major functions. Firstly, it takes the pressure off the elbows, preventing them from becoming hyperextended. Secondly, it helps you brace your upper body for the powerful movement required. You should never relax into a full stretch in the bottom position of the pullup. Doing so will take the stress off your muscles and place them on the ligaments which hold your joints together. This is not what you want. Not only should you keep your elbows bent by about ten degrees in the bottom position, bracing your upper body also requires that you keep your shoulders “tight.” To keep your shoulders safe in all hanging exercises, it’s of vital importance that the athlete understands the importance of keeping the shoulders tight. The shoulders are ball-and-socket joints. This kind of joint is incredibly versatile in terms of motion, but that versatility comes at a price—increased vulnerability. If you relax your shoulders while you are hanging from an overhead bar, the ball joint becomes stretched in the socket, and is only held in place by inflexible ligaments. This practice not only causes the ligaments irritation under great force, it can also result in partial or complete shoulder dislocation in some cases. This is rare, but it does happen, Hanging techniques—particularly pullups and leg raises—are fantastic exercises you should be enjoying throughout your career, so start practicing good form right from the beginning. Tightening your shoulders isn’t a dramatic movement; from the outside, it’s barely noticeable. All it involves is a downwards pull of your shoulder socket by an inch or two.This is easily done by firmly flexing the lat muscles. Keep your entire upper body braced as your proceed, and you’ll soon get the knack. Pull Up Grip - I like the rings which is ideal, and the hammer, but I go with what I can find, and I try to alternate so I work all the muscles and keep my wrists and forearms strong from all angles.You have overhand grip (knuckles facing you) underhand grip (i.e., curl grip), hammer grip (thumbs facing you)…Which is best? The most important factor to consider is something kinesiologists call pronation. Pronation basically means turning back. In the context of the pullup it describes the phenomenon where your hands automatically try to turn inwards—palms turning down—the closer you pull them towards your body. This is a very small natural movement we all have. It might seem quite minor, and it usually doesn’t interfere much with standard pullups, but it becomes more of a factor the further you progress through the pullup series. The take home message is that during early steps you can use any kind of grip you find easiest. The exercise descriptions usually illustrate an overhand grip, as this is strongest for most people, but an underhand or hammer grip is also acceptable. As you progress beyond the full pullup however, the natural tendency to pronate may make a fixed position uncomfortable. If this is the case, experiment. Often a hammer grip feels stronger and more natural as the exercises become harder. Those with strong biceps who don’t feel much of a pronation effect will prefer an underhand grip. Some athletes feel happier with an overhand grip throughout their careers and experience no problems. Use whatever seems to help you. The best possible kind of grip for more advanced pullup techniques involves a hanging ring—the kind you see gymnasts use. They are ideal because the flexible rope they are attached to naturally allows your hands to pronate as much or as little as they want to during the movement. Solid bars lock your hands in place, limiting this kind of fluid motion. If you experience nagging wrist, elbow or shoulder problems during pullups, learning to use hanging rings can eliminate these problems by helping the arms find their natural groove during the exercise. Pull up movements should be performed using muscle strength rather than momentum. But if you lack the strength, you’ll tend to kick upwards with your knees to give you the momentum to complete a rep but beginners should never do that, it leads to bad habits and bad form. Go two seconds up, then a one second pause at the top, then two seconds down, followed by another one second pause. No momentum should be used. If you need momentum to do your reps, drop back down to easier exercises where you can complete your reps without cheating. Pull ups require that an athlete moves the total weight of the body. This means that every extra pound you are carrying has to be lifted through every inch of motion during the exercise. The reality of the situation is that the more overweight you are, the harder it will be to progress through pul lups. The pullup series is more challenging because the entire bodyweight is moved by the upper body. It will take you longer to improve and progress your pull ups but don’t rush from exercise to exercise, but go step by step. This applies to all your bodyweight work. Never forget that moving up to bodyweight exercises which are placed higher in a series simply demonstrates your strength increases. But those