Filip Milutinovic
Fitness Coach.
Complex Heart Disease from Birth,
Survived 3 Open Heart Surgeries.
Born in Sydney, Australia 1990.
Filip Milutinovic is a Certified Personal Trainer and a Fitness Obsessed Individual.
He was born with a rare Congenital Heart Disease. Their were numerous problem with his heart, the main issue being something known as 'Transposition of the Great Arteries', which basically means his Heart's main Arteries were all back to front.
This caused many problems for him growing up and meant he had to avoid most Sports and Physical Activities as a child. He was an overweight child also.
Filip was in and out of Hospital a lot, and all together he's had a total of 12 procedures on his Heart and Vascular system, including 3 Open Heart Surgeries.
As he grew into his teens, he stopped letting his parents shelter him and started going to the gym, he started getting involved with sports, and he started getting fitter!
"I always had an Endomorph type body so I could put on weight quite easy, so I was always focusing on slimming down as a teen.. but NOT skinny, I didn't wanna be skinny. I wanted to be LEAN.
So I started training a lot, getting really into it, especially into BodyBuilding. I watched all the videos I could find of my favourite bodybuilders and read all the magazines."
Fast Forward to when Filip was about 23years of age. After lifting consistently and training hard at the gym 5-6 days a week, he decided he wanted to compete in a Bodybuilding Show.
"I knew my heart wasn't the best at the time and my cardiologist said we had to keep an eye on it to see if it gets worse, and I might need a surgery down the track. So I Really wanted to do a show before any of that, you know.. I was young, fearless and ready to tackle the challenge!"
Filip decided to compete in an IFBB show in the Classics division. He states that although competing in the show itself was Awesome, he had pushed his body to new extremes and had neglected some warning signs.
Little did anyone know at the time (himself included) that he was suffering from Congestive Heart Failure.
The Adrenaline and Euphoria from being on stage was masking the effects of the Heart Failure but soon then after, he would find himself in a hard position with his health.
"It wasn't an easy journey after that. After the Adrenaline and Euphoria of the show faded, my body started to give me signs... and it started to fail.."
Walking became a nightmare. He states that he would literally struggle to breathe just from walking!
That was when he had to have his 3rd Open Heart Surgery. It was a Slow Long recovery process, but he was as motivated as ever...
1 year on after that surgery he had transformed his body almost back to what he was when he was at his best. He chooses to not let anything stop him from his fitness goals.
"Now, at the age of 28, I focus more than ever on My Health and Fitness levels not just my Muscles and I think that is important. We want to live a quality and fulfilling life, to enjoy the times with loved ones..."
In late 2017, Filip co-founded Freak Athletiq with his partner, Elizabeth.
Together, they work on spreading their message of inspiration and unity.