Introducing

Our purpose

FROM GAINZZZ FOUNDER ANTONIO ZANELLATO

The intention of sharing my story is to give hope, to inspire and to encourage anyone reading this who is, doubtful, scared or discouraged by the idea of letting go of everything that is in the way of you living your greatest purpose in this life; which ultimately, is the ability to share your gift of love with the world.

My name is Antonio Zanellato and I am the CEO of Gainzzz Lab, a sports rest and recovery firm. Gainzzz designs and produces tools made specifically for helping athletes and fitness enthusiasts with rest and recovery. I’m also the proud Founder of Chu-Got-This, a non-profit organization with the mission of assisting people who are unhoused as well as financially disadvantaged cancer patients with their physical, mental and spiritual healing while giving them a fair opportunity to rewrite their story.

I was born and raised in Naples, Italy. When I was 3 years old, my whole family was involved in a tragic car accident in which my stepfather was killed , my mom went into an extended coma and me going missing for over a day as I was catapulted from the backseat into the woods at the bottom of the hill where our vehicle had crashed. I was found the following night by a truck driver who pulled to the side of the road to use the restroom and heard me crying. It was a true miracle that I survived.

I am not sure if the accident had anything to do with it, but from a very young age I always felt like there was something different about me. I have always been very sensitive and caring for others and I also had a very acute intuition about things and people around me. Growing up I always felt compelled to help people who looked like they were in distress or overwhelmed. As an example, I remember going to the fish market one day when I was about 10 years old and with my mom and while she was busy shopping I started helping this older guy who I could tell was struggling with unloading a truckload of fresh fish. My mom had to come back a few hours later to get me because I refused to leave the older man working by himself.

However, as I grew older, I started internalizing the notion that people were taking advantage of my kindness, a story that kept getting validated by the continuous lectures from my family members who didn't miss a single occasion to let me know that I was too considerate and that I needed to be more selfish and callous. Hence, I slowly started reversing my character to the point where I did not only stop being kind and generous towards others but I actually did a complete 180 and started hanging out with the wrong crowd and began transgressing the law.

Luckily for me, after a series of close calls, I was able to realize that I wasn't meant for that life. I didn’t feel like I had, or lacked for that matter, what it took to pursue that lifestyle. So I started taking school more seriously as well as training in a boxing gym near my house.
At that point I wasn't really into boxing much but I kept showing up because I saw the coaches, who were two brothers, as fatherly figures of some sort. They lived in my neighborhood so they knew my background and they did their best to support me, in their own ways, by giving me guidance and holding me accountable with training and academics.

At that point in my life, my mom had me attending a Merchant Marine Academy, despite the fact that I had announced my career's aspiration and goals to be in a totally different realm. She "asked" me to follow in my uncle's footsteps instead. At the time, my uncle was sailing as a captain for a very renowned worldwide shipping company. Her argument was that "real jobs" were hard to come by in Italy hence I needed to remain "realistic" and choose a career where I could get grandfathered in with the help of my uncle. In other words nepotism. Talk about a soul killer!

Fast forward, I ended up spending the following 20 years of my life consumed by working at a very demanding job that I hated yet all the while telling myself that I was born to do that work. Talk about living a lie! I resented my Mom for this. Unfortunately, I ended up losing my Mom when I was 29 y/o (on my birthday) to cancer. I’ve forgiven my Mom because I realize that she did the best she could with what she knew. It wasn't in her capacity or capability in this lifetime to break the generational spell that loomed over my family.

It wasn't until my twin girls were born, that the lie I was living started turning into very acute anxiety. The feeling was so loud and suffocating that I was no longer able to ignore it, no matter how hard I tried. I knew I had to make some drastic changes in order to get my life back and start getting in alignment with who I was really meant to be in this world. I hired a Therapist and a Life Coach and with their help and with the encouragement of my wife Jan I was able to start my strength and conditioning business and within 6 months I fully transitioned from my corporate "career". Being responsible for a hefty mortgage and two newborn babies at home made an already scary decision even scarier. But ultimately I was able to work through my fears and inch towards my true purpose.

I always felt that my strength and conditioning business and the following launch of Gainzzz weren't the end goal. They each constituted initial stepping stones meant to start freeing me from my self-limiting beliefs and peeling off the layers of darkness that were dimming my light. I knew there was a bigger story waiting for me to live. I had no idea what that looked like and at times I felt like I would never be able to reveal it to myself. However I stuck to my path of self-discovery or as I like to call it, self-uncovery, and after undergoing a lot of grounding and spiritual work, I finally realized that my gift to the world resided in that ten year old little boy who loved helping people in distress.

So I invited him back into my life and embraced his true essence which is pure love, care and compassion for others as well as himself.

So, Chugotthis, which is my humorous and lighter way to say "You Got This", was born.

We will start with donating a portion of each sale from Gainzzz towards purchasing and delivering fresh Ayurvedic food to currently unhoused people and people (cancer patients) who are financially struggling in Southern California.

We are partnering up with Chef Prakash who is the founder of Nourish Ayurveda. Prakash is an Ayurvedic Practitioner, Life coach and Master Ayurvedic Chef and has agreed to provide us with fresh food which, for now, my team and I will be personally delivering. We aspire to be able to provide this service nationally in the future and ultimately be able to support people in need with housing, employment but most importantly with a true and sound support system designed to ensure they feel safe and loved by the people around them.

Chugotthis" You Got This, We Got You"