strength increases are only actually built through dedicated, repetitive work on the lower exercises in the series. Rushing won’t build strength faster. Convict Conditioning Add Comment Indestructible Muscle is all about real world strength, strength that can be used to do real things. The best real world example of what we mean is given in this quote from Earle Leiderman in 1926, a Strong Man and author of of the book Endurance. Liederman believes that every man should be physically fit enough to save his own life in an emergency. He sets out five fitness benchmarks that indicate whether a man is up to this task. None of his requirements are meant to high light how much you can bench or total body fat but instead the focus is on having the strength and endurance to run, swim, or pull yourself to safety. According to Earle Liederman : “Every man should be able to save his own life. He should be able to swim far enough, run fast and long enough to save his life in case of emergency and necessity. He also should be able to chin himself a reasonable number of times, as well as to dip a number of times, and he should be able to jump a reasonable height and distance. A man should be able to: Swim at least half a mile or more Run at top speed two hundred yards or more Jump over obstacles higher than his waist Pull his body upward by the strength of his arms, until his chin touches his hands, at least fifteen to twenty times Dip between parallel bars or between two chairs at least twenty-five times or more If he can accomplish these things he need have no fear concerning the safety of his life should he be forced into an emergency from which he alone may be able to save himself.” I can think of no better way to measure your true strength. D Excerpt from an article on runnersworld.comBy Yishane Lee From the August 2004 issue of Runner's World Why do you run, when did you start? I began running on an everyday basis after I became a writer. As being a writer requires sitting at a desk for hours a day, without getting some exercise you'd quickly get out of shape and gain weight, I figured. That was 22 years ago. I also took it as a chance to quit smoking. You see, I became rapidly healthier since the time I became a writer. You may call it rather a rare case. But because of that, I weigh now just as much as I weighed back then. Before I became a writer, I was running a jazz bar in the center of Tokyo, which means that I worked in filthy air all the time late into the night. I was very excited when I started making a living out of my writing, and I decided, "I will live in nothing but an absolutely healthy way." Getting up at 5 a.m. every morning, doing some work first, then going off running. It was very refreshing for me. I have always liked running, so it wasn't particularly difficult to make it a habit. All you need is a pair of running shoes and you can do it anywhere. It does not require anybody to do it with, and so I found the sport perfectly fits me as a person who tends to be independent and individualistic. ........... quote from his book People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they'll go to any length to live longer. But don't think that's the reason most people run. Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you're going to while away the years, it's far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe running helps you to do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life — and for me, for writing as whole. I believe many runners would agree" — Haruki Murakami (What I Talk About When I Talk About Running) Twenty push ups fast is pretty simple. Twenty push ups slow, two seconds down, hold two seconds, then back up in two seconds is hard. Go slow. Remember that the goal of exercise is real world fitness. There are two reasons why you should try to cultivate this kind of steady pace. Firstly, smooth technique develops better levels of pure strength. When you move too fast, you rely on momentum and if momentum is doing the work, it means your muscles aren’t. Secondly, human joints adapt much better to regular movements than explosive ones. There’s less risk of chronic or acute injury with slow steady movements. D “If you don't have answers to your problems after a four-hour run, you ain't getting them.” ― Christopher McDougall, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen (Vintage) Micah True passed away this week, who was made well known by the book Born to Run in which he was known as Caballo Blanco. He was as inspirational a person as there can be. Many people say the right things, but few live according to them. He makes me look hard and clear at my life and the things I have chosen, The great ones always do that. If you want to learn how to live the Indestructible Life then go read this, as good as a example as there is; http://www.caballoblanco.com/SWEAT_Sep10_Feature.pdf or this; http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/running/trail-running/On-The-Trail-Of-The-White-Horse.html?page=all STRENGTHENING THE FEET AND ANKLES Jog barefoot on grass for 30 minutes, three times per week. There is a right way to run. That, at least, is the contention of not only Brian MacKenzie, but also seven-time Western States champion and three-time “Ultramarathoner of the Year” Scott Jurek. For Brian, the right way is one way: Pose. Nicolas S. Romanov PhD, creator of the Pose Method, was born in 1951 in the unforgiving climes of Siberia. It makes sense on some level that he would become Internet-famous in 2005 for running on ice. How the hell can you run on ice? According to Romanov, by applying the same principles you should use on dry ground: 1. Use gravity (via forward lean) for forward motion instead of push-off and muscular effort. 