Jordan Mulcaster is competing at the ICN World Natural Games in Canberra this year for best overall physique. Photo: Jordan Mulcaster.
Jordan Mulcaster doesn’t remember anything about that night in 2015, except that it started at a friend’s birthday party in Civic and that somehow, he was now in bed, with his dad telling him all his belongings were in a zip-lock bag on the kitchen bench.
“For two days in the lead-up, I’d taken a whole bunch of substances and then on the night, it turns out I’d nearly drunk myself to death,” he says.
“I blew 0.15 when the police took me to the Watch House, so between everything I’d taken and the amount I drank that night, I was halfway to clinically dead.”
That night didn’t quite mark the end of the drug-taking and weed-smoking habit he’d picked up in school at the age of 12, but between then and now, he’s turned his life around.
Jordan will be up on stage at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Bruce next weekend for the ‘ICN (iCompete Natural) World Natural Games’, an international bodybuilding competition, not only as a contestant but also as a coach.
“You’re up there with numerous coats of tan and a nice coat of coconut spray to bring out the shine and shimmer,” he says.
“The week before is called peak week, so you’ll keep your carbs really low and sort of carb-up closer to show day to bring out your muscles’ glycogen stores and fluff them up and make them look a bit more vascular.”
The ICN World Natural Games include categories for CrossFit, Strongman/Strongwomen, SLAM Pro Wrestling, and weight-lifting, as well as physique. Photo: ICN World Natural Games.
On 2 and 3 November, 240 amateur and 60 professional ‘natural physique athletes’ from more than 16 countries will compete for the title of best in the world in what’s also the first event to be held at the AIS Arena in five years since its $15 million upgrade.
There’ll also be CrossFit and strongman/strongwoman displays, SLAM! Pro Wrestling matches and weight-lifting competitions, while more than 25 health and fitness vendors will sell their wares in what is also the first ‘Canberra Fitness Expo’.
Soon after his scare in 2015, Jordan moved to Mildura to be closer to his mum and, after a rough first year, “back in old habits”, came clean when he moved in with her.
He’d always spent a lot of time at the gym as a teenager, but now, with less time spent “doing the other stuff”, he decided to go even harder on improving his physique.
He moved back to Canberra in 2019 “because I missed playing football”, but after dislocating his kneecap three times within half a season with the South Tuggeranong Bushrangers, he decided contact sport was not right for him.
While in the gym one day, the ICN vice president suggested he give bodybuilding a go.
“Honestly, I’d never ever thought of it,” Jordan says.
“I didn’t really class it as a sport because it wasn’t like something that people do every weekend.”
For the next 20 weeks, he got up every morning at 3 to be at the gym by 4, where he spent between one hour and one-and-a-half hours lifting weights and 30 minutes doing cardio. He’d return home for his second breakfast and in time to get to his civil construction job at 6:45 am.
He would drive water carts and six-wheeled tipper trucks until about 5 or 6 pm each day, six days a week.
But the hard work paid off. He went from 106 kg to 82 kg and won best overall physique at the ‘Clash at the Coast’ event in Batemans Bay in 2022.
And then he did it all again in 2023. And again this year, when he also made history as the first ICN amateur to win the same event three years in a row. He also took home the ACT Overall Physique Champion title, too.
Jordan Mulcaster manages the Elite Supps stores in Queanbeyan and Lanyon. Photo: Jordan Mulcaster.
Jordan now manages the supplement store Elite Supps in Queanbeyan and Lanyon, works part-time at Anytime Fitness in Tuggeranong, and works online when he can as a bodybuilding coach for Genesis Coaching.
He says his parents and three older siblings are all very proud to see how far he’s come.
“Honestly, it feels amazing,” he says.
“I’ve won grand finals in footy before, but I feel this is a lot more rewarding because it’s literally just me and what I’m willing to give to the sport. It doesn’t matter if someone else on my team had a bad day or whatever. This is just between me and my coach and what I put in.”
The ICN World Natural Games will be held at the AIS Arena on 2 and 3 November, from 9 am to 5 pm. Book tickets online.
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