Problem: Article: It might seem counterintuitive to emphasize exercise for an eating competition, but regular exercise is essential to keeping unwanted weight off, and it also helps to increase your metabolism. Many hot dog eating champions incorporate both cardio exercise and weight training into their regular workouts. Learning to chew quickly can give you a competitive edge at competitions. Chew gum as much as possible when not eating. Also consider chewing more than 1 stick of gum at a time to give your jaw muscles a more intense workout. The competitive eater Bob Shouldn't  chews up to 25 pieces at a time. Write down how much water you can drink on a given day. Consult with your doctor to determine the rate at which you can safely increase your water intake. Drinking large amounts of water will allow you to gradually increase your stomach's capacity without introducing extra calories. Challenge yourself to the meet the goals you establish with your doctor. It's essential that you work with you physician to ensure that you increase your water intake safely. If you drink water too fast, you risk throwing off your electrolyte balance, which could cause you to get dizzy, loose consciousness, or even go into shock. In addition to drinking water, eat low-calorie foods to increase your stomach's capacity. Steamed vegetables, watermelon, and leafy greens are great options. Use a scale to weigh them before eating them, so you can track how much you're consuming as your training progresses.  It's also important to share this information with your physician to ensure that you are not consuming too much of a given food group. Too much sugary watermelon, for instance, could have health consequences. You'll also need your doctor's supervision to make sure that you maintain the correct food to water balance, as this can also impact your electrolyte levels and overall health. Take large gulps of water and gradually increase to larger and larger gulps. Then try semi-solid foods like yogurt or soup before attempting to swallow large amounts of solid foods. Always practice this technique in the presence of a medical professional or someone who knows the Heimlich maneuver and CPR. If you find yourself gagging a lot, try breathing through your nose as you swallow. Time yourself eating the same number of hot dogs using different strategies to discover which approaches allow you to eat the hot dogs the fastest. Strategies you might want to experiment with include:  Breaking hot dogs and buns in half before eating them Eating the protein first Dipping hot dog buns in water before eating them Rolling the bun up into a small ball before eating Varying your bite size Changing your posture by standing up or rocking back and forth Once you know what strategies work best for you, it's time to increase your speed by identifying and eliminating inefficient movements. Set up a camera or have a friend film you. Review the video looking for movements you can shorten or eliminate. When watching the video, you may observe that you always grab the hot dogs with your right hand. If this is true, move the hot dogs to the right side of the table to cut down on reach time. While you do not want to eat your maximum number of hot dogs on a regular basis, you should try to hold 1-2 mock competitions a week in the weeks prior to competition. Follow the rules for the competition you plan to attend and try to create an environment that will be like the actual competition setting. Ideally, you want to hold your last practice competition 32 hours before your competition starts or no sooner than 18 hours before it begins.
Summary: Exercise regularly to remain in good health. Chew gum regularly to strengthen chewing muscles. Increase your water intake. Expand your stomach with low-calorie foods. Practice swallowing large amounts of food without gagging. Perfect your hot dog eating technique. Film yourself eating hot dogs using your fastest strategies. Challenge yourself with practice competitions.

In one sentence, describe what the following article is about: If you are unsatisfied with the strength of your guitar’s signal, enhance it with a pre-amp. Pre-amplification is the first stage of amplification. These devices boost your guitar’s signal. You can purchase a pre-amp specifically designed for guitars. However, if you are looking to save money, several guitar accessories come equipped with pre-amps. These include, amp-modelers, pedals, drum machines, and direct boxes. The best pre-amps use tubes. Insert your standard guitar cable into your guitar. Plug the other end of the guitar cable into the input port of your pre-amp. Insert a ⅛” stereo in cable into your pre-amp’s PA Out or Line-Out port. Put the opposite end of this cable into your laptop’s audio-in port. If your laptop does not have an audio-in port, you will need to purchase an interface or a special cable that transforms your audio-out port, also known as a headphone jack, into an audio-in port. These products also work with phones and tablets. There are also adapters that plug into USB ports. If your guitar is connected properly to your laptop, you can hear the instrument through your computer’s speakers, a set of external speakers, or a pair of headphones. If you are not using your’ computer’s speakers, insert the external speaker cable or headphones into your laptop’s audio-out port. Strum your guitar to test the signal.  While the pre-amp will improve the strength of the signal, it may not decrease any delay you are experiencing. Delay, or audio latency, is the gap that exists between when a sound is inputted into the computer and when that sound is actually heard.  In order to hear your guitar, you may need to download and/or open recording software first. If you are experiencing sound problems, open your computer’s sound settings. Check to see if your sound is muted and that the correct port or device is selected (audio-in, audio-out, headphone, microphone, etc.). For specific instructions, consult your computer or device’s manual.
Summary:
Purchase or find a device with a pre-amp. Connect your guitar and pre-amp to your laptop. Test the signal.