When Takeru Kobayashi entered the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest in 2001, competitors and attendees had no idea how a 110-pound man could physically consume 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Was it cheating? Was it sorcery? No — it was just practice.
The best competitive eaters in the world train like professional athletes, getting their body and mind prepared for game day. But because competitive eating is a relatively new sport, there isn’t a lot of precedent for the correct way to train. Top eaters like Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut, who recently broke his own world record for most hot dogs consumed in 10 minutes, have spent years developing and perfecting their training regimens. “It’s not something that there’s books written about,” said Chestnut in Netflix’s Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef. “There are no trainers. Everything is just trial and error.”
And just like any other sport, there’s a whole lot more to training than scrimmages. “If you talk to a cyclist — somebody who rides in the Tour de France — they do more than just ride a bike,” said Chestnut. “I don’t just practice eating. I believe it’s also important to prepare my entire body,” added Kobayashi.
Aside from facing off in an epic hot dog eating battle of a lifetime, in Unfinished Beef, Chestnut and Kobayashi shed light on how they practice in a pre-recorded segment. So do you want to become a competitive eater? Here are all of the exercises you need to know.
Swallowing Techniques
“Swallowing is one of the most important things in competitive eating,” says Chestnut. So to get his throat and chest used to swallowing in uncomfortable situations, Chestnut lays on a weight bench, and raises his head (completing a micro-sit up, if you will) and takes three big gulps of air. He then lowers his head and takes three more gulps on the way down.
Water Training
Professional eaters need to have a stomach that is capable of expanding enough to hold an excessive amount of food. Genetics help, and years of practice will get your stomach more used to carrying the extra weight. But right before the competition, nothing expands your stomach faster and more effectively than water. Minutes before Kobayashi competes, he chugs three gallons of water to get his belly properly bloated.
The Beanie Baby
According to Chestnut, he can treat himself like a “Beanie Baby,” using his hands to physically push food down to the bottom of his belly, making room for more up top. He regularly practices this technique so that he can do it quickly during the heat of the competition. (I’m patiently waiting for a Joey Chestnut-shaped Beanie Baby that’s filled with chewed up hot dogs rather than beads).
Breathing Exercises
“I train inhaling because it is a necessary movement when dropping food into your stomach,” says Kobayashi. To practice the awkward feeling of inhaling when his mouth is full of food, Kobayashi will out his lips over a water bottle and take quick, short, inhaled breaths until all the air has emptied the bottle.
Chestnut, alternatively, prefers to focus on breathing through his nose. “You can’t breathe through your mouth [while eating], so I have to sneak in breaths through my nose,” he told me in an interview prior to competing against Kobayashi. “So I exhale and I swallow, swallow, swallow, then I inhale and I swallow, swallow swallow. It’s this block breathing and I keep a rhythm.”
Throat Relaxation Technique
Chestnut routinely opens his mouth, using his hands to slightly push his Adam’s apple down in order to make sure he is opening as wide as he can possibly go. The wider he can open his mouth, the more food he can shove into it at once.
Tongue Stretches
If you see Kobayashi sticking his tongue in and out, he is not doing his best snake impression — he’s stretching his tongue. “The tongue has to move quickly,” he says. “In order to do that, I have to make my tongue strong by doing a lot of tongue stretches.”
Mouth Workouts
Chestnut does various mouth exercises in order to strengthen his jaw. First, he chews on a custom-made squishy ball, molded to his front teeth. “When I’m chewing, I try to stimulate that I’m eating,” he said in an ESPN documentary, 30 for 30: The Good, The Bad, the Hungry. “I’m helping those muscles push the food down a little bit more. He also lifts weights with his mouth, moving his up and down to pull up a sandbag and building the muscles that will move “pounds and pounds of food down.”
Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
No matter how many exercises Chestnut and Kobayashi can do, they can’t properly prepare themselves for an eating competition without, well, eating. “Runners have to run, eaters have to eat,” Chestnut told me. For anyone who’s interested in training for an eating competition, Chestnut suggests they practice with one of their favorite foods. “It’s always easier to eat a lot of the food you like and figure out your body a little bit. Then you can get comfortable pushing your body with food.”
