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!