We come across The Tiger Tail roller via a pilates instructor recommendation, and its a another very useful tool for staying flexible and muscle recovery. Essentially, it’s a hand held version of a foam roller, but since the bar is narrower, it can feel more intense.
One of the main complaints we hear has to do with creaking achy feelings in the muscles and a lack of perceived mobility. It seems that fascia, the tissue that holds the muscle together in bundles, can get sticky and not slide as easily as it once did. Stretching and yoga are great. We are advised that manual pressure to break the resistance areas up is also important –massage, foam rollers and lacrosse balls for instance. The Tiger Tail is nice because it can be used on the thigh muscles while sitting, and really work them out. It can also be used on the calves, an area that can get particularly tight from walking. When that happens, the range of motion of the ankle becomes limited.
Great for the sole
One area where the Tiger Tail is fantastic is on the sole of the foot. The foot is heavily muscled, and filled with nerve endings. Place the Tiger Tail on the floor, hold onto a chair for support, then place as much weight as you can handle on a foot rolling on top of it. We have heard that for a more extreme (Laird Hamilton) version, you can use a golf ball and stand on it with all your weight. Good times. The idea is to stimulate the bottom of the foot, get it back to an awareness that it was designed to have back before there were shoes and pavement.
There are a number of rollers, manipulators, and balls on the market, of which we own a small closet full of, this one has been getting more use than the others, and we highly recommend it.
