Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 363: Unlock More Gains! Progressive Overload 101

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everybody, welcome into another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. As always, I'm your host, Danny Matranga. And in this episode, we are going to unpack and take a deep dive into the foundational principle of progressive overload. Look, when it comes to lifting in the gym, one of the main things that people need to really understand is this concept of progressive overload. You need to learn the various ways, and there are a lot of ways, that you can gradually expose your body to more stress so that you can keep getting good results in the gym. It really is that simple. Over time, you'll need to apply progressive overload.
Starting point is 00:00:48 Maybe it's lifting more weights, more sets, and we'll talk about a million other ways how, but by the end of this episode, you'll really understand and have new, fun, unique, and exciting ways to enhance your training, to get better results, and try some fun new things, all in the name of progress. I hope you enjoy the episode, and thanks a bunch for listening. This podcast has some awesome partners, and one of my favorite, of course, is Legion Athletics.
Starting point is 00:01:16 Legion is my go-to supplement manufacturer for what I like to call my big rock supplements. This would be my protein powder, my pre-training formula, my post-training formula and creatine, and my kind of ancillary vitamins and micronutrient protection. So why do I like Legion so much? What sets them apart? It's quite simple. Legion uses all natural ingredients. All the formulas include natural coloring and natural sweeteners. No artificial sweeteners, just stevia. And every single formulation, be it a pre-workout or a vitamin, contains clinically effective dosages of ingredients shown to work in humans in clinical research supported by robust trials. No filler, just legit ingredients in each and every formulation proven to work. The whey protein isolate is so light. It's fantastic. It mixes in water. It tastes amazing. And I drink it every day, even as somebody who's lactose intolerant. That's just how high quality this whey protein is. And it's sourced from Irish dairy cows that are raised well, eat their natural diet and packaged in
Starting point is 00:02:19 climate friendly packaging. I love their plant protein too, for those of you who like something that's a little on the thicker side and you aren't a fan of animal products. Also, I love Legion's pre-workout, but specifically the pre-workout that does not contain caffeine. That would be their Stim-Free Pulse. I'm a huge, huge fan of beta-alanine and L-citrulline, but I don't like taking in wildly high amounts of caffeine. So if you are somebody who likes pre-workout with caffeine, you can try pulse. Or if you like it without caffeine, because you maybe want to enjoy your morning coffee or monitor your caffeine consumption, try the pulse stim free. My favorite flavors there for sure are the new grape and the amazing,
Starting point is 00:02:59 amazing tropical punch. As for my creatine, I get that from Legion's Recharge, five grams each and every day. I take it on the days I train as well as the days I do not because Recharge also contains L-carnitine, which can help with promoting muscle recovery and decreasing soreness, as well as some ingredients to help with creatine utilization. And of course, my favorite supplements for my ancillary micronutrient health are Legion's Multivitamin and Legion's Greens Powder. Not only do these two products contain a ton of high quality vitamins and minerals, they also contain unique adaptogens like KSM-66 ashwagandha and reishi mushroom, which I like to take each and every day to promote my health. If you want to cover all your bases
Starting point is 00:03:41 with a high quality protein, creatine post-workout, or the ancillary micronutrient health stuff like greens, powders, and multivitamin, I encourage you to go over to legionathletics.com and check out using the promo code Danny. That'll save you 20% on your first order and you'll rack up points that you can use the same way as cash every time you use the code and you'll also be supporting the show. every time you use the code and you'll also be supporting the show. Okay, so there are a ton of ways that you can apply progressive overload, but I think the most obvious way is also our best opportunity to explain the concept in detail more generally. So the first way you can apply progressive overload is with more weight by adding more weight to your exercise.
