My Yoga Online co-founder: Kreg Weiss

My Yoga Online co-founder Kreg Weiss

He’s the co-founder of on the internet’s most popular streaming yoga classes website, My Yoga Online. Vancouver-based Kreg Weiss was competing in national-level sports when he first discovered yoga. Like so many, that exposure to yoga completely changed the way Kreg saw health and fitness.

He’s now completed his Bachelor’s degree in Human Kinetics and Health Sciences at UBC and uses his extensive background in anatomy and physiology  to educate and safely guide his students in how asanas, pranayama, and meditation act to rejuvenate and heal the body and mind.

Kreg is just one of the many yoga teachers you’ll find on My Yoga Online, which boosts an extensive library of yoga classes ranging from Yin to Kundalini, Vinyasa to Meditation, and everything in between. (See the bottom of this interview for a My Yoga Online free pass giveaway).

1. What style of yoga do you practice and where do you teach?

I practice and teach a combination of classical hatha yoga and free-form hatha flow.  I enjoy honoring the traditions of yoga by maintaining connections to breath and bandhas.   But I also embrace exploring organic qualities of flow.  I find that this approach takes me away from expectations that can readily set in from previous practices and instead allows my body’s needs to guide me into a unique practice.

2. How did you come to yoga?

I was working as a personal trainer and competing in national level sports 15 years ago when I discovered yoga.  Yoga was a tool for training to help recover and develop my flexibility.  Very quickly, I found my interest in Yoga shifted from the physical gains to the more balanced, spiritual approach.

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3. When did the yoga bug really get you?

My joy for yoga really set in after retiring from competitive sports.  I found my preferred style of practice shift from vinyasa to slower, classical hatha yoga.  I discovered a set of teachers who helped me settle deeper into breath work and meditative activities.  From that point, I have always been drawn to the more subtle qualities of Yoga through slower, more contemplative applications.

4. How has yoga transformed your life?

Yoga has been most profound in my life in terms of opening my awareness and helping me become a greater observer.  I see more clearly how I have a choice on how to act and respond in life – not just live by default.  Yoga has helped me develop a mind/body practice in every activity – taking in the fullest of each moment – finding beauty and truth in everything and everyone around me.

5. What is your home practice like?

My home practice is very nurturing.  I always start off asking my body what it wants.  By tuning into these needs, I then ease into a flow and explore.  Sometimes these needs change as the practice progresses – sometimes very gentle, sometimes more vigorous.  But my emphasis is breathing in awareness, breathing out Ego.

6. When people ask you, “What is Yoga?”, what do you say?

Yoga is not an exercise or form of devotion, but rather a state of being where one is connected.  This connection is both internal and external.  Through this connection, one purges Ego and illusions thus allowing questions to surface.  As the questions flow, one allows truth to flourish.  This union through observing and questioning opens a flood gate of possibilities including genuine happiness and renewal.

7. What can people expect from one of your classes?

I believe in educating so students become empowered with knowledge.  I also encourage self-discovery and I do this by giving students permission to integrate learned styles and applications from other teachers.  Do what works for your body and mind in this moment.  Having a kinesiology background, I like to play with alignment and anatomy cues while also fostering an organic flow.  Getting too “workshopish” can take students out of the element of just being within themselves.  Therefore, I try to always find the right combination of guidance with self expression.  I find moments of quiet and stillness can be just as (if not more) educating and empowering as offering insights and instructions.

8. What do you love most about teaching yoga?

I can feel the change that occurs in others – the immediate change of the moment and for many, the life change that happens with regular practice.  Yoga is one of my ways of sharing and giving.  Giving is a powerful tool towards practicing non-attachment.  I feel honored to be able to share the knowledge, experience and joy from my personal practice and skills as a kinesiologist.

9. What do you wish everybody knew about yoga?

That Yoga is not about the body.   Although, it involves a physical practice, it is a state of being.  With that approach and concept, students would practice without Ego and simply nourish their body and minds with a new, unique practice each day.  People who have never done Yoga would benefit from this concept as they would be less likely to be intimidated by what is currently being marketed as Yoga in the mainstream media.

10. What role do you see yoga playing in our world?

As long as studios make Yoga accessible to everyone (in that classes of all levels and for all demographics are offered), Yoga can be a source of complete wellness.  People are struggling with stress, social pressures, physical health, and a sense of being.  Yoga can help ground people while improving their health.  As a society, Yoga will help develop a sense of unity among communities, breaking down barriers, opening people’s minds, and fostering more positive vibrations.

11. Anything else you’d like to say?

As we go along the path of Yoga, we hopefully discover and ideally accept that “it is what it is”.  Once we see everything in the state of perfection that it is, life becomes true and pure.

12. And finally, how do people find you?

Connect with me, and my classes, online at the site I co-founded with Michelle Trantina and Jason Jacobson: My Yoga Online

Want to win a two week pass to My Yoga Online? All the yoga classes you’d love to take at the click of a button.

I’m going to giveaway this two week pass to one of my Super Subscribers. It’s my way of saying Thank You for being Super! If you’re not already a Super Subscriber, you have one week to Get Super-fied and you too will be in the draw for the two week pass. I’ll be doing a random draw from all my Super Subscribers on Saturday December 4th. The winner will have until December 15th to activate the pass, which runs for two weeks from the activation date.