The only thing more American than the 4th of July is shoving copious amounts of processed meat down your gullet until you feel sick. As such, the greatest living American is Joey Chestnut, who has won 11 of the past 12 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contests on July 4th.
That's certainly no easy feat, and as a result Chestnut has a well-earned reputation of being one of the best competitive eaters on the planet. And while almost every Joe Schmoe loves to pat himself on the back for how much grub he can put down at the local backyard barbecue, eating a world record 74 hot dogs in 10 minutes, as Chestnut did last year, is almost an unfathomable accomplishment.
So how exactly does Chestnut, 35, train for such ridiculous feats? Well, with ridiculous exercises of course.
So this is how @joeyjaws trains to eat 70+ hot dogs in 10 minutes 😮 (via @30for30) pic.twitter.com/qyOp7vydmQ
— ESPN (@espn) July 3, 2019
ESPN aired a "30 for 30" on Chestnut this week and it featured a look into the 35-year-old's training regimen. Some people enjoyed it, some people (namely Peter King) did not. That training includes some absurd-looking mouth exercises that are hard not to laugh at -- including Chestnut chewing on a ball like he's a rabid dog, lifting a sack of weights attached to a mouthguard and practicing his gulps. It's all so patently preposterous.
But again... Chestnut clearly gets results. It's also hard to argue with paychecks, and Chestnut gets those too. The winner of the Nathan's contest on Independence Day pockets a cool $10,000, so laugh all you want because they've helped him rake in over six-figures from just eating hot dogs.
That, my friends, is the real American Dream.
