#073 - Introducing: The Cardio Chats (Raw & Unfiltered)

In this special “Cardio Chats” edition of the Decoding Excellence Show, I’m hitting record during one of my Zone 2 ruck walks,raw, unfiltered, and straight from the heart.

No fancy studio. No edits. Just the real thoughts running through my head while I’m moving my body and reflecting on the work we do in Strength and Conditioning, Sports Science, and High Performance Coaching. This isn’t scripted. It’s not polished. It’s just me sharing what’s top-of-mind,from training insights and performance frameworks to lessons I’m learning, testing, and integrating in real time.

If you're a coach, practitioner, or just someone who’s chasing improvement, these walks are for you. Think of it like grabbing a coffee with a colleague, except I’m breathing heavier and carrying weight on my back.

Whether you’re on your own walk, stuck in traffic, or setting up the gym,this is your behind-the-scenes peek into how I think, plan, and process high performance.

Thanks again for listening to the Decoding Excellence Show! I appreciate all the support growing this Sport Science, Strength & Conditioning, and High-Performance Coaching resource. If you have taken anything away from the show, please login to iTunes and navigate to ⁠⁠⁠Decoding Excellence⁠⁠⁠ page and leave us a FIVE STAR ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review.

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Key Takeaways

• Cardio Chats is a raw, unscripted series recorded during Zone 2 ruck walks: no edits, no studio, just real-time thinking on strength and conditioning, sport science, and coaching.
• The format is a behind-the-scenes look at how a practitioner thinks, plans, and processes high performance while moving, like grabbing coffee with a colleague who happens to be breathing heavier.
• Unscripted does not mean unconsidered: the episodes capture training insights and performance frameworks being tested and integrated in real time.

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Go Further in This Episode

Enjoyed this conversation? Here is how to get more from it:

• Read the transcript below to revisit key ideas at your own pace.
• Share this episode with a coach or colleague who would benefit.
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Episode Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated. While we strive for accuracy, some words or phrases may be misheard.

[00:00:00] Sport science, strength and conditioning, high performance coaching, welcome to the Decoating Excellence Show. Hey everybody, welcome to the Decoding Excellence Show. As always I'm your host Adam Ringler and by nature I'm a strength conditioning coach and sports scientist. Every single episode I'm trying to deliver some information, some resources, something that brings a little bit of value to your ears. This episode is no different so thanks for tuning in. There's a lot of podcasts

[00:00:53] That you can listen to and you decided to tune into this one so I thank you. Without further ado let's get into the episode. All right so we have some cardio talks right here. Now this is when I am engaging some either zone one or zone two conditioning. Typically I do this while I are drunk and I have a 40 pound backpack actually purchased it through 5.11 the outgoreing sort of tactical website but otherwise I try to engage in these walks. I do them every single day really. Now sometimes I'm doing in the facility at CU

[00:01:41] Event Center. Other times I'm keeping it in my neighborhood like right now. What I'm doing right now when I'm in the facility I actually do it at 25% angle. So the speed's a little bit lower. My heart rate is definitely way more elevated on those conditioning sessions than what I'm doing now. So my thoughts on these cardio walks is that use them as a medium to not only your time which listen when you're doing enough zone two you have time. You're just sort of getting that heart rate, getting that heart beaten in a way that is an overly exerting. We can still

[00:02:22] Have a conversational sort of back and forth. Your heart's going like I'm looking at my watch right now I'm at about 110 beats per minute. So a little bit lower than 131.35 so you need to do that on whole school flat. I thought I'd share just some things that I've been working on right. This is the decoding excellence podcast I figured we'd eradicate it into some things that might talk about sports science or something. Even high performance coaching. So I was working on a so let's talk a little bit about some of the things that

[00:03:03] I'm doing right. So I have an article that's going to come out most likely tomorrow depending on when this podcast drops and it's centered around 10 coaching principles that you only learn when you are in the field right. You're not going to learn these things when you are you know studying from the NSCA textbook you're not learning them from the CSCCA national conference when you're sitting in front of a master's strength conditioning coach like myself testing or going to the practicum. These are lessons that you learn really by by force might necessity by

[00:03:44] Being in the field for as long as you are you learn what actually really matters and what doesn't. Now I'm not saying sets reps and exercise selection doesn't matter. That has its place for sure but there are some things when it comes to the relationship when it comes to cultivating trust and buy-in into your program when it comes to just simply what matters in coaching and that's the relationship piece. And so this article that I ended up writing was all about that. Now I go through and I talk about the time commitment

[00:04:29] That it takes right. The late night calls, the 1 a.m. Text messages, the the navigating uncertainty and helping assist in whatever whatever comes to life. Whether it's in a you know airport terminal when you're traveling on the road when it's a hotel lobby when it's you know relationships that break ups to anxiety around performance when it's around you know parental uh again relationships and just the complexity that that humans go through. That's what matters. So I talk heavily about these things. Now if you hear wind in the background

[00:05:18] Right this is because I'm outside. I'm trying to get vitamin D. I'm in front of the sun. I'm doing this rock walk through my neighborhood both killing times E2 and trying to just share some of these thoughts that are on the top of my head right. So it might not be the most polished podcast in the world you know this isn't this isn't ritual in a studio or a huberman in a studio with professional little mics and uh you know professional software like I'm with my phone I'm with the field recorder right now with my AirPods. I don't have a lab mic hooked up to my rock or anything like that so

