Custom Strength is lead by our Head Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Elsbeth Vaino

Elsbeth Vaino, B.Sc., CSCS, NASM-CPT

In addition to her role as Head Strength and Conditioning Specialist with CustomStrength.com, Elsbeth is also the strength & conditioning consultant at Ottawa Osteopathy & Sports Therapy. She is also a contributing expert on StrengthCoach.com.

Elsbeth's educational background is in engineering, where she honed her analytical skills. She became a certified strength & conditioning specilist (CSCS) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), and a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM).

The CSCS is largely about athletic performance, while the NASM-CPT focuses on injury prevention and assessment.

She increased her assessment skills by becoming certified with the Functional Movement Screen (FMS), and taking the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Golf Fitness Instructor course. The assessment questionnaire that you will do with CustomStrength.com is based primarily in these two methods.

She has further augmented her education by attending seminars across North America:

• Mentorship with Michael Boyle, author of Functional Training for Sports and Advances in Functional Training
• "Building the Ultimate Back: From Rehabilitation to Performance" with Dr. Stuart McGill, a spinal biomechanist and author of Low Back Disorders and Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance.
• Diagnosis & Treatment of Movement System Impairments of the Lumbar Spine & Hip" with Dr. Shirley Sahrmann, world renowned physical therapist and professor, and author of Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes
• Perform Better Functional Training Summits, featuring world class speakers including Thomas Myers (author of Anatomy Trains), John Berardi (Performance Nutrition), Alwyn Cosgrove (The New Rules of Lifting), Mark Verstegen (Core Performance), Al Vermeil (legendary strength coach and the only one with world championship rings from both the NFL and NBA), Eric Cressey (Maximum Strength) and many more

She also engages in training discussions with a wide network of excellent strength coaches, personal trainers, and therapists around the world through strengthcoach.com, where she is a contributing expert.

In addition to her training background, Elsbeth also has an extensive sports background, including experience as a disabled ski guide, a hockey coach, and an ultimate coach. As an athlete, she has competed nationally in ultimate, and provincially in basketball and hockey.

In the winter she works as a ski instructor at Camp Fortune in Quebec, Canada.