A few years ago I was booked in for hip surgery. Today I coach the method that got me out of it. One of the coaches I certified alongside, Viktor Nikolovski, lives on almost the exact opposite side of the planet, in Syracuse, New York.
This is the short version of how Functional Patterns found me, why I stopped chasing symptoms and started retraining movement, and how a certification course full of strangers turned into a friendship with a coach on the other side of the world.
How I got here
A surgery date I never wanted
For two years I was in hip pain every single day. I'd done everything "right" (months with physiotherapists, podiatrists, and chiropractors), and by late 2021 my physio was preparing me for surgery. I was an active triathlete with an Ironman finish who loved Olympic weightlifting; this wasn't the body I recognised.
What wasn't working
Every approach treated the hip as a part to fix: a muscle to strengthen, a joint to mobilise. None of them asked the bigger question: how is this hip actually supposed to move, load, and behave inside a whole human walking around all day?
What changed
Functional Patterns did ask that question. Instead of chasing the spot that hurt, I retrained the inputs (how I stood, breathed, walked, and loaded), and the hip finally had a reason to feel different. I got out of pain and back to living, and I never had the surgery.
Where I met Viktor
Two strangers, 16,000km apart
When I signed up for the Human Biomechanics Specialist course (the HBS1), Viktor and I arranged shared accommodation for it before meeting, then met in person in California just before it started. He was born and raised in the US, me in Australia. About as far apart as two people can start.
What I found
Viktor and I went through the HBS2 course at the same time and were delighted to be doing it together, then went home to opposite sides of the world: Viktor to Syracuse, me to Melbourne, about 16,000 kilometres apart. Here's what stuck with me: Viktor wasn't quietly adapting the method to suit local tastes, and neither was I. He teaches the same thing I do, the same way, because it works the same way everywhere.
Why that matters
Wherever you are on the map (Syracuse or Melbourne), gravity pulls the same way and your gait cycle runs the same way. Viktor now runs Syracuse Biomechanics, teaching the same method a hemisphere away.
A shared conviction
Why the world is catching on
Functional Patterns didn't grow out of one gym or one charismatic trainer. It's certified practitioners all over the world: people who flew in from different countries to the same courses (that's literally how Viktor and I met), learned the same system, went home to completely different populations, and got the same kinds of results.
Personality vs. method
When a method only works for one gifted coach in one place, that's a personality. When it works in Melbourne and Syracuse and everywhere else the courses land, that's a method: something repeatable, built on principles rather than marketing.
Why I bet on it
I changed how I work because I watched this do things nothing in my old toolkit could, for me first, then for my clients. I think it points to a real shift in how people train: away from chasing symptoms, toward treating the body as the connected system it actually is.
The invitation
You don't have to take my word for it.
The fastest way to understand Functional Patterns is to feel it. You don't have to take the word of two coaches on opposite sides of the world. You can try it, feel the difference in a session or two, and decide for yourself.
If you're near Syracuse, that's where Viktor comes in: start with him at Syracuse Biomechanics. If you're in Melbourne, I'm a short search away. Either way, the invitation's the same: come and try it for yourself.
Credit where it's due
Functional Patterns is the methodology developed by Naudi Aguilar (functionalpatterns.com). Viktor Nikolovski is a certified Human Biomechanics Specialist and the coach behind Syracuse Biomechanics in Syracuse, NY; he and I certified through the HBS courses together.