Starting point is 00:04:28 So let's assume a standard number of reps. We're only ever doing six reps. And in our first week of training, we will do 10 pounds. In our next week, we will do 15. And in our final week, we will do 20, increasing by 10 pounds total in weight without changing reps, exposing the muscle that we were training, the movement that we were training to a 10 pound increase across three weeks. That is foundationally how progressive overload takes place. Usually it is in a linear, very zoomed out way, meaning it might take you very little time to increase the strength of
Starting point is 00:05:07 your deadlift, your squat and your bench in like the first six to 12 months of training because of just the rapid improvements we make through just better understanding of the movements, mechanics, et cetera. But a lot of the gains you'll make on movements will take place over years and years and years and years. And over time, doing those movements with more load will generally, generally produce more muscle, more strength, more resilience, more mobility, assuming you are still using the same range of motion. And so progressive overload happens over a very long term. You can't just go to the gym and do like, oh, I normally do the forties on dumbbells, but today I did one rep with 50. So that's progressive overload. It's like, no, you need to generally have more of your work occurring with more weight across the same or more
Starting point is 00:06:01 volume to take advantage of this foundational piece of progressive overload. You don't just do like one rep of, you know, let's say it's squats and you normally squat 225 for eight. Um, and that's kind of typically like a working volume for you is 225 pounds for eight reps. One set of like two 30 for eight, while it is a form of progression, isn't really progressive overload. Progressive overload would be more of your squat work over time being greater than that 225 for eight, not in one day, but over years, you're able to do 235, 250, 275. And the amount of volume and work, and quite frankly, stress that's put on the body, climbing from that 220 for eight to like 275 for eight over years, over months, however long it takes you to get there, depending on your strength
Starting point is 00:07:00 and skill. That's where the overloading is occurring. You don't just hit a PR once and wake up with big quads and big glutes. It is the slow accumulation of more work done at the higher level that is driving these changes. And so when you think more weight, you have to think more weight in the long term across more of my training without sacrificing volume technique, range of motion, et cetera, whenever possible. Okay. So the next way that one can achieve progressive overload, and I would say that doing more weight is in general, the best way to, to do this because you get generally increases in strength, relative strength, muscle mass, et cetera. So I'm huge on just like, you know, you want to make some more gains than you currently
Starting point is 00:07:51 fucking have. Like, hear me out, bro. Can we put a little more weight on the fucking bar? Because you don't just stand a better chance of like damaging your muscle fibers more when you do this. You also will get strong. And in general terms, being stronger in all of your lifts is going to help a ton. So why not, bro? That's kind of how I think about it. I think weight is one of the best. Now, for hypertrophy specifically, meaning for growing muscle, the next three I actually really quite like. And the first is simple. It's just adding more reps and we'll standardize for weight.
Starting point is 00:08:32 So let's use that 225 squat for eight, for example. Well, now you're doing it for nine or for 10 or for 11. And just like doing more weight over the course of many weeks, over the course of many months, doing more work with equivalent load through an equivalent range of motion will eventually strain the tissue more. And what I like about this is specifically for hypertrophy, it pushes you closer to failure because one of the main things that like, okay, when you think about muscle growth, the most important thing that you can think of, in my opinion, for, for monitoring your training and your sets and being like, did that one build muscle or did that one not build muscle is,
Starting point is 00:09:18 were you almost going to fail? And the closer you are to, yeah, I was going to fail. Meaning I couldn't get another rep. The better that set probably was for building muscle. So a big reason why I like adding more reps to your sets is because what many people think they can do for a given load, meaning like, I always grab the dumbbells and do 20 pounds on my lateral raises. Have you ever done it for 20? I bet you've done it for 10. I bet you've done it for 12, but have you ever done it for 15 or even 20? And I think that's fascinating because a lot of people leave a lot of reps in reserve. They think they're close to failure, but frankly, they're not. And simply asking somebody who always does like 10 lateral raises with the twenties, like, Hey, let's do 15. And from like
Starting point is 00:10:10 10 to 15, they're like, Holy shit. Those extra five really kicked my ass. It's like, well, yeah, cause you were like fucking six reps in reserve and now you're like one. So that a method right there of simply over time, adding a few more sets and this is great, or a few more reps. We'll get to sets in a second, a few more reps. Like I like that, especially on the isolation exercises where it doesn't always make sense to climb up and wait. Cause sometimes like using that lateral raise example, again, to go from a 15 to like a 20 can be a big jump and maybe your gym doesn't have 17 and a half. So that's the jump that you're just going to have to make period end of story. Well, that kind of sucks because
Starting point is 00:10:51 you might be stuck working with those 15s for a while because you can do them for eight, but you can only do the, the, the 20s for two. And that's like not even, you know, two reps of a lateral raise. That's just not a great feeling on your joints. So instead you do, you know, two reps of a lateral raise, that's just not a great feeling on your joints. So instead you do, you know, the 15s for more reps. I think it's a great way if you have limited equipment, limited weight, and you're working with small muscles, small joints to just add a little volume and push yourself closer to failure and have more of your work being done at lower RIRs, lower repetitions in reserve. So I really like that. Now, the third way that comes to mind is just doing an extra set. As long as the sets that you're doing are hard and you're like, whew, man, after three sets, like that really kicked my ass.