2. Land on the balls of the feet and aim to have the feet land under your center of gravity instead of in front of you. 3. Never fully straighten your legs. Keep a slight bend in your legs at all times to prevent push-off. 4. Pull each foot off the ground and towards your buttocks (rather than pushing off) using the hamstrings as soon as it passes under your center of gravity. 5. Maintain at least a 180 step per minute rate, which means at least 90 steps per minute with each leg. This will use muscle elasticity to your advantage. Michael Johnson, who held the 200-meter world record for an astonishing 12 years, and also won four Olympic gold medals at different distances, was known for eschewing a high knee lift in favor of short steps. His per-minute step rate? Around 300. Brian suggests training tempo using a Seiko DM50L Metronome, and I found it easiest to use 90 beats per minute for one leg and count when that heel was highest (near the buttocks) as opposed to tapping the ground. Over the full two days of the certification, we covered more than six hours of whiteboard mechanics and hundreds of details. In practice, four things helped me most: 1. Focus on at least 90 steps per minute with each leg. Particularly if fatigued, focus on this stride rate, which automatically produces the other characteristics of good running mechanics (landing on the balls of the feet, fast pull, etc.). Scott Jurek reinforced this: “If you focus on higher stride rate, much of the rest corrects itself.” 2. Lean, but fall like a tree instead of bending at the hips. There should be no sitting back. Think of falling forward from the pelvis rather than from the head. 3. For the pull off the ground (see the first three frames of Trial 3), imagine pulling the heel up to your buttocks at a 45-degree forward angle instead of straight up off the ground. This visualization is what allowed me to go from Trial 2 to Trial 3 in two hours. If I thought of pulling the leg straight up off the ground, I subconsciously leaned less, which was self-defeating. Lean at an angle, and envision pulling the heel up at an angle. 4. Use minimal arm movement and consider keeping your wrists near your nipples the entire time. During the initial 100-meter repeats, I purposefully ran directly behind the best ultra-distance runner in our group, matching his tempo and form. The 4 Hour Body - Tim Ferriss The goal of being strong and in peak shape is survival. 1. Bodyweight Training Requires Very Little Equipment There has never been a system of strength training more perfectly in harmony with the principles of independence and economy, and there never will be. Even the most ardent weightlifter will have to admit this fact. Most exercises require no equipment, although if you wish the exercises can be enhanced with a few items that can be found lying around in almost any home. The very most you’ll need is a place to hang from, and every one of us can locate such a place if we look; stairs, a loft hatch, even the branches of a tree! No gym is required, and very little space—at most, the equivalent to the length of your own body, often even less. It means that you can train anywhere you happen to find yourself—on holiday, in a different city, at work—anywhere. You aren’t tied to specific locations. Another big plus is that calisthenics training is free. 2. Bodyweight Training Develops Useful, Functional Athletic Abilities. In nature, the human body doesn’t need to move barbells or dumbbells around. Before it can move anything external at all, it has to be able to move itself around! The legs need the strength to be able to easily manage the weight of the torso in athletic motions, such as running or in combat; the back and arms require the power to be able to pull or push the body up or away. 3. Bodyweight Training Maximizes Strength Calisthenics movements are the most efficient exercises possible, because they work the body as it evolved to work; not by using individual muscles, or the portions of a muscle, but as an integrated unit. Very strong men will all tell you that tendon strength is probably more important for true power than muscle size. Calisthenics motions work the joints and tendons as they are meant to be worked, resulting in greater levels of power than weight-training movements can develop. Another reason why calisthenics are so efficient in developing raw strength is that they train the athlete to work multiple muscle groups at once. But when training in calisthenics, you are forced to move your entire body; this requires coordination, synergy, balance and even mental focus. All these things develop nervous power, as well as muscular strength. 