Today I have an interview of me to share with you!

When I was in Orlando at the Fitness Info Summit, I ran into a Fitness Professional that had taken some of my courses.

His name is Belton Lubas and he is from Seattle.  In the fall of 2008 he came up to Vancouver and attended a series of courses that I had.

Belton did a quick interview with me on exercise programs for clients recovering from injuries and what to do with a client with a shoulder injury.

Enjoy the interview.  There is a mix of a transcript of the interview and  video.

Interview with Belton Lubas

Belton Lubas: Hey this is Belton here of Element five Fitness. Basically we’re here at the Fitness Info Summit. I got Rick Kaselj. What’s up, Rick?

Rick Kaselj: I’m doing great.

Where Do Fitness Professionals Fit In When Working with Clients with Injuries?

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I am a bit of a journal geek.

I like reading journal articles.

My wife has House & Home and I have journal articles from PubMed Central.

I wanted to share with you an article that I read.

I will try to filter through all of the mumbo jumbo and highlight what you need to know in order to help your clients.

A common injury found in active people is shoulder impingement.

Many times the focus of their exercise program is to increase the range of motion in the affected shoulder.

Is this the right thinking?

Should the focus be on decreasing the tightness of the posterior aspect of the shoulder?

Read on to find out.

Range of Motion versus Decreased Shoulder Tightness

Read the rest of this entry »

When I was in Orlando at a conference, I was sitting there and I could feel the lower back pain building up in my back.

I wanted to share with you a few tips on what I did in order to fend off the lower back pain from arriving.

A big problem that I have at conferences is back pain.

Sitting for a long period of time, jamming my body underneath these short little tables, sitting in these super-uncomfortable chairs that are perfectly upright are all reasons that lead to lower back pain while at a conference.

So I want to give you a couple tips that you can give your clients on how they can fend off low back pain at a conference.

Fending Off Lower Back Pain while at a Conference

Read the rest of this entry »

 

 How to Fend of Lower Back Pain while at a Conference [1:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I was in a meeting and we started talking about one of my recent exercise & injury manuals, Effective Exercises for Scoliosis.

The person I was meeting with let me know about his daughter who was in a scoliosis brace from the age of 3 to 16.  He asked me for some advice on what she should be doing when it comes to scoliosis exercises.

Of all the things she can do -  the number one thing  -  is exercise.

3 Scoliosis Exercise Tips

With scoliosis, there is a very large spectrum of clients.  There are clients that can have minor scoliosis or major scoliosis.

Here are some tips for a client that has minor scoliosis.  Often times this kind of client will let you know during your assessment that they have been told by their doctor that they have minor scoliosis.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Nuts and Bolts of Corrective Exercise Seminar with Eric Cressey

This will be the fifth time that the I have hosted the Fitness & Rehab Conference.  It is amazing to think that it has made it to the big 5.  With it being the fifth, I wanted to make it bigger than any of the others so I went out looking for a big name to match the event.

I am so excited to announce Eric Cressey as the headliner of the 2010 Fitness & Rehab Conference.

I didn’t want him just to come all the way from Boston to talk for 90 and leave.  If he is he, I wanted him to talk for 14 hours so we all can have all of our questions answered by Eric and learn all we can from him.

CLICK HERE to Download a Flyer of this Course

Description of the Course:

In this two-day course, Eric Cressey will provide a comprehensive overview of his approach to corrective exercise.  Over the 14 hours of learning, Cressey will present and you will get a chance to practice his unique initial assessment protocol and extensive corrective exercise strategies.  He will share his secrets on how he creates training programs aimed at maintaining a training effect and helping his clients reach their goals in spite of injuries.  An emphasis will be placed on practical application and hands-on learning which can be immediately applied to healthy, injured and athlete populations.

Interview with Eric Cressey on what you will learn at the course – Part 1

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I just wrapped up my Exercise Rehabilitation of the Knee course at Douglas College.

I learn so much from the fitness professionals that attend.  They all have great questions and I wanted to share one with you.

I got a great question from one of the registrants about knees passing the toes.

Commonly taught in fitness certification is the fact that you should not have the knees passing the toes.  My response to this is, it depends on the situation.

