Welcome
My name is Zach Guza. I am a Certified Personal Trainer, founder of Black Dog Fitness and Parkinson's Exercise Specialist.
Credentials
- United States Air Force Academy graduate
- Air Force Officer and Helicopter Pilot
- Certified Personal Trainer - WITS Education
- Functional Aging Specialist - FAI
- Rock Steady Boxing Coach
- Nutrition for Health and Fitness - University of TN
- PWR! Moves Instructor
- Brice and Blair's Dad (the ultimate workout)
Not just a gym rat
I am not your typical Personal Trainer. In my "other lives" I always liked to workout but it was only part of my life.
I just didn't realize how important it was.
I do not live to workout. I workout to live.
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Fitness saved my life.
I learned the hard way that exercise is absolutely essential for mental and physical health. Without exercise, I almost destroyed my family, my career and came very close to destroying myself. Exercise is part of my daily therapy to keep the Black Dog on a leash.
I founded Black Dog Fitness to help other people with Depression and Anxiety use physical fitness to support their mental health.
It works. I am living proof.
My Story
After flying helicopters with the Air Force for 9 years we got out started a family and I began clawing up the corporate ladder. I was making great money but I was miserable. I didn’t think that I had the time to exercise - too busy, too important.
Weekends were the worst. I was supposed to be out enjoying my family and time off, but I was exhausted, angry, flabby, withdrawn, drinking and resentful. I was destroying myself and my family.
When I finally got professional help, I was diagnosed with Depression. Not just “grumpy" or "feeling blue" but the deep, dark, "why-am-I-alive?" kind of depression. One of the first things my psychiatrist told me to start exercising again.
Then I put it all together: exercise is therapy.
Regular, intense exercise was and still is absolutely essential to balancing the demands of raising strong and active boys, working a high-stress job and managing a mental illness.
I started working out again and I got control of my life.
This picture from when I climbed Half Dome in Yosemite Park. When we got to the top, I asked a Park Ranger, "Do you get a lot of suicides?" "Nope. Usually by the time they make it up here, they have changed their mind." A good walk can save your life.
