There’s a Difference: Jogging vs. Running

When most people say they are going for a run, they should actually say they are going for a jog. No difference between the two, you say? I say there’s an enormous difference. Jogging is an incomplete movement pattern. It’s like doing half a chin up or not working through a full range of motion when bench pressing. There’s never any real extended stride. The arm and leg movement is short without any real full range of motion. Some refer to it as as “speed shuffling” or “speed limping”. I have to agree. No one really ever looks good when jogging. They either look like they are hurting or can’t move properly. The movement just doesn’t look right. It’s not a walk, but it’s not a run. So I guess it’s called a jog. Take the incomplete movement pattern repeated many times over the course of a “jog” and there is an injury waiting to happen.

Now if we look at running, we look at a completely different movement pattern. Running is the ability to “move rapidly on foot”. There’s a stride phase. There’s a recovery phase. There’s an involvement of the glutes and hamstrings that you don’t find in jogging. You’re moving through a more complete movement pattern than the jogging pattern and it looks a whole lot better. It is all about how you look, right? And if it’s not about how you look, how about the chances of getting injured being reduced? A real running pattern usually is going to consist of a longer stride. A longer stride means less repetitions of that movement over the course of a run. Less repetitions could mean less chance of injury.

Even Nike has their own thoughts on the difference between the two: