About a month ago I bought a Tiger Tail. It looks like this:
Why did I decide to buy a Tiger Tail over a foam roller? Not sure, but you can say I was definitely clueless. I had never used either before, nor had I ever held one (never had the need to). I thought the Tiger Tail would be more portable and would “hit the spot” more than a foam roller. I assumed the foam roller was soft (ever jump into a foam pit?). I bought a foam roller yesterday and the word foam is definitely a misnomer. There is nothing soft and comfy about this thing. The foam roller HITS the spot. Boy oh boy. What prompted me to buy one? I watched Jen’s video on foam rolling 101 and it looked pretty effective. I used it yesterday on my glute/hamstring. Let’s just say that my glute/hamstring felt fine pre-roll and hurt post-roll. Not painful, but similar to the hurts-so-good pigeon pose. I think my Tiger Tail may begin to gather dust…
Tomorrow begins the Monster Month before taper time. Apparently I’m supposed to run 3 more 20-milers?! We’ll see. I always do 4 20-milers; I’m not sure how much benefit I’ll gain by adding a 5th.
I have 2 races coming up in April that I’m really excited about. More on that in another post though!
PS – Check out Aron’s blog for a giveaway!
This is a helpful comparison! I do think the Tiger Tail is still good for “on the go” relief but the foam roller really gets deep into the muscle. So happy you got one!
The foam roller is CRACK! We have something similar to your ‘tiger tail’ called ‘the Stick’ and it has definitely become a paper weight since we began using the foam roller…. it hurts SO GOOD!