Good post mate, I used to have this debate years ago with the locals in my club, it was a working mens club and I got paid to practice snooker ALL DAY! I used to play for about 8 hours, and then go back in the evening for a further 4 hours of 8 ball pool. I think I worked it out that walking around a snooker table (which was atleast 36ft around) was equiv to walking many many miles everyday. PLUS everytime you lower yourself to the table you ar un effect doing a situp/crunch which is great for the abs lol Now why dont we all have six packs?!!!
On the practice front I was considering playing something I thought of called 350 ball straight pool. Thats 25 racks (14 ball each rack) which I am going to try and do everytime. If I miss I keep on going, the aim of course is to miss as little as possible and ultimately get down to a perfect 350. Of course you have to run before you can walk and anything under 10 misses will be pretty sporty. Under 5 superb, and under 3 could mean 3 back to back tons! 1 miss would almost certainly mean you breaking the 200 barrier (and possibley 200) and of course no misse will mean you join a very elite club indeed!
I'm assuming it would take around 30mins per ton, so maybe 3 hours depending on speed. 25 racks in two hours, possible 350 ball run, now all I need is a pool hall!