[00:05:56] A little bit more raw on these. I'll try in the most edit to take out some of these sound vehicles passing by and dogs barking things like that but there's also some things I end up talking about in this article when it comes to when it ends up coming to not just the relationship piece but how do you build trust with the people that you work for and work with. This might be head coaches this might be your support staff this might be your director pops this might be your again your head coach is administrator sports supervisors. Now I talk a lot about it in the article how

[00:06:39] It's so important to get a relationship with your athletic trainer because that person whoever he or she is is a strength professional you need them in your fox right they are your backup runner in your airplane whether you're flying it or they are you absolutely need each other this job athletes healthcare management performance holistic performance whatever you might want to call it it is too big for one person it's too big for one uh professional to be able to handle every fast about it so that said we need to have an integrated team now everybody loves to

[00:07:31] Talk about integrated this oh look at look at our integrated health and performance team well that sounds great our paper and then on the boilerplate for publications and marketing materials booklet such hamplets you might be able to say that now it's a whole different saw game when you're talking about the time commitment to actually be integrated right so it's easier to say it's a hell of a lot harder to do it's a little bit like doing that what it looks like if something is going on with the athletic trainer as a strength conditioning coach you're there

[00:08:10] But something's going on in weightland as a strength conditioning coach your athletic trainer is there if you're referring out to a physical therapist you both are there it's an understanding of the discipline of which the athletic trainer does whether it's dry needling if it's a-r-t if it's massage it's basic sort of a physio physical therapy but d'alities as a strength conditioning coach you need to be aware of those you need to understand those those need to be part the language in which you speak in addition that's an athletic trainer into creativeness is understanding the strength

[00:08:49] Conditioning perspective to set the reps the modalities the volume the intensities the adaptation specific adaptations don't close demands the progression models all of these things and when you guys could speak each other's languages you're able to have a much more similar conversation that conversation's important because that's what's driving the integrativeness in the holistic athlete the healthcare model healthcare slash performance model so if you guys can't speak the same language with what trying to be integrative having a conversation surrounding what's important

[00:09:27] What works and what doesn't work and how you can build a program that is centered around the athlete their injury their progression their performance and their health without that you're just somehow by happen chance that everything is going to work out all right for the athlete and that's that's not rooted in reality so I get into that quite a bit in the article and I think you can find the article obviously at my website natomringler.com it's probably on the front page at this rate it's a featured post or at least when I drop it it will be a featured post so it's also a time to say if

[00:10:09] You're not part of my newsletter right you're missing out so every sort of almost every week my drop a list bullet point list very brief not trying to you know steal any more of your time on a friday or a Saturday Sunday you know because you should be spending that time doing the things that you actually like to do but I try to drop list about 45 things that I find interesting I call it by very originally started as my month in musings but now but dropping it a little bit more frequently so it's just my musings and this is the things that are intriguing me at the moment so it might be

[00:10:49] Things I thought you might be you know podcasts some listening to articles have read movies I've watched anything that's delivering some level of value to me so if it's delivering value I try to share it with you I found it interesting interesting enough to put my name behind it and share my community so head over to natomringler.com forward slash news letter you can sign up today that's an easy way of getting access to all of the articles all the publications the blogs the video youtube series have been doing what have been publishing on my personal website as well so but

[00:11:30] Hopefully these short micro conversations by zone two walks if you will hopefully there's something in this right I want to I try to make more or better use of the time that I have especially when I'm just sitting here having these conversations in my head anyways while I'm listening to either youtube or podcasts when I walk and I said you know what rather than continuing to consume contact by these zone twos I have the conditioning for it breath behind my words I might as well be trying to create some contact here and so that's my hope with these zone two conditioning talks

[00:12:11] Is that my cardio talks it's a way to continue to add value to your ears to your brain to your day might not be perfect might not be the best audio but it's a way to hey maybe you're listening to this while we're while you're doing your cardio not doing cardio you're doing cardio we're just two people having a conversation about performance and score science strength conditioning so you can go on a virtual walk with me I'll walk along the side of you and we can do this thing together to all of us hearing so that's always I'm out of nowhere I wrap this one up here appreciate

[00:12:52] You for listening thanks for tuning in to this so raw episode of the Decoding Excellence the cardio talks until next time stay strong keep training keep coaching hard your athletes deserve it I appreciate you hey everybody that's going to be it for this podcast as always if you missed any of the episodes here in the Decoding Excellence Show you can go and explore the bat catalog I host all of our episodes not only are in every sort of podcast hosting site whether it's Spotify or whether it's a YouTube or anywhere else but you can go to my website it is atomringler.com forward slash

[00:13:40] Podcasts from there you can listen to all of the interviews whether it's other sport professionals whether it's the monologues whether it's the basketball discussions or the sports science intact go to the website check it out listen to the podcast I'm telling you you will take something away from the bat catalog of the Decoding Excellence Show now one of the ways that you can support this show now there's two really you could go to atomringler.com forward slash newsletter you can sign up for my newsletter and in this you're going to get access to everything the cool

[00:14:18] Things that I discover from a monthly basis new books I'm reading things I'm discovering articles that I found related to sports science that's really cool and coaching so pop in your email and that is just an easy way of supporting the show and you'll get free behind the scenes access to all the cool things I'm discovering if you took anything away from this episode I would encourage you no I would beg you to share it with any of your friends your co-workers your family members share it with somebody that could get a little bit of value from hearing what we discuss

[00:14:53] Today and as always I appreciate you I thank you until next time stay strong stay healthy keep pushing on