The Deal on the Knees Passing the Toes

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 What to do if you Have Knee Pain if your Kness Pass Your Toes [2:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I was at the NSCA Washington State Fall Clinic.

It was a great event.

Let me share a few of the highlights.

Dave Suprak of Western Washington University was there chatting about shoulders.  I picked up a few great tips from Dave.  He had some great information on what happens to the scapula and scapular stabilizers when your client has poor posture. He gave me some great resources that will help me improve the scapular stabilization exercise program and effective rotator cuff exercise program.

One presenter that I wanted to see was Guido Van Ryssegem. Guido was presenting at the same time as I was, but I got a copy of his presentation. Wow, it was packed with high level shoulder exercise information!  When I get home, I will have to digest it more.

During our learning lunch, Susan M. Kleiner had an evidence based talk on proteins and amino acid supplementation.  Some great information!

Read the rest of this entry »

I give tubing exercises to all my clients with rotator cuff injuries.

When I started out, I used to fly through the rotator cuff exercises with my client.  I would show them the exercise; then get them to do it and finally move onto the next one.

With time, age and experience; I have improved on that rookie technique when using tubing exercise for rotator cuff injuries.

There are three things that you need to remember and highlight when designing an exercise program for a client that has a shoulder injury especially when you’re using tubing.

The three things that you want to remember to highlight when you’re explaining the exercise to the client with a rotator cuff injury are:

#1)  Distance Specific

You want to be specific on the distance away from where the tubing is fixed.  If the client ends up changing the distance of how far they are away from where the tubing is fixed, it ends up changing the exercise.

#2)  Fix the Range of Motion

The second thing, you want to be specific when it comes to the range of motion that you want your client to perform.

Do you just want them to perform 45 degrees of extension, or full range of motion when it comes to the shoulder?

You need to be specific on the range of motion that you want them to cover when doing the exercise.

#3)  Length Matters

And then thirdly, you want to be specific on the length of the tubing that you want them to use.  If they end up grabbing the tubing and wrapping it around their hands, they end up changing the length of the tubing and that ends up changing the exercise again.

3 SPECIFIC TO DO’s If you Give Tubing Exercises to a Client with a Shoulder Injury:

==> CLICK HERE for 3 Shoulder Injury Tubing Exercise Tips

I know, sometimes we just show our clients the tubing exercises and leave them alone.  So make sure you’re clear on how far away they are from the tubing anchor.  Make sure you’re clear on the range of motion that you want them to do when it comes to tubing, and make sure that you’re clear on the length of tubing that you want to use.  If your client has a rotator cuff or shoulder injury, it is important to be clear about these three things or it leads to irritation, re-injury or not getting the most out of the exercise.

So this is Rick Kaselj for Exercises for Injuries.

Thank you very much for reading the blog and watching all the videos.

Rick Kaselj, MS

I am on my way to Seattle to present at the NSCA Washington State Fall Clinic.  Before I headed off, I wanted to let you know who will coming to Vancouver next year.

This will be the fifth time that the I have hosted the Fitness & Rehab Conference.  It is amazing to think that it has made it to the big 5.  With it being the fifth, I wanted to make it bigger than any of the other so I went out looking for a big name to match the event.

I am so excited to announce Eric Cressey as the headliner of the 2010 Fitness & Rehab Conference.

I have been reading Eric’s work for years and it is great to have him come up to Vancouver, BC, Canada and share his knowledge on corrective exercise.

I know some of you maybe saying, “who?”  Trust me, he is one of the leaders in the fitness industry when it comes to corrective exercise.

Now that you know who is coming to the 2010 fitness & rehab, this is what you need to do.

#1 – First Thing To Do

Go to your calendar and block off March 27 & 28, 2010.  I have given you all almost 5 months notice about this amazing conference.  Block it off and book they days off work.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have an interview for you with Tim Vagen of Unlimited Athlete.  Tim is a very respected strength and conditioning coach from Kent, Washington.  He is big on shoulders and I was lucky enough to chat with Tim about shoulder injuries and exercise.

I hope you enjoy the interviews as much as I did.

