Balancing pool with fitness

M

MiscueBlues

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Do any of you work out regularly and practice pool? How do you balance the two? I'm trying to work out 5 days a week and shoot pool 6-7.

I think the two viable options are first-thing morning workouts or before bed workouts. With pool sometime in the evening.

So my concern is that a morning workout before work makes the pool that evening way less productive. Or should I just keep this up and I might adjust to the routine and it'll be like normal.

The other option is to do the workout after the evening pool session, but then I'm so hungry after the workout and gotta eat a big meal like right before bed and I'm not sure that's a great idea either. But maybe? This way I might get a better pool session in, if I get a good nights sleep...

I know I would be able to put way more into my pool game without the workouts, but I'm not willing to give that up for pool. So it's gonna be a challenge, but that's the fun part!
 
MiscueBlues said:
Do any of you work out regularly and practice pool? How do you balance the two? I'm trying to work out 5 days a week and shoot pool 6-7.

I think the two viable options are first-thing morning workouts or before bed workouts. With pool sometime in the evening.

So my concern is that a morning workout before work makes the pool that evening way less productive. Or should I just keep this up and I might adjust to the routine and it'll be like normal.

The other option is to do the workout after the evening pool session, but then I'm so hungry after the workout and gotta eat a big meal like right before bed and I'm not sure that's a great idea either. But maybe? This way I might get a better pool session in, if I get a good nights sleep...

I know I would be able to put way more into my pool game without the workouts, but I'm not willing to give that up for pool. So it's gonna be a challenge, but that's the fun part!
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It's not a problem for me. I hit the gym in the morning 4 days a week at 6am for an hour and a half sessions. I go to the poolroom on Saturday, and Sunday in the day time and Thursday and Friday nights. Working out actually gives me more energy. If I had to go to the gym after work or after pool I would blow the gym off every time. I'm strictly a morning guy. When the alarm goes off just put your feet on the floor!
 
I need to get some recovery time (about 8 hours for me, an older guy) after a typical workout or my coordination's off. Get some rest and rehydrate before pool practice or a match, how long is an individual thing that you'll have to gauge for yourself.
 
Fitness is a key essential to playing good pool

I find that doing muscular endurance exercises work best for my pool game, I use low-medium weight with 10-15 reps 3 or 4 sets for the muscle groups I am targeting for that day. My money maker though is running 3-5 miles 3 time in a 7 day period.

Cardio does so much for your fitness. If you cant run do other exercises like swimming riding a bike ETC.

The best time of day for most people to exercise is in the morning, it wakes the body up and gets you going burning a lot of calories and get you mentally going too.

Exercise helps you combat stress.
 
MiscueBlues said:
Do any of you work out regularly and practice pool? How do you balance the two? I'm trying to work out 5 days a week and shoot pool 6-7.

I think the two viable options are first-thing morning workouts or before bed workouts. With pool sometime in the evening.

So my concern is that a morning workout before work makes the pool that evening way less productive. Or should I just keep this up and I might adjust to the routine and it'll be like normal.

The other option is to do the workout after the evening pool session, but then I'm so hungry after the workout and gotta eat a big meal like right before bed and I'm not sure that's a great idea either. But maybe? This way I might get a better pool session in, if I get a good nights sleep...

I know I would be able to put way more into my pool game without the workouts, but I'm not willing to give that up for pool. So it's gonna be a challenge, but that's the fun part!
Click to expand...

Yeah there is definitely only so much energy available per day. Definitely a good idea to workout, but how often you do and mix in heavy pool play is probably debatable and a little dependent on each person's case. In my competitive pool days, I needed to avoid heavy weight training any time prior to playing pool on the same day...my muscles were just too torn down to play effectively. Cardio is good for pool, weight training probably isn't but isn't the end of the world if done with careful thought.

I wonder what stuff Earl does? I hear he worksout like a madman....not to mention plays awfully strong pool still.
 
DJ14.1 said:
I wonder what stuff Earl does? I hear he worksout like a madman....not to mention plays awfully strong pool still.
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Sit next to him for 5 minutes at Steinway and he'll tell you: "I run 8 miles everyday, do 500 situps, practice for 8 hours - and these guys still get lucky against me!"
 
Danimal said:
Sit next to him for 5 minutes at Steinway and he'll tell you: "I run 8 miles everyday, do 500 situps, practice for 8 hours - and these guys still get lucky against me!"
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Lol that sounds exactly like something he would say. I believe you 100% :-)
 
Efren Reyes suggest playing pool in the morning and also in the evening, separating the two.

JoeyA
 
Just do like Earl and cover your body in weights while you play pool... 2 birds with 1 stone.
 
i do minimal exercise, arms and shoulders. i do a lot of lower body exercises (legs and lower torso) because it gets easily stressed on long periods of playing especially when standing for long periods of time.
 
Strenuous workouts are not needed for pool. Lots of stretching and Cardio yes. Proper breathing most important. Muscle not required or advised anywhere. Less time working out more time practicing.
 
I currently only do heavy lifting: Squats, deadlifts, shoulder press, bench presses, pull-ups, and dips in a 3 day split. Zero cardio.

I play pool almost every day. I don't find that my workouts affect my game. My body is used to the workouts. It does not get super sore anymore, unless I take a month off or so.
 
iusedtoberich said:
I currently only do heavy lifting: Squats, deadlifts, shoulder press, bench presses, pull-ups, and dips in a 3 day split. Zero cardio.

I play pool almost every day. I don't find that my workouts affect my game. My body is used to the workouts. It does not get super sore anymore, unless I take a month off or so.
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I do heavy resistance also and it doesn't affect my game. 10 minute interval cardio per session. Lots of mat work for core. If anything I think it improves my endurance during matches. I actually like the soreness if you know what I am talking about.
 
I need 6-8 hours recovery. I used to ride a bike 2-3 hours a day, 5 days a week. forget about playing pool well on bike days.
 
I read in a fitness magazine that it's better to recover too long than not long enough. It made perfect sense to me and has been my workout mantra ever since.

I work out 4-5 days/week, some days heavy, some light. I have found that I get the most out of pool practice when I play at least 6 hours straight. I try to do that two days a week and I don't work out on those days. If I have a competitive match, like league or local tournament, I will do a light workout that morning.

I have found that shooting pool tired or achy from working out causes me to make mistakes I wouldn't ordinarily make.
 
If you become fit, which is not an easy condition to define, you will not necessarily become a better pool player. Pool requires athleticism, but not fitness. Players from the past are testament to that fact.
If working out makes you feel better then by all means do it, but don't think you can jog in to my pool room, I beg your pardon, my sports bar and grill, or anyone else's pool room, and think you can win because of it. It just doesn't work that way. :smile:
 
I use to believe that lifting weights for strength and mass could not be done and was in the camp to at least lay off the weights in the weeks leading up to competition. Then I saw what Donny Mills and Mike Davis did and they convinced me it was possible to do both at the same time. Risk of injury is always there of course so the older you get the more you have to be mindful of limitations like going heavy on the some exercises is very stressful on the joints. I think it was Donny that told me that he stopped trying to do heavy benching with fewer reps and military pressing as it was just too hard on his shoulders and impacted pool. All you gotta do is just look at the shape he was in for the US Open matches the year he got 3rd and its clear that working out didnt impact his game. Thorsten looks like he pushes weights around quite a bit too. For that matter alot of the guys who play top pool look like they are working out. SVB, Mika, etc all look like there are athletes and not necessarily just pool players.
 
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