Starting point is 00:11:38 Wow. All right, bro. Crazy idea here. You like that exercise. Like this, this has to be one of the most underrated ways to improve in the gym. I do not understand why more people don't do this. You know, the exercises you like, you know, the exercises you don't like, and you probably push yourself really fucking hard on the exercises you like. And it's like, man, I've just, I've been doing the same exercises for a while and they feel good. I don't want to switch them out. I get great pumps and I can take them close to failure, but I think I should switch to like stupid exercises that feel like shit. Cause I'm not growing. And it's like, okay, what if for the exercises that you do like, that you do push close to failure, that you do feel a pump on, what if you just did all those exercises, but added one
Starting point is 00:12:26 more set each? For so many people, just like ratcheting up the volume by one set per muscle group every once in a while, or even one set per lift for advanced lifters, sometimes that is just enough to totally excite new gains, help with breaking through plateaus and prevent the oftentimes stupid choice of changing out like a good exercise. For example, like the incline dumbbell press for like a stupid, or I don't want to say stupid, but kind of inefficient, not as good exercise, like the plate squeeze titty fuck press that so many people do. That exercise isn't that great. And we're often so, we're so often tempted to like, oh, if I want to grow, I need to do a different thing. And it's like, no, you need to do the same fucking thing that helped you grow better, more or heavier.
Starting point is 00:13:17 Like that shit works. And that's why I started this with weight reps and sets. I think those are the big ones. I think those are the ones that help you make the best decisions in the gym. The long run, when those are the variables you're modifying, modify sets, modify reps, modify weight. That is at the fucking core of all the coaching I've ever done in person, online, on my app, in my own life. That's the shit that works. You can modify a lot of the other things we're going to talk about, but these are the things that you constantly need to be tweaking and upregulating and pushing if you want to make progress in the gym. That's my opinion. Okay. Another way you can drive progressive overload,
Starting point is 00:13:58 and this is one that I think works great. Again, especially if you have limited equipment or the goal is hypertrophy, muscle growth, is to take a little less time in between sets. Do a little less rest. This will drive your RIRs, your repetitions in reserve, to zero or get you closer to failure faster. It will probably lead to a reduction in volume. I know a lot of people who say, just go when you're ready or wait as long as you need to be ready and have a hard set. I definitely get that. I like that more and more, the more advanced people get. But for novices, sometimes it's like, whew, my quads are still burning. It's like, okay, your quads are still burning from the leg press. And we're going to take three minutes between like that set of leg press
Starting point is 00:14:45 and our first set of leg extensions. But I'm going to be a dick today to my client, and I'm going to make you do your first set of leg extensions with only a minute and a half of rest. And you're going to be like, oh my God, but my quads are still sore from the leg press. I know, buddy. That's the thing. I'm here to help you grow. And that lack of rest, not letting that muscle fully recover and sneaking in this first set of an isolated exercise with fatigue in the equation, it's going to cook you. And I think decreasing rest periods is a great way to enhance the intensity and the proximity to failure for a lot of lifters. And this is the thing, folks, a lot of people
Starting point is 00:15:26 don't like a lot of trainers don't understand this. And I've had this become more of a thing recently. I have one of my online clients, Jessica, she works in, uh, how do I put this without like airing too much about somebody's personal afraid she works in law enforcement to a certain capacity. And in that field, workouts are oftentimes scattered, fragmented, hard to plan because of crazy, crazy different demands on your schedule and when you're working and the kind of work you're doing. But one of the things that was really important to Jessica was like, I just want my workouts not to take forever. And I want to get things done and be efficient. And I want to
Starting point is 00:16:06 train different qualities, but respectfully, I don't have as much time. And so it made more sense instead of like cutting out exercises to just decrease rest periods and set volume. And it lets her get more done in less time and it works for her and it works for the adaptation she needs. And so I think being able to decrease rest periods is a really, really good one for most people when it comes to like, I want to train a little closer to failure, get some good pumps, build some muscle and not spend a ton of time in the gym. And a lot of you are probably ready to go. I think there's like really two types of people, people who rest too much because they don't understand rest periods and people who don't rest enough because they don't understand rest periods. What's going on guys, taking a break from this episode to tell
Starting point is 00:16:50 you a little bit about my coaching company, Core Coaching Method. More specifically, our app-based training. We partnered with Train Heroic to bring app-based training to you using the best technology and best user interface possible. You can join either my Home Heroes team, or you can train from home with bands and dumbbells, or Elite Physique, which is a female bodybuilding-focused program where you can train at the gym with equipments designed specifically to help you develop strength, as well as the glutes, hamstrings, quads, and back.
