Lifting heavy weights and shooting good pool do not go together

J

judochoke

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Now i know why pro pool players are mostly slender, tall, and do do not weigh much. Shooting pool and lifting weights do not go together. I have been lifting weights for over 45 years, and still lift pretty heavy. My body is always in some kind of recovery. Always sore, and I’m alway tight. Not much flexibility at all. Which sucks, as i would really like to be lower bending to the cue ball, but I’m about 16 inches away from my chin hitting the cue.

Have there ever been any muscle bound pros??? Not talking about big heavy guys, talking about guys with some weightlifting backround?

Today, after a back workout at 7 am, 4 hours later,i went to my senior center, to practice on their 8 foot diamond table. As i entered the room, there were about 10 ladies from the knitting class, in the pool room, sitting at the tables. (The knitting room was closed off one of them said)
I said hello girls, and started unpacking my stuff. I unpacked the balls that i brought, pulled out my predator BLAK-1 CUE, WITH CARBON FIBER SHAFT, and put my glove on. One of the ladies said” oh, he must be a pro player with all that high dollar equipment”

So now the pressure was on for me. I started to shoot some balls with all of the girls watching, and could not make a ball. My neck tensed up when i shot my first ball, then my upper shoulders were tight from lifting. Lolllll i could not ever bend my neck to look at the cue ball very well. I tried and tried to lossen up my neck and shoulders, to no avail.

The girls watched for about 30 more seconds, then went back to knitting and gossiping. I shot for 45 minutes, everything was off, and i just packed up and went home.

Anybody else lift weights and run into this problem???????
 
judochoke said:
Now i know why pro pool players are mostly slender, tall, and do do not weigh much. Shooting pool and lifting weights do not go together. I have been lifting weights for over 45 years, and still lift pretty heavy. My body is always in some kind of recovery. Always sore, and I’m alway tight. Not much flexibility at all. Which sucks, as i would really like to be lower bending to the cue ball, but I’m about 16 inches away from my chin hitting the cue.

Have there ever been any muscle bound pros??? Not talking about big heavy guys, talking about guys with some weightlifting backround?

Today, after a back workout at 7 am, 4 hours later,i went to my senior center, to practice on their 8 foot diamond table. As i entered the room, there were about 10 ladies from the knitting class, in the pool room, sitting at the tables. (The knitting room was closed off one of them said)
I said hello girls, and started unpacking my stuff. I unpacked the balls that i brought, pulled out my predator BLAK-1 CUE, WITH CARBON FIBER SHAFT, and put my glove on. One of the ladies said” oh, he must be a pro player with all that high dollar equipment”

So now the pressure was on for me. I started to shoot some balls with all of the girls watching, and could not make a ball. My neck tensed up when i shot my first ball, then my upper shoulders were tight from lifting. Lolllll i could not ever bend my neck to look at the cue ball very well. I tried and tried to lossen up my neck and shoulders, to no avail.

The girls watched for about 30 more seconds, then went back to knitting and gossiping. I shot for 45 minutes, everything was off, and i just packed up and went home.

Anybody else lift weights and run into this problem???????
Click to expand...
Performance anxiety? 😁
 
Do you feel lifting heavy is still helpful? I am mid 40s and lifted heavy plenty in my 20s and 30s and have little desire to do it now. I still lift and do resistance exercises but pushing the reps and weight to be stiff and sore isn't appealing anymore.
 
I lift weights and don't feel that it's affected my game.
But I don't do the high weights with few reps, more into the three sets of 12, 10 and 8 reps.
I just make sure I'm exhausted at the end of each set, rest for a minute and then go again.
That's probably the difference.
I've definitely come home and my arms and body where shaking, I'm sure you know the feeling.
I know this if I was playing pool right after a workout I'd also suck.
Next day I'm usually fine.
 
I‘m not sure this really applies but, I had a friend who was a laborer. He would work a jack hammer all day and then show up to play in our Wednesday night league. I don’t know how he did it but he played good. That heavy hard work didn’t seem to bother him.
 