In part 1 of the interview, Tim and I chat about:

- How he began working with injuries

- Being a strength & conditioning coach

- Training elite level swimmers

- Training volleyball players

- Working with other shoulder athletes

- Tips for the fitness professional to help their clients overcome shoulder injuries

- Why the shoulder injury determines the exercises your client gets

- Why thoracic mobility is essential for shoulder injury recovery

- Example of effective thoracic mobility exercises

Tim Vagen on Tips for the Fitness professional on Shoulder Injuries

==> CLICK HERE to watch the video with Tim Vagen on tips for the fitness professionals when working with shoulder injuries

I know the big thing I got from Tim’s interview was the important of t-spine mobility and it is something that I have incorporated into my work with shoulder injury clients.  Plus the exercises he went through were great!  You can never have enough exercises for your tool box.

Now lets head on over to part 2 of the interview.

In Part 2 or the interview, Tim and I chat about:

- Examples of thoracic mobility exercises

- Lack of thoracic mobility leads to compensation in the shoulder joint

- Lack of hip mobility will lead to compensations in the spine and shoulder

- Why to avoid barbells with shoulder press movements

- Use of kettle bells for overhead press movements and scapular stabilization exercises

- Why people that have a tight shoulder often have hypermobile shoulders

- Stretching the shoulder maybe not what is needed

Tim Vagen on Why Stretching the Shoulder Maybe Not What is Needed

==> CLICK HERE to watch the video Tim Vagen chatting about scapular stabilization exercises

The information on the lack of t-spine mobility leads to compensations in the shoulder was a big eye opener for me plus the great tip he gave on getting rid of the barbells was amazing.

I hope you enjoyed the interview with Tim Vagen.  To get more info on Tim Vagen, visit Unlimited Athlete or click here.

I know Tim will be at the NSCA Washington State Annual Fall Clinic and I will be as well.  I am so excited to be heading to the USA to do my first international presentation.  I have made it all across Canada to present but it is great to start heading south and share information on exercises and injuries.

At the NSCA Fall Clinic, I will be presenting on Running Injuries and exercise .  I hope to see you all down there and if you do come to the clinic, make sure to say, “Hi.”

Take care and we will talk to you soon.

Rick Kaselj, MS

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Corrective Exercises for Running Injury-free (Webinar)

Running is one of the most popular recreational activities amongst adults but most will have to stop due to an injury.  Along with a solid running program that prevents over training, there are a number of key exercises that a fitness professional must include in a recreational runners program in order to keep them running injury-free.  In the corrective exercises for running injury-free webinar, the fitness professional will learn assessment techniques and exercises to keep their clients running injury-free.

What you will learn in the Corrective Exercises for Running Injury-free webinar:

- Learn postural dysfunctions that lead to running injuries
- Understand how which movement assessments can be used to help keep runners running
- Discover the key exercises that a runner must perform in order to run injury-free

CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS:  1.0 BCRPA CEC

Note – If you can not attend the specific, registrants will be given a personal copy of the recorded webinar.

To REGISTER click “Add to Cart” button:

INSTRUCTOR:

Rick Kaselj – MS., B.Sc., PK, CPT, CEP, CES

Rick Kaselj specializes in exercise rehabilitation, post-rehab, active rehabilitation, exercise therapy and corrective exercise. He works in one-on-one and group rehabilitation settings, training people who have been injured at work, in car accidents and during sport activities. His clients and group exercise participants include a wide variety of individuals from healthy and special populations.  Rick has given over 233 presentations to 4531 fitness professionals and consumers across Canada while continuing to work in rehabilitation centers, physiotherapy clinics, fitness clubs and personal training studios.  Rick recently completed his Masters of Science degree focusing on corrective exercise and therapeutic exercise for the rotator cuff.  To reach Rick or learn about his exercise rehabilitation courses please visit http://www.HealingThroughMovement.com

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Exercises for Prevention, Rehabilitation and Overcoming Knee Injuries

The knee is the focus of an exercise program when it is injured but often ignored any other time.  More and more research has come out showing that the goal of the client should determine the knee exercise program compared to the presence or absence of injury.  If your client’s exercise goal is prevention of knee injuries, the exercises program differs from a client that is recovering from a knee injury.  If the client has had a knee injury and would like prevent a future knee injury, there is an exercise program that focuses on overcoming knee injuries.  It is important that the fitness professional know which exercises and exercise programs are best for their client depending on the goal of the client.  In this exercise and knee injury webinar, the fitness professional will learn three different knee exercise programs to help their clients that want to prevent a knee injury from occurring, rehabilitation a knee injury and overcome knee injuries by preventing them from happening in the future.

