Kevin Jordan: The Next Midwest Muscle Star

National Champion Kevin Jordan is Taking it to the Next Level

Before They Were Stars

One of the best parts of this job is having the privilege of bringing future stars to your attention before they hit the big time. There’s something exciting about seeing someone with fantastic potential as he puts it all together and comes into his own as a top-level bodybuilder, and getting to watch the process. MD readers saw it a number of years ago with a rising amateur star named Evan Centopani. Now it’s 2013 Nationals champion Kevin Jordan, who shows signs of being a diamond in the rough.

One Dream Dashed by a Dumb Mistake

Kevin grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois until fourth grade, a place he describes as “Your typical hood— predominantly black and with plenty of crime and unemployment.” From there he moved to the much more suburban Bellville, where he found his calling as an athlete. “I played team sports all year round,” he says. “Football, baseball and basketball.” By the time he was a sophomore in high school, Kevin was starting on the varsity football team as a tailback and a free safety. By junior year, over 20 Division I schools were recruiting him, and it was looking like both a full scholarship and possibly even a career in the NFL were in the cards. But it wasn’t meant to be. Jordan confesses to running with “the wrong crowd,” one that partied hard. Still, I was expecting something more shocking when he told me about getting in trouble and being banned from playing any sports in his senior year: a DUI, or worse; perhaps he had severely injured or even killed someone. It sounds outrageous, but I’ve heard it all at this point.

    “It was just being caught drunk at a school event,” he explains. “All of a sudden, those plans of mine and the future I thought was right around the corner were taken away from me.” Fortunately, Jordan was offered a spot to play for a Division III school, so he did go on to earn a degree in exercise physiology. But by the time he got there, his passion for football was already fading fast. Instead, he was falling in love with Lady Iron.

Bit by the Bug

Kevin’s weight training actually began at home when he was only 11 or 12, in the workout room his dad had created. “We had a decent amount of equipment, considering,” he notes. “There was a flat bench, a bar and plates, dumbbells from 5 to 100 pounds and a cable crossover station.” Dad wasn’t able to educate Kevin on the finer points of full-body training, as he was mainly into bench pressing. But his high school football coach did show him proper form on all the basics, and it wasn’t long before Kevin started to see changes in his body. “My shoulders and arms have always responded well, and they were the first things that grew,” he says. By graduation, Kevin was 195 pounds at his current height of 5’10”, and lean. “I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have abs,” he tells us. “Then again, with all the practices and games from playing sports all year since I was a kid, I was always burning up a ton of calories I’m sure.”

College, and the "Freshman 15 x 2 = 30"

In one of those cases of serendipity that makes it hard to believe fate isn’t a real force in our lives, Kevin’s roommate and fellow football teammate was a guy named Nate Carden— and he happened to be quite interested in bodybuilding. “Nate was 6’4”, 275, and he was the first person to really make me understand that lifting weights was only part of the equation— you have to eat too!” Nate also had a subscription to MD, which further proves he was a cool dude. “My all-time favorite bodybuilder is Kevin Levrone, but I also drew a lot of inspiration from Flex Wheeler, Shawn Ray and of course Ronnie.” By training with Nate, a former All-American wrestler, and packing away the food, Kevin was able to gain 30 pounds over the course of his freshman year. “We trained in the football team’s gym, and the strength coach was usually upset because we stayed after regular workout hours and did extra exercises that were more for pure bodybuilding,” he laughs. “By then I hardly had any interest in football anymore, though I did continue to play.”

Taking it to the Stage

 Right out of college, Kevin almost got a job as a juvenile probation officer, but once more his path was again steered toward bodybuilding. Taking a job at a gym in St. Louis, Missouri in sales, he soon befriended the manager. His name was Keith Hunter, and he happened to be a professional bodybuilder in a natural organization. “I knew a little bit from my own reading before that, but Keith is the one who really showed me the right way to be a bodybuilder: what to eat, how to split up my body parts, different exercises I’d never tried, all that.”

     When Keith started preparing for a contest, Kevin was motivated as he watched him get leaner by the week and decided he would give it a go himself. He targeted a regional event called the Caveman Classic, which for a time was actually held in a massive underground cavern until it became apparent that the stalactites and stalagmites in the cave were being damaged by the bright lights. Starting his diet at a chunky 240, Jordan dialed it down to 190 and placed in both the Novice and Open divisions. “My posing was beyond awkward,” he admits. “I was focused on getting in shape and really never gave much thought to the presentation aspect.”

    Feeling he had been outsized in the Caveman Classic, Kevin briefly competed in a natural federation called the NANBF, winning two Overall titles in 2007 and qualifying for pro status in the WNBF. Weighing his options, Kevin felt that he needed to get back to the NPC and start working on trying to become an IFBB pro. “Not to diss them at all, but it just seemed to me like the pros in that other organization were content to do it as a hobby, where I was already starting to think in terms of eventually making a career as a pro bodybuilder. To do that, I knew the NPC was the only true avenue.”

Enter the Chad

 If you’ve followed the sport of pro bodybuilding for a while, you know exactly who Chad Nicholls is. Respected as one of the top coaches (I really don’t like the term “guru”) in the industry, Chad guided his wife Kim Chizevsky to four consecutive Ms. Olympia titles, helped Flex Wheeler rack up numerous pro wins, and is best known for being Ronnie Coleman’s nutritionist throughout his entire eight-year reign as Mr. Olympia (prior to that, Ronnie’s best two showings had been sixth and ninth places). Many give credit to Chad’s success with bodybuilders as the impetus for the “Rise of the Gurus” that began soon after, with coaches like Hany Rambod, George Farah and Oscar Ardon becoming indispensable elements of contest prep for many top pros. Suffice to say, Chad has been in demand for his services for many years.