4. Bodyweight Training Protects the Joints and Makes Them Stronger—for Life In prison, you need to be all-over strong—no matter how old you are. Being hindered by weak or painful joints would make you very vulnerable, however big your muscles might look. It may surprise you, but this is one important reason why a lot of convicts deliberately avoid weight-training. One of the major problems with modern forms of strength and resistance training is the damage they do to the joints. The joints of the body are supported by delicate soft tissues—tendons, fascia, ligaments and bursae—which are simply not evolved to take the pounding of heavy weight-training. Weak areas include the wrists, elbows, knees, lower back, hips, the rhomboid-complex, spine, and neck. The shoulders are particularly susceptible to damage from bodybuilding motions. You’ll be lucky to find anybody who has been lifting weights for a year or more who hasn’t developed some kind of chronic joint pain in one of these areas. This damage is done because bodybuilding motions are largely unnatural. In order to place a great deal of emphasis on the muscles, the body is forced to hoist heavy external loads in motions and at angles not usually found in nature. One side-effect of this punishment is a vast amount of stress on vulnerable joints, joints which are forced to endure this horror repetitively over time. The result is soft tissue tears, tendonitis, arthritis and other maladies The first reason is basic physics; the resistance used is never heavier than the lifter’s own bodyweight. The ridiculous, excessively heavy loads so admired in bodybuilding do not occur. The second reason is down to kinesiology—which is the science of movement. Simply put, the body has evolved over millions of years to be able to move itself, first and foremost; it was never “designed” to lift progressively heavier external loads on a regular basis. A kinesiologist might say that calisthenics movements are more authentic than weight-lifting techniques. The authentic movements offered by calisthenics apply the power of the joints naturally, as they evolved to be used. The result is that they develop in proportion to the muscular system, becoming more powerful over time rather than weaker and worn down. As the joint tissue rebuilds itself, former aches and pains are worked out of the system, and future injuries are avoided. 5. Bodyweight Training Quickly Develops the Physique to Perfection Strength and health should be the major goals of your training. You need to be as powerful and functional as you possibly can be, for a long time into your old age. Calisthenics can give you that. The practice of modern calisthenics mainly builds endurance and a little aerobic toning, but it does virtually nothing for the physique. 6. Bodyweight Training Normalizes and Regulates Your Body Fat Levels Conventional bodybuilding is conducive to overeating. Forget the ripped pros you see in the magazines—no way do they look like that most of the time. They only do their photo shoots during the brief competition season, after months of strict and unhealthy dieting. The goal of calisthenics is to master lifting one’s own body. The fatter you are, the more difficult this becomes. Once you begin training regularly in calisthenics, the subconscious mind makes the connection between a leaner bodyweight and easier training, and regulates the appetite and eating habits automatically. As any competent weight-training coach will tell you, there are thousands of exercises you can do to train your muscles; but actually, a really good routine only requires a handful of big, basic exercises. This is because although the body contains well over five hundred muscles, these muscles have evolved to work in harmony; both with other muscles and with the body as a whole. Trying to work muscles individually neglects this fact, and de-trains the natural instincts of the body to function as a coordinated, unified whole. Therefore to work your muscles properly, the best approach is to select the fewest exercises you can to completely work the body, and continue to get stronger and stronger in those core exercises. You can see from this brief list that six exercises are all that’s required to work the body. Any more would be overkill; any less would leave gaps in your ability. Strength and muscle are key areas in almost any prison training routine, and this principle is the backbone of the Convict Conditioning system. For this reason, each of the big six movements is broken down into ten different exercises. The inclusion of the ten steps is possibly the most important and revolutionary feature of Convict Conditioning. When properly applied, knowledge of these steps can take an individual from puny to powerful in a short span of time, and for this reason the system is jealously guarded by those I’ve taught it to on the inside. Knowledge is power. Convict Conditioning Convict Conditioning - The Plan 03/30/2012
