Maria Tonione, PHD
Rooted in science. Led by curiosity.
I’m Maria — a yoga teacher, personal trainer, and scientist. The SOL space brings these parts of my life together around one simple intention: helping people feel more at home in their bodies.
Different paths. One connected approach.
My approach is born from a distinctive intersection: a deep reverence for the mindfulness traditions of yoga, practical experience as a personal trainer, and my doctoral background in evolutionary genomics. My PhD in evolutionary genomics shaped how I ask questions, look at evidence, and appreciate the complexity of living systems. Teaching yoga and personal training give that curiosity a deeply human focus: how we move, how we adapt, and how we care for ourselves over time.
Here, there is no perfect pose or single way to be well. My approach is thoughtful, adaptable, and grounded in respect for your experience. I translate my biological background into practices that help you daily and long term. That might mean we practice a mindful vinyasa to regulate our nervous system, strength train to protect our bones, or work on balance to improve proprioception for decades to come.
My background in science gave me a different way to approach health and fitness. I hold a PhD in evolutionary genomics from UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, and spent 20 years tutoring and teaching college-level courses. I loved both teaching and research, publishing 13 peer-reviewed articles along the way.
During the pandemic, I left my academic career to focus on my family and began exploring how I could combine my love of teaching with my growing passion for health and fitness. I became a personal trainer, and later a yoga teacher, training and teaching women and men throughout the Bay Area through programs such as the Recreational Sports Facility at UC Berkeley and the UC Berkeley RecWell Program.
Later, I moved to Costa Rica where I continued teaching yoga classes and personal training. Through more than 1,000 hours of training in fitness and wellness, and through my own lived experience navigating the changing needs of a woman's body, I learned an enormous amount of information about the human body and in particular women’s bodies. I learned that getting stronger, protecting our bones and muscles, supporting our energy and recovery, and training in ways that actually work with our bodies can have an enormous impact on how we feel and age. I also learned that caring for ourselves doesn’t have to mean doing more; it means understanding what matters most and having a thoughtful, sustained approach.