Starting point is 00:17:18 I have more teams coming planned for a variety of different fitness levels. But what's cool about this is when you join these programs, you get programming that's updated every single week, the sets to do, the reps to do, exercise tutorials filmed by me with me and my team. So you'll get my exact coaching expertise as to how to perform the movement, whether you're training at home or you're training in the gym. And again, these teams are somewhat specific. So you'll find other members of those communities looking to pursue similar goals at similar fitness levels. You can chat, ask questions, upload form for form review, ask for substitutions. It's a really cool training community and you can
Starting point is 00:17:55 try it completely free for seven days. Just click the link in the podcast description below. Can't wait to see you in the core coaching collective, my app-based training community. Back to the show. Okay. So the next one, again, we're just kind of going slowly, but surely through is to have better execution, form, technique, call it whatever you want. So I like the term execution because I think it takes form into account, right? Like I used to say like, oh, form is super important. And it is. You want to lift with good form and technique. However, now I use a different word. I say execution is super important because I think execution is more all encompassing. Let me tell
Starting point is 00:18:46 you what I mean. You can have pretty good form and like visually and mechanically be like, okay, my form is good. I can see it. It looks the way it's supposed to look. Good execution includes that. You must have good form, but you also must be intentional. You need to be thinking about the muscle you're training. You need to be intentful. Your training needs to be hard and stimulative, meaning you're not like, Oh, I'm doing good form bicep curls while I watched, uh, you know, good morning football on the TV. If you are distracted in your set and you're not focused on your training and you're not thoughtful about how you're pushing yourself and the muscles you're, you're, you know, involving that could be good form, but execution. So when you strive for better execution and more of your lifts, one of the
Starting point is 00:19:35 things that's going to happen is each rep is going to be done with good form, probably through a full range of motion and with intentionality on the muscle being trained and a bonus. If you can really use that focus that comes with, you know, driving more execution in your training to train closer to failure, those things are huge. And so for a lot of you, it's my program's good. I pick good exercises. I, a lot of compound lifts, some isolation work, I pick good exercises. I, a lot of compound lifts, some isolation work, stuff that feels good, stuff that doesn't drive a ton of pain. I do have, as Eugene TL says, my broccoli, my, my vegetables, the training I know I don't love, but it's good for me. Those, those supporting exercises could be things that are, you know, more general like doing cardio and mobility,
Starting point is 00:20:24 or it could be things that are a little more specific. Like, Oh, I know, more general, like doing cardio and mobility, or it could be things that are a little more specific. Like, oh, I know my glute med needs PT work and I never do it, but when I do it, I feel better. Right? So, you know, a good program, good choices of exercises, good volume, you got your broccoli in there. However, you don't have more time to allocate to the gym. What can you do to drive progressive overload? Do your shit with better form, better focus, closer to failure. That is quite literally what I mean when I say better execution. And over your lifting career, you should kind of become a better executor. That's my honest opinion. In time, you should develop more of the skills that are necessary. And one
Starting point is 00:21:02 of the most necessary skills in the gym to drive progress over a long period of time is being able to push yourself and stay focused. And so using progressions like more sets, more reps, more weight, all awesome. But you can always double down on how is my execution and could it be better and how can I make it better? Okay. Another thing you can do is play with tempo. So, okay. So that would be the speed at which you do things. I don't love this. Oh, I don't use it very often. I basically would say like, if you're always lifting the same weight for the same reps and the same volume, if you do it faster, it'll probably make you stronger and more explosive. And if you do it good. You could do that too, but paying attention
Starting point is 00:22:05 to your tempo and mastering how you deploy your tempos over time is a really good way, um, that you can kind of set yourself up to get more out of the same volume. And so you'll notice the first couple were volume drivers. Can we do more weight? Can we do more reps? Can we do more sets? The next couple were without adjusting volume. So that would be like, can we do a little bit less rest? Can we do a little bit better execution? Can we do, you know, things with more focus on our tempo, which really means like how we're loading the various components of contraction. Are we loading the eccentric contraction and stretching? And I'll actually talk about this specifically down the line, but are we focused on like slow stretches and fast, powerful contractions?
