You will have to wait for my conclusion to the post of how to compete after 40.  Today, I am going to discuss the world of competitive eating.  On the Fourth, I watched another hot dog eating contest at Coney Island and once again had to suppress vomit coming out of my mouth and I wasn’t even eating anything.

If you aren’t familiar with this event, basically about 20 “athletes” line up on a huge table and try to eat as many hot dogs as possible in 10 minutes.  This event has become huge.  They have a hype man, hot girls behind the contestants updating their hot dog count, and a whole bunch of people watching this.

The Michael Jordan of competitive eating.

The reigning champ of the hot dog eating contest is Joey Chestnut.  Prior to this year’s contest, Chestnut was tied for the longest consecutive win streak at 6 and the most hot dogs consumed at 68.  He also has records for several other food eating contests.

I love how the commentators called these guys “great athletes.”

The breakdown of how this competitive eating works.

It firsts starts in the jaw with the Masseter muscle, one of the body’s strongest muscles.  They’ve recorded Joey Chestnut as having 280 pounds of bite force, which is stronger than a German shepherd.  It has been told that these eaters train their jaw by chewing 5 sticks of gum.

The food then travels down through the esophagus with something called peristalsis, using rhythmic contractions to move the food down the esophagus.  They also do something called the Valsalva Maneuver which helps increase the thoracic pressure to get the food down faster.  In exercise, trainers tell people to not hold their breath too long while lifting because the Valsalva Maneuver could happen.

Chestnut will also jump up and down to allow gravity to get that food down faster.

They then try to train their stomachs to increase by over 400%.  A normal stomach can hold about 1 liter and they get it up to 4 liters.  I have no clue how they get the stomach expanded like that.  They also try to stay somewhat fit, I’m sure surprising to some thinking about a competitive eating contest.  Basically, belly fat takes up excess space which wouldn’t allow the stomach to expand, so they try to keep that fat down.

The champ is still the king.

This year’s contest was just as disgusting as the others.  Dunking the hot dogs in water so they can get the food down faster.  I didn’t see anybody puking, but the look on their faces suggests they aren’t going to be running a few miles right after the race.

Chestnut shined in this year’s event.  About halfway through, he got a commanding lead and eventually extended his hot dog eating record to 69.  He also now owns 7 consecutive titles and that record as well.  In 10 minutes he consumed over 20,000 calories.  The amount of food an average human would need to consume in 10 days.

The event could be summed up like this.  Chestnut raised his hands and smiled for the crowd.  Food was on his face and a piece on his eyelid.  Yeah, this is one sport I don’t think I’ll be attempting any time soon.