     When Kevin was looking at which contest to enter next, he confesses to harboring an ulterior motive. “Chad put on a show called the Muscle Mayhem Championships,” he says. “Obviously I was aware of who he is and what he’s done for so many athletes, and I was hoping just for the chance to meet him and pick his brain a little for some good tips.” Jordan got a lot more than that. He won the Heavyweight and Overall titles at Chad’s show, and then he introduced himself and they got to talking. “We really hit it off, and Chad was impressed with the potential he saw in me.

Not long after that, we were working together as athlete and coach.”

     Nicholls knew right away that Kevin had the shape and the structure to go far, but first he needed to fill out that big frame more. The biggest change he made right out of the gate was to drastically increase Kevin’s food intake. “I thought I was eating a lot before— but Chad had me eating more than I ever thought I could.”

    Another critical shift came in how Kevin approached off-season nutrition. “Prior to working with Chad, I wasn’t always consistent with how much I ate and the quality of what I ate unless I was dieting for a show. Chad made me understand that champions are made in the off-season, and the meals you are eating even six or eight months away from a contest have a big impact on the physique you ultimately display onstage.”

A Growing Work in Progress- Project Super Heavyweight

 For his Junior Nationals win in 2011, Kevin sucked down to make the Heavyweight cut-off of 225 pounds— but felt he looked his best about a week out at 235. “I wasn’t really big enough yet to be a legitimate Super, so we went for conditioning and stayed in the Heavies one last time.” For the 2012 season, Kevin competed as a Super Heavy.

He placed eighth in the 2012 Nationals, and the following year earned his pro card and won the Heavyweight and Overall in the Nationals.

            “I’ve been working hard on my back, doing a lot more deadlifts after getting away from those for a couple of years, and on bringing up my overall quad thickness and sweep while keeping my waist tight,” he reports.

       “I’ve been working hard on my back, doing a lot more deadlifts after getting away from those for a couple of years, and on bringing up my overall quad thickness and sweep while keeping my waist tight,” he reports. “If Chad says he wants me to do the USA, I’m in it. I’ve made a lot of improvements since the Juniors and I’m ready to show them.”

     Thanks to Chad’s continued guidance and the support of his girlfriend KellyAnn, a Figure competitor, Kevin feels ready to take his physique to the next level. “I’m so excited about the next few years,” he says. “Football was my sport and my dream for all those years when I was younger, but it wasn’t my destiny. Now I know that everything happens for a reason— I think bodybuilding was really what I was meant to do all along.” As a fan of the sport, he still dreams of the day when he can share the stage with the men who have inspired him in his quest. “I look up to all the pros, and to me if I could ever stand next to guys like Victor, Jay and Phil, it would literally be a dream come true.”

    For most of us, that would just be a fantasy. For Kevin Jordan, it just might happen.

    Kevin Jordan is available for endorsements & guest appearances. Serious inquiries may contact him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Contest History

2006 NPC Caveman Classic/ 3^rd (Novice) and 6^th Place (Open), Light Heavyweight

2007 NANBF Gateway Naturals/ Overall Champion

2007 NANBF Great Lakes/ Overall Champion

2008 NPC Muscle Mayhem Championships/ Heavyweight and Overall Champion

2009 NPC Junior Nationals/ 3^rd Place, Heavyweight

2010 NPC Nationals/ 10^th Place, Heavyweight

2011 NPC Junior Nationals/ Heavyweight and Overall Champion

2012 NPC Nationals/8^th Place, Super-Heavyweight

2013 NPC Nationals/Heavyweight and Overall Champion

Training Split

Sunday:         Quads

Monday:         Chest

Tuesday:        Back

Wednesday:    OFF

Thursday:       Quads and hams

Friday:           Arms

Saturday:       OFF or shoulders (optional)

Off-season Diet

8:00 a.m.       12 oz. steak, 1.5 cups oatmeal

11:00 a.m.      80 grams whey protein, 2 tbsp peanut butter

2:00 p.m.       12 oz. beef, 12 oz. baked or mashed potato

3-4:30 p.m.    Train

4:30 p.m.       50 grams whey isolate, 30 grams Vitargo, 20 grams L-glutamine

5:00 p.m.       12 oz. chicken, 1.5 cups white or brown rice

7:30 p.m.       80 grams whey protein, 2 tbsp peanut butter

9:00 p.m.       12 oz. chicken, 12 oz. potato

12:00 a.m.     80 grams whey protein, 2 tbsp peanut butter

Supplement regimen: Nitraflex (pre-workout), multivitamin, multimineral, vitamin C, vitamin E, CoQ10, fish oil, JetMass (post-workout), L-glutamine, Amino 2100.

Chad Nicholls on Kevin:

    “I saw Kevin for the first time when he competed in my Muscle Mayhem show back in 2008. My first thought was that he reminded me of a young Phil Heath. We had a couple of pro judges on the panel, and we all agreed Kevin had that same level of potential. The key with him is to just keep gradually adding quality mass as he’s been doing ever since. Kevin is young and he’s going to be around for a while, so people had better take notice. I see him going very far in the sport.”