What you will learn in the Exercises for Prevention, Rehabilitation and Overciming Knee Injuries Webinar:

- 12 exercises to help prevent knee injuries

- 37 exercises to help your client recover from a knee injury

recommendation for fully rehabilitating you client from an ACL injury

- Why you should be getting your knee in jury clients doing leg extension exercises

- If all you are focusing on is squats to recover from a knee injury, then you are not helping your client fully recover from their injury

- 6 month exercise rehabilitation program for recovering from a knee injury

- Disccover the 3 reasons why you should have your clients have their knees pass their toes

- Learn 2 areas fitness professionals should be focusing on more than the kness passing the toes

- the most frequent knee injuries you will see

Continuing Education Credits:

• 1.0 CEC BCRPA
• 1.0 CMT CE/PD

What You Will Get:

- Video of the webinar that you can watch in the convenience of your computer at your own pace and as many times as you would like

- MP3 of the webinar so you can listen to the webinar and learn the exercises for knee injuries while in your car or listening to you iPod

To Register, click on “Add to Cart” button:

INSTRUCTOR:

Rick Kaselj – MS., B.Sc., PK, CPT, CEP, CES

Rick Kaselj specializes in exercise rehabilitation, post-rehab, active rehabilitation, exercise therapy and corrective exercise. He works in one-on-one and group rehabilitation settings, training people who have been injured at work, in car accidents and during sport activities. His clients and group exercise participants include a wide variety of individuals from healthy and special populations.  Rick has given over 233 presentations to 4531 fitness professionals and consumers across Canada while continuing to work in rehabilitation centers, physiotherapy clinics, fitness clubs and personal training studios.  Rick recently completed his Masters of Science degree focusing on corrective exercise and therapeutic exercise for the rotator cuff.  To reach Rick or learn about his exercise rehabilitation courses please visit http://www.ExercisesForInjuries.com

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The Most Effective Rotator Cuff Exercise Program

DESCRIPTION for Rotator Cuff Conditioning Exercises:

After the back, the second most common injury a fitness professional will encounter is the shoulder.  Most times shoulder injuries directly and indirectly involve the rotator cuff.  When fitness professionals hear that their client has a rotator cuff issue, they end up focusing on strengthening.  Strengthening is important for your rotator cuff client but it is only one part of an effective rotator cuff conditioning program.  The fitness professional must address all five areas of a rotator cuff conditioning program in order to fully rehabilitate the rotator cuff.  If not, they will only band-aide the injury and not fully help their client overcome their rotator cuff injury.  In this webinar, fitness professional will learn how to avoid common rotator cuff exercise mistakes, the 5 components of a rotator cuff condition program and exercises to help their client’s rotator cuff injury.

WHAT YOU WILL LEAN IN THIS Rotator Cuff Conditioing Exercises WEBINAR:

- Common mistakes fitness professionals make when designing an exercise program for the rotator cuff
- The five components of a rotator cuff conditioning program
- Exercises to avoid if your client has a rotator cuff injury
- Key exercise modification to help and not harm your client’s rotator cuff
- Effective rotator cuff conditioning program to help you client recover from a rotator cuff injury

Get Your Copy of the Most Effective Rotator Cuff Exercise Program

INSTRUCTOR: Rick Kaselj – MS., B.Sc., PK, CPT, CEP, CES

Rick Kaselj specializes in exercise rehabilitation, post-rehab, active rehabilitation, exercise therapy and corrective exercise. He works in one-on-one and group rehabilitation settings, training people who have been injured at work, in car accidents and during sport activities. His clients and group exercise participants include a wide variety of individuals from healthy and special populations.  Rick has given over 233 presentations to 4531 fitness professionals and consumers across Canada while continuing to work in rehabilitation centers, physiotherapy clinics, fitness clubs and personal training studios.  Rick recently completed his Masters of Science degree focusing on corrective exercise and therapeutic exercise for the rotator cuff.  To reach Rick or learn about his exercise rehabilitation courses please visit www.ExercisesForInjuries.com

