So my muscles are tight and I want to know if anybody has tried both of these products and has favorite between them.
have both… the foam roller rocks. it’s like a chiropractor…
I have both and use them both regularly. I like the sprint stick for the large muscles. The foam roller is great for working the tendons and ligaments.
Neither. TP Quadballer. 2nd choice would be a solid foam roller, not the white sissy kind. Performbetter.com has them, I think. Way firmer.
both are good, the foam roller seems to dig nice and deep while the stick is conveniently small. Nothing like a hot bath then roll out the scar tissue after a hard session…
Foam roller IMHO is definitely better than the stick. But I found a PVC pipe with a thin towel wrapped around it works just as well, and much cheaper and solid than some rollers. If you don’t care for my ghetto solution, I’d recommend getting the “molded” ones from performbetter.com (someone else mentioned it here too). You can also see their “Foam Roller Plus”, which is just a PVC pipe with a layer of foam on it.
Forget the foam roller. Get the real deal, this is firmer than foam and does not soften as the foam after couple of weeks.
http://www.power-systems.com/p-2972-premium-eva-foam-roller.aspx
It’s like rock, paper scissors…firm foam roller beats stick, TP quadroller/footballer combo beat firm foam roller…
I think that is the same material as the performbetter ones, but at a better price. To the OP, whatever you pick, don’t go with a cheap roller - as swimfan and others can attest to, a regular foam one will soften and deform and make rolling on it useless.
To those recommending the quadballer, I’ve never used the it but it just seems like an expensive roller. What makes it better than a solid foam one?
seems to dig in deeper, probably due to small circumference also very durable but as one of the other posters mentioned, a trip to home depot could probably produce an outstanding roller at a bargain price with pvc, etc…
I think they have different applications. A foam roller is a good way to do deep work on your fascia and IT bands. My legs are usually trashed for a day or two after real foam roller work, so I just do it once a week. I can release pressure points in my hips and even neck with careful moves on a foam roller, so for me it has real therapeutic applications, as long as I space out sessions by a week.
The stick can be used to do great self-massages that help with recovery. You can work out kinks with the stick and can do IT band work, but it is not nearly as intense as the roller. It is really good for calves and hamstrings. You can buy both for the price of one massage, so you might consider picking one of each.
ditto on the TP quadballer and footballer and massage ball. Definately gets deeper than a foam roller or the stick. I’ve had the stick for years, tried a foam roller a couple times, but the foot baller is the 1st thing to really work thru the uber-tight solius issues I have. massage ball also beats a tennis ball.