UC Exercise Science alum found a path in tactical strength training
Isiah Bostic traded athletics for strength training with the U.S. Army
It wasn’t exactly shocking when Isiah Bostic chose the University of Cincinnati’s Exercise Science program for his college experience.
First, his father, Curtis Bostic, was himself a graduate of the university’s Health Promotions program with an emphasis on exercise—a precursor program to the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services’ (CECH) modern Exercise Science major. Curtis Bostic also worked as a strength and conditioning coach for UC for a number of years, and Isiah Bostic spent many summers of his youth in the university’s weight room, watching his father work with athletes. And, finally, Isiah Bostic grew up playing basketball, which (you guessed it) his dad had done before him, and the experience ended up guiding his career aspirations.
“I wanted to provide something to athletes that I didn't have to reach the next level,” he says.
Listen to the full conversation with Isiah Bostic on the "CECH Chats" podcast!
From UC to Harvard
Isiah Bostic moved to the state of Washington to work as a tactical strength and conditioning coach for the U.S. Army at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Photo/provided
Born and raised on Cincinnati’s east side, Isiah Bostic made a name for himself as a high school basketball player at Turpin High School, followed by time in junior college basketball at Cincinnati State. When it came time to think about the eventual career he wanted to pursue, he wasn’t sure what route to take but remembered his time in UC’s weight room and his father’s experience in UC’s health promotion program. So Isiah Bostic enrolled as a student in CECH’s Exercise Physiology BS program (officially established as the Exercise Science program in 2021) to gain skills he could use to help athletes like himself.
He points to his time studying under Exercise Science faculty members Bradley Wilson and Julia Buchannan as especially impactful, but one experience from his years at UC stands out as particularly formative.
“I was able to get a very, very awesome internship with Harvard University,” says Isiah Bostic. “That's when my spark for the field really grew.” He’d already done some internships in Cincinnati with BLOC Sports Performance, an inner-city organization that allowed him to mentor kids through strength and conditioning, but he’d begun looking into and applying for opportunities on the East Coast to complete his degree’s internship requirement. When he was accepted to the Harvard role, he packed up and moved to Massachusetts for the summer.
“It was everything you would think of a Harvard internship,” he says. “We would start our days at around 4:30 to set up for football and then coach football throughout the morning. And then a kids’ camp would come in. After the kids camp, we would have a group called Summer Dogs, which were just a bunch of athletes that were there in the summer. And we would take them through their programs.” The opportunity also tasked interns with doing daily workout sessions themselves, including the football team’s workout program to learn what the university's athletes do to stay in peak physical condition and why.
“The internship was very grueling,” says Isiah Bostic with a laugh. He went on to explain that he was also required to read five books and write a paper on each, as well as memorize and present on a large packet of information. “It was a really cool experience, and it's honestly what has gotten me to where I am today.”
Where Isiah Bostic is today, though, took a bit of a journey. Upon graduation, he found work at youth sports performance facilities, which he describes as “a fun and fulfilling job” that helped him grow in the field but, ultimately, left his struggling to make ends meet. He moved on to ProForce Sports Performance in Milford where he worked with high school, college and professional athletes. Following this experience, he actually returned to his old high school, Turpin, for a job as a strength coach, which he describes as “a blast.”
But, through it all, Isiah Bostic was starting to get ideas about where he ultimately wanted his career to take him and what he needed to do to get there.
Step up and make decisions
Isiah Bostic says he had two different, separate goals in mind when he first decided to get into strength training. One was to become a professional strength and conditioning coach for an NBA team, a job inspired by both his father’s work with UC and his own lifelong love of basketball. The second goal was to work for NASA as a strength coach.
“NASA hires ASCRs,” he explains. “So I figured that if I were to step into the tactical setting, it would put me in the right path to be able to reach the professional setting or the astronaut strength and conditioning setting. And that's really what drew me to the tactical field.”
The decision led him to the state of Washington to work as a tactical strength and conditioning coach for the U.S. Army at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. “My job is very interesting,” he says, explaining that he primarily oversees physical training (PT) and develops programs for platoons ranging in size from 50 to 200. “I write PT plans, approve PT plans, come up with ways to improve platoons’ Army fitness test scores—doing what I can to make sure they're physically ready to go fight whenever that day comes.”
In addition to further developing the exercise science training he received at UC, the job has helped him foster soft skills that are essential to his career aspirations. “It helps you communicate with an array of different personalities,” he says. “It forces you to be creative and flexible. Being able to make changes on the fly is what makes this job really fun.” He also lauds leadership skills that UC imparted to him while he was studying at the university. “You have to be a leader in this job, especially when you're working with infantry battalions,” he says. “You have to be able to step up and make decisions.”
When asked if he could have foreseen where his career has taken him since graduating in 2020, Isiah Bostic laughs and shakes his head. “I always saw myself in the sports performance realm,” he explains. “Back in college, my mindset was, I'm going to stay in Cincinnati and try to build my career here,” he says. “But in order to grow in this career, I had to get out of my comfort zone a little bit. Washington is an amazing place to live, though. I got lucky.”
Featured image at top: UC Exercise Science alum and strength trainer for the U.S. Army Isiah Bostic in his home state of Washington. Photo/provided
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