Reading and following Convict Conditioning, I have come to realize how important the back muscles are. Doing the standard exercises, curls, bench press, etc.just doesn't give you total fitness. It was so good, I thought I would put in a excerpt. Read and learn. If I had to name the most important strength-building exercise in the world, it would be the bridge. Nothing else even comes close. The most important organ of the human body isn’t a muscle. It isn’t even the heart or lungs. It’s the brain. The brain controls these secondary organs, just as it controls virtually every other structure and process in the human body. Our basic psychological identity is associated with the cerebral functioning of the brain; to a large degree, or brain is everything we are. When the brain dies, that’s it. No more you. The second most important organ of the human body is the spinal cord, because the spinal cord is the main means by which the brain communicates with the rest of the body. The spinal cord is a slim but incredibly complex tube of nerves, passing from the lower brainstem down the back of the body. No matter how powerful or healthy the brain is, if the spinal cord is damaged, it cannot communicate with the body and is effectively useless. The spinal cord is extremely delicate and, if unprotected, would be harmed very easily. Even a tiny amount of damage would have disastrous results on the functioning of the body. Fortunately, because of it’s paramount importance for health and survival, the spinal column has been well-protected by evolution. It is encased in a thick pillar of flexible, articulated armor consisting of dense individual bones jointed by tough cartilage. These individual bones are the vertebrae, and the cartilage pieces are called intervertebral discs, or simply discs (as in the term “slipped disc”). The whole bony pillar is known as the spinal column. The spinal column is further protected by a network of connected ligaments and a sophisticated deep layer of muscles which control the movements of the spine. There are more than thirty pairs of basic spinal muscles. (Lack of space prevents me from listing them all and describing their functions. Interested trainees should pick up a copy of Gray’s Anatomy.) Far from functioning separately, all these spinal muscles are molded into two thick, powerful, snake-like tubes bordering the spine. These muscle groups are called the erector spinae, or spinal erectors. These twin pillars of muscle form the first line of defense against spinal injuries. In a very basic way, they function as a dense corset of flesh which protects the spinal column against accidents and danger from sharp or blunt objects. In a more dynamic sense, they also control the movement of the spine generally; they ensure that the vertebrae follow a range of motion that protects the spinal cord as well as dictating all spinal motions. Without the erector spinae, you couldn’t walk, stand up, twist, or move the torso at all. You couldn’t even turn your head. The spinal erectors are absolutely crucial. If you are one of these guys who has a barbell set at home for fitness and strength, you would do well to sell it and buy a cushioned mat to train your spine on instead. I realize that this suggestion seems so far from the current bodybuilding-style culture of strength and fitness that it seems almost funny. But I’m not joking. Apart from preventing sports injuries, the spinal muscles also play a fundamentally positive role in strength and athleticism. The spinal muscles are incredibly strong, and are involved in practically every major motion, from throwing and twisting to bending over and lifting. Without good, robust spinal muscles, strength cannot exist. It’s impossible to use the limbs—whether curling, squatting, pressing or pulling—without using the spinal muscles. These muscles are used more than any other voluntary muscles. The stronger your spinal muscles, the better you will be at practically any athletic motion you can name. Given this, it’s ironic that the spinal muscles aren’t the number-one priority of all athletes. It’s downright amazing that most trainees don’t seek to directly train their spinal muscles at all! Most of them just wouldn’t know where to start. Is it really so surprising that lower back pain is the foremost plague of athletes the world over? Not at all. It’s just a consequence of this neglect. The Benefits of Bridging There is a solution—an ultimate solution—to this neglect. Bridging. Bridging is a simple technique—you just arch your back off the floor by pushing up with your limbs—but if you bridge regularly you can eliminate the host of back problems associated with abuse of the human body. Unfortunately, this medicine is needed now more than ever. Human beings are at a spinal disadvantage to begin with; standing on two feet was the worst move our species ever made. Animals on all-fours rarely suffer spinal problems because they have to lean