I asked this same question months ago. I feel pool on workout days is affected especially upper body. Leg day is also tough if you’re a bent knee player. Locked rear leg not as bad.

I originally thought that upper workout (chest, back, shoulders, bi and tri) would “take the edge off” but I concluded it affected fine motor skills. So I no longer do workouts same day as competition nights. Disclaimer: I’m a C- player so take what I say with a proverbial grain of salt.
 
Yes on joe Rogan, but hes a little fella, probably 5 foot 6 inches, and 160 pounds. I’m 5-11 and 265 pounds. And yes i firmly believe that lifting heavy weights is the key to longevity. Not talking powerlifting numbers, did all that in my 30 til age 40. I’m just talking about moving weights as fast as i can, for 6 to 8 reps. With little rest. Now i bench 225, for 6-8 reps, with 60 seconds rest between sets. At 66, i still feel i could go much higher in weight, if i slowed down, but have no desire to anymore.

Yes, everything was out the window today because of my neck tension. I will try to practice tonight at home, see if things loosen up.
 
I read that Willie Mosconi wouldn’t drive his car two days before a big match because he believed it affected his touch on the pool table.
Power steering today is much different than it was in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
 
STRONG/BIG ARM JOHN from INDY had a blacktop construction biz and pushed a lot of iron in his day.

He played at a very strong shortstop level ( on a bar tabe) in addition to being a fine hoopster.

It looks like some of the Euros dabble in iron, however, not at John's level.
 
A guy on my team is into powerlifting. He is probably about 60 years old. Gets down and hits them pretty well. But he also NEVER plays cold, and likes to talk shit about people that just sit around until their name is called.

He is an APA 6, and a strong 6 at that, we are probably both halfway decent 7's, and we go back and fourth. Im kinda skinny and lanky so I don't really think body has much to do with the skill.

It all depends how comfortable you are manipulating your body to get into a good stroke. We also have a guy that's probably pushing 450. And has one of the nicest strokes in SWFL, hits them pretty good.

Just get loose, and get into stroke!
 
Likely wasn't your lifting life. More likely having an audience weakened your concentration.
From your post it seems since the ladies were watching, That mattered to you. Regardless of anything else.
Could have been a group of old men tying flies and smoking cigars that shopped tying and smoking to watch you play.

Trying to impress while trying to excel, is like oil and water.

BTW, My mentor stressed wrist strength. He was 6'2" 350lbs.
 
I’m not into extreme heavy lifting, but I’ve been into weight training for over 30 years and I think it has definitely improved my health and because I’m so used to how my body feels, it hasn’t negatively impacted my pool playing- may even help it. The exception being heavy chest workouts- I need a few hours break in between to recover.

One pro that I’ve heard lifts heavy with seemingly no negative impact is Donny Mills. Thorsten Hohmann also lifts regularly or at least did in the past
 
My history was working hard physically and playing pool after work. It sure kept my rating down. 😉
The physical labor mess with the fine tune. A couple of beers would help calm the tired muscles.
If I have a big event, one week of no weight work was optimal and led to my best Place in a big event. The size of the muscles is of little consequence. It's the exhausted condition that leads to deterioration. So I will play to my Fargo when working. 😉
 
judochoke said:
So now the pressure was on for me. I started to shoot some balls with all of the girls watching, and could not make a ball. My neck tensed up when i shot my first ball, then my upper shoulders were tight from lifting. Lolllll i could not ever bend my neck to look at the cue ball very well. I tried and tried to lossen up my neck and shoulders, to no avail.

The girls watched for about 30 more seconds, then went back to knitting and gossiping. I shot for 45 minutes, everything was off, and i just packed up and went home.
Click to expand...
I think you should have given the ladies something to talk about before you left. If there's a next time, place an object ball on each side rail about a foot from the corner pockets. Go to the opposite end of the table and deadlift it enough to create an angle for the two balls to roll into the corner pockets. Then say something like, "pool is easy when you have the right touch." (or whatever you can come up with to cause big eyes and open mouths) :cool:💪💪😉
(This is something I'll never have to worry about doing) (You're a big strong sumabi*ch for your age!)(y)
 
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