For a complete listing of all the courses offered and hosted by Rick Kaselj and Healing Through Movement please visit http://www.ExercisesForInjuries.com

Interested in receiving over $299 worth of fitness education information?  Visit http://www.ExercisesForInjuries.com and get your gift!

Take care.

Rick Kaselj, MS

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I had a running client that was wanting a tibialis anterior stretch because he was feeling a lot of tightness in his shin.

I showed him how to modify the good old quad stretch to be a tibialis anterior stretch.

The tibialis anterior gets tight in people that walk, run and hike so it is an important area to stretch.

Let me go through how to turn the good old quad stretch into two effective stretches for the knee and runners.

The good old quad stretch focus on rectus femoris and the new quad stretch on tibialis anterior. 

Good Old Quad Stretch:

-  grab something for support in order to eliminate balance so you can end up focusing on the stretch
- lean your weight onto one leg
- grabbing the forefoot
- pulling the heel towards the seat
- now move the knee back a touch
- you are looking for a stretch in the quadriceps or the rectus femoris

New Tibialis Anterior Quad Stretch:

- take your footwear off
- lean your weight onto one leg
- shift your hand position more towards the toes and pull your toes back
- bring the heel towards to the seat
- then bringing the knee back a touch

With the toes pulled back, you get a tibialis anterior stretch and a rectus femoris stretch. 

If the stretch ends up being to strong of a stretch, I can bring the knee more forward and just focus on the tibialis anterior stretch. 

Now here is a video where I go through the two quadriceps stretches.  The first one focusing on a rectus femoris stretch and the second on a tibialis anterior stretch.

==>  CLICK HERE for the tibialis anterior and rectus femoris stretch

If you are looking for more stretches to help your running clients, I would recommend attending these courses for fitness professionals:

Exercise Rehabilitation of the Knee

Injury-free Running

That is it for now.

Rick Kaselj, MS

We have been talking about the core since the 90s. Even with fitness focused on the core for so long, there are three core stability exercises often ignored by fitness professionals.

Core stability is the proper activation of the muscles around the abdominal area in order to support the lower back in static and dynamic positions. Most core stability exercises that fitness professionals focus on are supine (on your back) or seated. These are important positions, but often are not the ones in which clients have difficulty activating their cores.

The positions that clients do have difficulty with are:

- Transition from lying to sitting

- Transition from sitting to standing

We have all experienced this or have had our clients let us know about it.

Have you ever had a client that did a heavy day of yard work and the next day complain that his back was sore when he was getting out of bed?

Have you ever had a friend that has had a baby and let you know it is difficult to get up from sitting to standing after nursing?

These are just two examples that we may have heard of and not thought much about.

Now, let’s get back to exercises.

After a client has mastered supine and sitting position core stability exercises, it is important to incorporate positions that are between lying to sitting and sitting to standing. Here are three exercises:

#1 – In Standing Core Exercise

Train the core to activate in a standing position. Prior to a standing strengthening exercise or during a rest break, get them to do a set of core activation exercises in standing position.

#2 – Four Point Core Exercise

This exercise is often ignored because a lot of clients don’t like their rears showing. It is an important position because in sitting the force of gravity pulls down on your body, while in a four point position, gravity pulls in a different direction.

#3 – Bent Over Core Exercise

This activity involves doing core exercises in a semi-squat position. There is a drastic increase on the load on the back in this position and it is important to treat the core muscles to have the activation, strength and endurance to handle this.

Next time you train a client with a history of lower back pain, make sure you train their core properly and add these three exercises that most fitness professionals ignore.

