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00:00This was the first time in my life that I feel like I don't have a disability.
00:08My life was about being an athlete first.
00:10My entire world changed the day that I found wheelchair basketball and I'm so incredibly
00:14grateful that I found this game.
00:18Hey everyone, I'm Steve Serio, I play wheelchair basketball for Team USA.
00:28I am a two-time Paralympic gold medalist, one-time bronze medalist, and this is a day
00:33in the life with a workout with me.
00:36So I acquired my disability very early on in life.
00:39I was actually born with a benign spinal tumor that went undiagnosed for the first 11 months
00:43of my life.
00:44During that time, the tumor became infected and inflamed and crushed my spinal cord, resulting
00:49in the incomplete paralysis of my lower extremities.
00:51So living with a disability, it's all I know, it's all I remember.
00:55And I didn't find adaptive sports and specifically wheelchair basketball until I was 15 years
00:59old.
01:00And the day that I found it, my life completely changed.
01:04My world became around focusing on the things that I could do and not focusing on the things
01:09that I couldn't.
01:11The day that I found wheelchair basketball was a fork in the road moment for me.
01:15I had always been an athlete growing up, but I had to play able-bodied sports because that
01:20was the world my loved ones decided to raise me in.
01:23I didn't know that adaptive sports or wheelchair basketball even existed growing up.
01:28And I remember going down to practice and sitting in a wheelchair for the very first
01:31time.
01:32And it was a basketball wheelchair that was like 10 times the size, that was too big for
01:37me.
01:38But I remember pushing up and down the court and going through practice.
01:42And after practice, I remember being in the car with my father.
01:46And he hesitatingly asked me, so how did it go?
01:50What did you think?
01:51It looked like you were having a great time out there.
01:53And in typical teenager fashion, I turned to him and said, this was the first time in
01:57my life that I feel like I don't have a disability.
02:00This was the first time that the rules didn't have to be changed so that I could participate.
02:04I was around like-minded kids and their parents, and my life was about being an athlete first.
02:11I was fortunate enough to have some success early on in my career and then attended the
02:16University of Illinois, where I graduated with a degree in kinesiology and exercise
02:22science and have been on Team USA since 2006.
02:27I've competed in the last four Paralympic Games, and Paris will be number five for me.
02:33So a typical practice day for our Team USA consists of at least two practices a day.
02:40All of our athletes are scattered all across the US.
02:44So when we get together, which is basically every two weeks at the training center in
02:49Colorado Springs, we have to make the most of our time because we don't have a lot of
02:53time together.
02:54We usually go for about three or four days at a time.
02:57So our practice days consist of two on-court sessions and then one either weightlifting
03:03session, mental health, sports psych session.
03:06And basically, it's all work when we're in the gym all together.
03:10We need to build just that camaraderie with each other.
03:15So we have a lot of work to do, and every time we're together, we're taking steps towards
03:19another gold medal.
03:20As an athlete, my training goal is to be the absolute best, most conditioned, physically
03:26ready to compete in the Paris Paralympic Games in a couple of months.
03:31Team USA athletes say that this is not just a one-year or two-year endeavor.
03:36It's a lifestyle that you have to accept, not only for yourself, but for your loved
03:41ones as well.
03:42Your nutrition plan has to be dialed in.
03:44Your training program has to be dialed in.
03:47Your mental health program has to be dialed in.
03:49It's a lifestyle, and Paris will be the culmination of years and years in the making for these
03:55athletes.
03:56So when you are watching the Olympic or Paralympic Games in a couple of months, know that the
04:01work that is being put in by those athletes spans back years of their life, and we're
04:08just excited to show the world what we have up our sleeve and hopefully bring home another
04:14gold medal.
04:15A typical warm-up for us before I start my trendy conditioning program always consists
04:20of rotator cuff and shoulder warm-ups.
04:24So you'll see that I'm about to jump into the bands.
04:27It's something that we always have to work through as an adaptive sports athlete.
04:32Our shoulder health is so vital to our success as an athlete because, hey, if one of my shoulders
04:38go or my shoulders go, then I am pretty immobile.
04:42So we have to keep our shoulders healthy.
04:44It's something that I focus on day in and day out each time I'm in the gym.
04:48So I usually open each workout with a pushing movement, and that's because if you watch
04:53wheelchair basketball, the primary movement that we do is pushing the wheelchair.
04:57You have to be able to be explosive in wheelchair basketball.
05:02So the first movement I usually do is a pushing movement, and I'm going to demonstrate a dumbbell
05:07bench press from the floor.
05:09It's one of the ways that we can stabilize our shoulders but also get that chest activation
05:14that we need to be able to increase our speed and agility on the court.
05:19So the next exercise that I like to do is a variation of a pull-up, and I'm going to
05:24show you guys how we do a variation of the pull-up in my sports basketball wheelchair.
05:29Again, once you have to counterweight those pushing elements to make sure that your shoulders
05:34remain healthy, and obviously as we recover each of our pushes, it's a pulling motion.
05:40And that typically is around three sets to about 10 or 12 reps each time.
05:46The next exercise that we do is a lot of ab work, a lot of core work.
05:50We have to be stable in our sports wheelchair because if you watch the game, we are getting
05:56put in a bunch of different compromising positions.
05:58I need to be able to reach for the ball and then come right back to neutral to get ready
06:01to shoot.
06:02So to have your core function strong is vitally important.
06:06This exercise is called a halo dumbbell exercise, and we usually do three sets of this ab exercise
06:14for about a minute each time.
06:16The next exercise we'll do is another core workout, and it's basically just a leg lift
06:21that we like to do.
06:23This is the way that I can activate my lower core, my lower ab muscles to the best of my
06:27abilities.
06:28This one is a little bit unique because not everybody can do this exercise depending on
06:31their disability, but this is one way that I get to activate my lower abs.
06:36The next exercise we're going to do is a variation of a deadlift to curl to press.
06:42One of the most functional wheelchair basketball movements is you have to be able to pick the
06:47basketball up off the floor and then get ready to go into your shooting motion, and this
06:51exercise kind of mimics that.
06:53So it's a three exercise all in one.
06:57We do a deadlift from the floor, I'll curl up and I'll press the dumbbell up, and we
07:03usually do three sets of this one with eight to twelve reps.
07:09Hey guys, I'm Steve Serio.
07:11Thanks for following along as I showed you a little bit about our Team USA workouts.
07:16Follow us along as we compete for gold in Paris in August.
07:18Be good.