From freerunning to free movement, this month’s teacher highlight is Mike Berina, a passionate and dynamic Yoga Tune Up® and Roll Model® instructor. Mike combines his passion for fitness and movement with a focus on longevity and health span. Mike knows the joys of helping people move better, recover faster, and live pain-free lives.
Interview led by Meg, Tune Up Fitness’s Brand Engagement Manager, with over 25 years of dance experience, starting in Dallas, Texas, and has now traveled the nation performing and teaching. After years of repetitive dance movements, Meg’s pain in her shoulders, hands, and feet was relieved by the Roll Model® Method. This new knowledge inspired Meg to complete more Tune Up Fitness courses; she continued to take Body By Breath and Yoga Tune Up® Teacher Certification to share it with her students and reawaken her love for anatomy.
Mike Berina is a Roll Model Method Practitioner and Yoga Tune Up Certified Teacher who tests limits and reaches new bounds of embodiment. Mike brings an adventurous spirit to his passion for fitness and movement. Whether he’s pushing his limits through parkour, cliff jumping, or traveling to explore new challenges, Mike embodies a vibrant love for life. He combines this energy with a deep focus on longevity and healthspan, helping people move better, recover faster, and live pain-free lives while inspiring them to embrace their own sense of adventure.
Learn more about Mike in this month’s Teacher Highlight interview below.
Meg: How many years have you been teaching:
Mike Berina: 7 years teaching the Roll Model Method, and 6 years teaching Yoga Tune Up
Meg: Why did you start teaching?
Mike Berina: I recognized how much better my quality of life was after taking Yoga Tune Up classes with Laurie Streff in 2016. I had struggled with IT band pain for years, but it was completely gone after taking those classes. Then going through the Roll Model and YTU certifications and incorporating the practices and what I learned really locked it in. It felt great moving in my body and not living with chronic pain. I started to see the quality of my life was noticeably better in all areas. Better meditation practice, no more road rage when stuck in LA traffic. I started weightlifting, yoga, and dancing at concerts; I felt like I was living my best life.
I thought to myself, how extraordinary would life be if everyone else around me felt this great? So, I started teaching first to help my family and friends resolve their pain issues and get them moving and feeling better.
Meg: What is your No. 1 tip for teachers:
Mike Berina: Be observant. Students don’t always vocalize their pain or feelings. Watch your student’s body language, facial expressions, and breathing. Even my habitual students sometimes don’t vocalize if they need modifications. I have to be vigilant for non-verbal communication and generous with giving modification options to ensure everyone feels good in their movement practice.
Meg: Do you have any exciting hobbies that rolling has helped support?
Mike Berina: Weightlifting, freerunning/parkour, and travel. Rolling has taught me how to apply the techniques in real time to do what I need to do.
Just last week, I was canyoneering in the Philippines, jumping across rocks off of 26-foot cliffs into a meandering river. My ankle landed weirdly on a rock about a third of the way through the trail. It could have been a minor sprain. But no biggie. I just sat on a rock and took a minute to manually mobilize my ankle using self-massage techniques I’ve learned from Tune Up Fitness. Then, I was back to my adventure.
Meg: What is your favorite rollout:
Mike Berina: “Mom Jean Pocket” with the Alpha ball against the wall for some very satisfying gluteus medius release. Also “Tensor Fascia Filet”
Meg: What is your favorite move:
Mike Berina: Leg Stretch series, both to do and to teach, because my students love the hands-on help for that extra range of motion in the hips.
I thought to myself, how extraordinary would life be if everyone else around me felt this great? So, I started teaching first to help my family and friends resolve their pain issues and get them moving and feeling better.
Meg: How have the Tune Up Fitness® Certified trainings impacted your teaching?
Mike Berina: Many of the clients I work with have mentioned that I’m the only teacher across the various modalities they practice who consistently helps with queuing their breathing and reminds them to breathe in sync with their movements. The breath strategies I learned from Tune Up Fitness training have been instrumental in getting results quickly. I always remind them, “The breath is the most important part.”
Training with Jill earlier this year for the Online Yoga Tune Up Teacher Certification gave me a refresher on hands-on adjustments that I had forgotten since my first training, especially for the Leg Stretch series. I’ve been incorporating those techniques into my classes, and my students love it!
Meg: How have you motivated men to start moving more?
Mike Berina: Honestly? Competition. No man wants to be the weakest in the tribe. So, by working on myself, I raise the bar for others to get healthier and more fit. Especially with my college friends and my bros at the gym. They’ve seen me since I started my fitness journey and all the progress I’ve made through consistency over the years. No one wants to get left behind, so we push each other to get better.
And when my bros have minor injuries and movement issues that impede their training, I help them out with their recovery so they can get back to moving and living well.
My approach has always been about longevity and quality of life. Now in my 30s, I hope to inspire men of all ages to get active, mobile, and strong.