Starting point is 00:22:52 Um, another one I love, this is a, this is a big volume tweaker. Uh, not a, not like a meth tweaker, just like it's going to tweak the volume. Um, just to that thing, you want to progress one more time. So increase the training frequency. So for example, if you want to be a better squatter, go from squatting two times a week, like Monday, Thursday, to squatting three times a week, like Monday, Wednesday, Saturday. That one extra session, assuming you recover from it, will make you a much better squatter. And I find in general, the same is true for hypertrophy. If you're training something once a week, going from once to twice, or even two to three times can make a huge difference. So
Starting point is 00:23:34 training frequency is an awesome variable for many people. Assuming you can only do like so many sessions of certain things, like I can only get to the gym five times. So I'm doing like upper, lower, upper, lower total, but I really want to grow my upper body. Maybe do upper, lower, upper, lower, upper. You know, you got whole extra day is just now for the upper, you know, I'm hitting it with more volume and more frequently. Um, so there's ways to play with training frequency. Can be like, Oh, I really want to grow my arms. I'm training four days a week. How about this? We had a fifth day and then fifth day is just arm training. Holy shit, bro. My arms grew. Yes, I know, bro. Crazy. Um, so I think there's something there too. Uh, I think that is one of the best options that you got. Uh, okay.
Starting point is 00:24:28 that you got. Uh, okay. This is a tough one. Cause not everybody has this, uh, uh, security, but to lift through a greater range of motion, a lot of you don't have spotters, you don't have trainers. So like, I'm not going to bury myself in a squat at the gym, close to failure in a new low range of motion and land on my ass. I get it. It's, it is pretty tricky to increase range of motion on certain exercises, but assuming you always prioritize range of motion and you don't get like so out in front of your skis progressing load that you start making sacrifices to your range of motion early. Like that is a huge thing. A lot of people fuck up when they start lifting weights is they think, Oh, progressive overload literally means I just need to put more weight on the bar. Yeah, kind of in some contexts, but hear me out, bro.
Starting point is 00:25:09 If you're brand new and you're like, I'm racing to 225 on the bench and your bench goes from like full range of motion with just the bar to like dog shit, quarter rep 225, you should have just gotten to 225 slow and kept your full range of motion. Cause now you're one of those unfortunate fucks who has small pecs, but like a decent bench. I hate to say it, but you know, you can always just keep the range of motion you have when you first start training and just progress with weight slower and never lose it. Or if you're already like pretty strong and you're, all your lifts look like shit and your range of motion looks like quite literally, you just
Starting point is 00:25:49 half ass everything. You can just use your existing strength, bring the relative like amount of weight down and lift the same weight through more range of motion. And you'll probably grow because there is a progressive overload that comes with taking that same muscle and joint and et cetera, through a greater stretch, through more range of motion. That is a form of progression, which kind of brings me to the little, it's like you call this like a half point. And you could also throw it in with tempo, more lengthening time, more lengthening exercises. So a lot of people are really big on these, what we would call lengthened partials. And we'll talk about partial reps,
Starting point is 00:26:31 what I would maybe call cheat reps in a second. We'll throw them next, but like more lengthening exercises, AKA including more exercises where the muscle stretching really good way to build muscle really, really good for that. So if you're looking to progress and like add an overloading effect and build muscles, maybe you say like, okay, I'm going to, not only am I going to focus on my eccentrics, my stretches, my tempos, I'm going to pick more exercises over time that have more of a lengthened bias and that'll really help. Another thing you can do is cheat reps, junk reps, or partials. A lot of people do what are called lengthened partials. So it's like,