back frequently just to gain height. Unfortunately modern culture compounds this inherent disadvantage. The average person today leads a life which involves both disuse and misuse of the spine. They spend their days doing repetitive jobs slumped in front of computer screens or over desks with terrible posture which misaligns their spinal column; then they go home and slouch on the sofa in front of the tube. As a result, civilians are suffering more back problems and ever, and people are now getting disc degeneration in their thirties. Bridging—even just once per week—prevents all these problems. It realigns the vertebrae into the correct position, and strengthens the deep muscles of the back responsible for proper posture. Even the bones become stronger over time, with the practice of the bridge. The discs in your back are made of cartilage, and like all cartilage, they have very little blood flow. Instead, they receive their nutrition from liquid in the joints, called synovial fluid. Because it’s not associated with the circulation, fresh fluid can only reach the joints when those joints move around. Bridging removes waste and sends plenty of nutritious fluid to the discs, healing them, preventing degeneration and ensuring maximal health. Strong spinal muscles can reduce the likelihood of slipped discs, and even help fix the condition. Aside from the above benefits, bridging will make all your athletic movements more powerful. Bridging is the ultimate exercise for the spinal muscles. The master of the bridge can be easily identified by two very cool pythons running up either side of the spine. But as well as being the primary exercise for the erector spinae, bridging develops practically every other muscle in the body. The arms and legs get work in pressing the body away from the ground, and the shoulder girdle and upper back get a fantastic workout in the process, too. The entire front side of the body—usually stubbornly tight in male athletes—gets a maximum stretch. Areas which particularly benefit are the knees, quadriceps, hip flexors, abdominals and chest. The unique overhead-and-back movement during bridging removes calcium deposits in the shoulders and makes the torso very supple. A lot of practitioners—including myself—believe that regular practice of the bridge can expand the ribcage and increase lung capacity. Bridging bulletproofs the spinal column in preparation for heavy, explosive, or unexpected movements, allowing you to train harder, heavier, and faster. Because the spine is like a universal joint, strong spinal muscles unlock the power inherent in the waist, torso and limbs, power an athlete simply couldn’t access if they had a weak back. The spine is constantly working during motion, so conditioned spinal muscles also result in extra endurance, both for sports and life generally Bruce Lee was performing barbell good mornings when he blew his back out badly in 1970. Doctors told him he would never perform kung fu again, but he trained himself back to full fitness—using calisthenics. Bridging exercises are not widely practiced in the West. Perhaps this really is because our culture values appearance over ability, because in other parts of the world the bridge is highly esteemed as one of the greatest exercise techniques known—in the East, it is regarded as the “king” of exercises. Various forms of bridge are well known in Shaolin kung fu training, and are also practiced as part of the Taoist health arts like k’ai men and tao yin. But perhaps no country has devoted so much time to understanding the bridge as India, where it is called chakrasana—the wheel posture. In yoga, there are scores of bridging exercises, ranging from basic positions to highly advanced poses where the feet actually rest on the head. Indian physical culturists take the bridge so seriously because their understanding of the importance of the spine goes back thousands of years further than our own. Ayurvedic medicine (the ancient Indian philosophy of health) places so much importance on the spinal column that it is seen as possessing occult and even magical qualities. Convict Conditioning: How to Bust Free of All Weakness-Using the Lost Secrets of Supreme Survival Strength by Paul Wade Bruce Lee’s Isometric Training Workout 03/15/2012
Great post I found on a web site called motleyhealth.com (link below) Bruce Lee’s Isometric Training Workout Bruce Lee used to perform a simple routine using 8 different isometric exercises. Each exercise is performed just once. The aim is to work to maximum effort in each exercise for 6-12 seconds. To perform these exercises you need a power cage or a similar weight training bench with a bar that is too heavy to move. If you have enough weights you can put them all on a bar so that it is too heavy for you to lift. This can actually aid your training, as rather than knowing it is impossible to move the bar, you can tell yourself that if you push harder, you may move it!
Read more: http://www.motleyhealth.com/fitness/bruce-lee-workout#ixzz1pFjGJKW6 |
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