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