P.S. – I have eight copies of the Core Stability for the Rehab Client DVDs in my office.  I am cleaning out my office and need to get them out.  If you order the Core Stability for the Rehab Client DVDs prior to Friday you will save $10, I will pay the taxes and shipping for the DVDs any where in the world.  Get the DVDs here:

==> http://www.1shoppingcart.com/SecureCart/SecureCart.aspx?mid=746D6FB2-40F5-4114-97A1-4E656012122D&pid=ce8c42c82fed54fab6e132f75650f226&bn=1

Rick Kaselj, MS

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Yesterday, I sent you an e-mail about needing your help.

With the creation of the Exercises for Injuries blog, I have started getting enquires from around the world about educational opportunities.  Most people are not able to attend my course in the Vancouver area but really would like to learn the content in them.  Those that contacted me have suggested that I start doing webinars so anyone from around the world can join in.  I want to hear from you, if you are interested in attending a webinar and what topics you would like to see.

Please leave a comment below answering these two questions:

Question 1: Are you interested in attending webinars?

Leave a comment below and let me know if you are interested in exercise rehabilitation webinars.  A “Yes or No” answer is fine but why you are or why you are not would be even better.

Question 2:  What webinar topics would you like to see?

I don’t know what you are interested in.  Here are some ideas that I though you might be interested in:

- Exercises to End Frequent Ankle Sprain

- Corrective Exercises to Running Injury-free

- Using Press Release to Get More Exercise Rehabilitation Clients

- Corrective Exercise for a Pain-free Back

- Exercises to Correct Poorly Firing Gluteus

- Scapular Stabilization Exercises

- Using Craigslist to Get More Exercise Rehabilitation Clients

$199 Prize if You Leave a Comment

Everyone that gives me their opinion will be put into a draw for a copy of the $199 The Truth About Osteoporosis & Exercise Program.

For more details on what is in the The Truth About Osteoporosis & Exercise Program:

Thank you for your help.

- Rick Kaselj, MS

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I was in the recreation centre and a patron asked me:

“What is better, an elliptical trainer or treadmill?”

Before I could answer the question, I need more information.  I needed to get a better idea which is best for him.

I asked him these questions:

- What is your fitness goal?
- What is your previous fitness experience?
- What is your present fitness level?
- Are there any injuries that may prevent you from reaching your fitness goal?
- What have you done in the past that was successful in reaching your fitness goal?

He let me know that he was trying to get fit, he had exercised frequently in the past but was inactive as of right now. Plus he had an old knee injury and in the past he liked using the elliptical machine.

I told him to give the elliptical a go and see how it feels. If the elliptical trainer starts to bug your knees then switch over to the treadmill.

He asked me, “Why might my knee bother me while using the elliptical trainer?”

This was the answer that I gave him:

3 Reasons Why Your Client has Knee Pain While on the Elliptical Trainer

Hip Width is Not Your Natural Hip Width

The distance between the pedals or hip width is built for the average individual. It is suppose to be okay for someone that is 5 foot or 6 foot. The hip width maybe too narrow or wide depending on the brand, design, style and pedal of the elliptical machine. If the hip width is outside of your normal hip width, this will change the biomechanics of your leg. This will lead to undue stress to your knee, hip and back.

Fixed Foot will Affect the Position of the Knee

If your client fixes their heel on the pedal, it will affect how their knee tracks. If the knee is not tracking properly this will put greater stress on different parts of the knee and this will lead to knee irritation or knee injury. Try to get you client to keep their heel off the pedal and get them to pivot on the ball of their foot until they have a position that makes their knee happy.

Some people should not have their heels off the pedal, make sure you read the next tip to find out why.

Weight Shift onto the Toes Leads to More Quadriceps Activity

When one shifts their weight onto their toes, this creates greater quadriceps or thigh muscle activation. This will creates greater force on the knee cap (patella). This excess stress may lead to knee irritation and pain in some clients. If your client has knee irritation, get them to use the elliptical with their heels down and see if this modification changes how their knees feel.

Those were my thoughts on which is better, elliptical trainer or treadmill plus a few reasons why your client’s knee maybe irritated by being on the elliptical machine.

I wonder if there is any research of the topic. The above is my opinion on things, I wonder what the research says.

I will dig into the journals and get back to you.

Have a great day!

Rick Kaselj
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