Follow Mike and join his classes and training below.
YouTube: @mikeberina
https://www.youtube.com/@MikeBerina
IG : @mikeberina
https://www.instagram.com/mikeberina/profilecard/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
FB: Mike Berina
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084534866442&mibextid=ZbWKwL
Thanks so much for that, Mike! It was great to hear from you—especially after seeing you in the YTU Teacher Certification videos. Your reminder about staying observant in class really resonated with me. It’s true—most students won’t speak up when something doesn’t feel right, so it’s on us to notice those subtle cues.
I also really appreciate that there are regressions available for the poses—definitely something I rely on! The leg stretch series is one of my personal favorites too. I’m looking forward to the day I can start incorporating hands-on adjustments once I’m certified.
Thanks again for sharing your insights!
Wow, there are SO many nuggets of wisdom and inspriation for teachers in this interview. I can especially relate to the comment to look for non-verbal cues from students because they don’t often vocalize when they are not comfortable in a pose. If a teacher is able to recognise when this is happening, they are able to intelligently and compassionatly offer modifications and options that will improve the student’s experience and the efficacy of the pose. That’s what it’s all about. As a newer yoga teacher, I am working hard to really observe my students in class; I can default to demoing poses/doing the sequence along with them, without really checking in to notice what the students are doing. Further, being able to observe my students and have the knowledge and expertise to understand/identify what in their body is making it difficult for them to do a pose and then be able to offer adjustments and modifications to help them feel better in the pose and in their body is exactly why I took the YTU course.
I can relate to this. This is how I started. I went to an RMM class with Kerstin Jager. I immediately could feel an improvement in my quality of life, and it inspired me also. I agree with him that it would be awesome if everyone shared their knowledge of RMM and YTU with others.
Mike, thanks for sharing your energy and enthusiasm for all things YTU! The tip of being an observer of your students – this can translate into so many modalities. As a spin instructor, its important to ensure the student sets up their bike correctly – there’s been may times I’ve walked around during class and had to assist someone with adjusting their bike. Makes all the difference in their body – less discomfort better movement!
I love how Mike brings the spirit of friendly competition to get his boys involved with self care. Knowing your audience is vital to figuring out how to speak their language and get them to buy into what you’re sharing.
I think I will gladly take the tip shared by Mike on being observant for non verbal cues as the students in a yoga classes may not always share their need for a modification to ease into a pose. I agree with that and would like be more vigilant in class to offer modifications. I am also impressed by how Yoga Tune Up gives mike the freedom to be physically active and enjoy all his adventures as he can always lean into his self care knowledge acquired by learning and teaching Yoga tune up and roll model to stay fit and keep thriving.
Thank you for reminding me to be observant while teaching. We sometime don’t even know how our body is feeling and acting until someone points out that there is some unevenness and weakness. It is so crucial to have the eyes on our body to maintain the safe environment to efficiently workout.
I appreciate that Mike’s blog includes review of his journey to finding a healing path that works for him that he now uses to help others. Having expertise with treating chronic pain, and being able to read peoples’ nonverbal communications, is invaluable.
I too aspire to be a YTU certified teacher. My favorite flow so far is, (it’s only been 1 day of training) Half Happy Baby Minivini. This movement with external hip rotation released both physical and emotional blockages for me today. I’m looking forward to teaching it. I can also relate to the power of Myofascia release using tune up balls for avoiding injury – when a chair leg suddenly broke as I was bending to sit, while holding a glass of wine, I was able to stand up with strong hip flexors and my ankle fascia was flexible enough to stack my knee, leg and ankle joints- avoiding injury!
Move Better Live Better
Love this comment, MaryMarie; a great example of how TYU and functional fitness translate to everyday life. It was so fun to “meet” you and the other participants in this YTU course. 🙂
This article caught my eye because I used to teach a yoga class of all men – we called our group the “Brogas”. I shared the Roll Model Method with the Brogas and they loved it. Thank you, Mike for sharing your story and how Jill’s inspiration motivated you to help others.
Thank you so much for sharing about not just how your body felt better but the wellbeing it brought to your life! That’s beautiful! Very Inspiring Mike!
Mike, I just wanted to take a moment to say how much I admire your spirit and energy! Watching you as a student during the Yoga Tune Up® Teachers Trainings masterclasses in November 2024 (especially the way you embraced the exercises, even when it was obvious that they were out of your comfort zone) was truly inspiring. I share your passion and enthusiasm and your thoughts of “how extraordinary would life be if everyone else around me felt this great…”. The way you motivate the “bros” at the gym to embody their bodies and the way you teach these men to prioritize their health and longevity, is very powerful. I have many male students, however, they reach out to me only when “everything else didn’t work” and they’re already in chronic pain (normally in their mid 30s and older). I hope that more and more people would seek to feel great in their bodies BEFORE they break down and find their way to our practices…