Starting point is 00:27:09 oh, I did all the dumbbell presses I could do through a full range of motion. And then when I couldn't do any more dumbbell presses for the chest, I did dumbbell flies, just the bottom basically, where the stretch is. And that gave me extra, um, you know, stress on the chest, extra stretch, more time under tension. And I got some partial reps, uh, and partials are just basically reps that are done past the point of failure or technical failure, or they're done in advance in a form of like pre-exhaust, which is another way you can progressive overload on. I'll expand on that in a second, but doing some partial reps, um, you know, at the end of your set, when you're like, Oh, I can't curl the bar all the way up. Well, can you do just the bottom half? Yeah. Well then
Starting point is 00:27:53 just do that. Um, or man, I can't do a full range of motion tricep extension. Okay. But can you really rep out a few of just the flex position? Okay. Then do that. That's a progressive stimulus, something that will add more stress and that could help drive more muscle growth. Um, another thing that would be progressive, I mentioned this, uh, a second ago, uh, would be pre-exhaust meaning like, oh, I, I really have a hard time fatiguing my quads with squats. It's like, okay, well, what if you did like leg extensions first and fatigued your quads a little bit in their shortened position? And you know, you know, your squats are working
Starting point is 00:28:30 your quads mostly in their lengthened position. Sure. And in the mid range, sure. However, you're already going to hit your quads a little bit before. So your quads will be somewhat fatigued and the squats might just completely take it out of them. Some people would not do this because they don't want to fatigue a target muscle before doing a compound exercise. And that's why I wouldn't do this if I were new, but a pre-fatigue or pre-exhaust could be a good tactic to, again, over time, just trickle some more stress in there. It's not like all of your training has to be this. It's like, oh, it's the last week of my training block and I haven't used an intensifier yet. So I'm going to use an intensifier like lengthened partials or cheat reps or pre-exhaust. Boom. There you go,
Starting point is 00:29:13 baby. That's a little progressive, is it not? I don't know. I don't think you need to be like fucking Isaac Newton out here and like make everything, you know, crazy difficult. Um, but I think this works. Another thing you can do is add some supersets in to like drive up the volume. Another intensifier that I like, it's like, well, I normally do like chest, uh, and triceps. And it's like, I do flat bench, close grip bench and dips. Those are like my big compounds. And then I finished like tricep extensions and lateral raises. It's like, all right, bro, hear me out. You're going to do a superset. You're going to do tricep extensions and overhead tricep extensions. And you're going to do lateral raises and front raises. You're
Starting point is 00:29:54 going to do the same two things, but you're going to superset them with one more thing and sneak in some extra volume, but keep the time low. It's like, all right, shit. Guess what? Progressive overload, baby. You can use these intensifiers without really changing the nuts and bolts of your programming too much to accumulate some more volume. And when it comes to like athletic performance and strength, there's lots of unique things you can do like overloading eccentrics, unyielding isometrics. You can do things like banded sprints. You can do things like sled drives. You can do things like parachutes, all kinds of crazy shit, bands, chains, things that,
Starting point is 00:30:33 you know, provide a unique stimulus to help you to, you know, kind of reach in and fix on some sticking points. But those things are not necessarily progressively overloading unless you do them for long enough that you drive your way through the adaptation. So it's like, okay, if you normally run sprints and you're like, I'm going to sprint with a parachute and the parachute has drag and that drag is resistance, progressive overload. Not exactly, bro. You need to run with the parachute enough that when you do not have the parachute on, you run faster. And then you can say unequivocally like, yes, that stimulus, that change drew did drive enough, uh, stress on me or, or challenged me in a way that I did adapt.
Starting point is 00:31:19 So, um, there's lots of ways to use this stuff, guys. I really think your best bets are to increase weight, to increase reps, to increase sets, to add an extra bit of frequency, and then sprinkle in the rest of what I said as more intensifiers and to kind of keep things fresh. But there's kind of your primer on progressive overload and ways in which you can drive more progression in your training, especially for strength and muscle growth. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did be sure to hit subscribe, share it, leave me a five-star rating and review so I can grow the show even more. Your help is very meaningful in that area. And I will catch you guys on the next one.

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