Jogging vs Running vs Sprinting: Key Fitness Differences

When it comes to differentiation between types of running, most people don’t make any distinctions between jogging, running and sprinting, aside from categorizing them as running at slow, medium, and fast speeds. Yes, there is truth in that characterization of those three acts, but in practice, the differences between them are vast when quantifying what each style of movement does to your body. 

This is also why simply saying that you “went for a run” can leave a false impression on both others and yourself if you don’t accurately state what it was that you were doing. Because of this, it’s critical to know what form of running you are engaging in, why you’re doing it, and what your outcomes from training with each running style are likely to be.

Jogging

Most jogging takes place in the four-mile-per-hour range, which is right at the ceiling of most people’s sustainable walking speeds. This is because jogging’s intent is less about speed and efficient calorie burning, and more about elevating your heart rate into the aerobic zone more quickly and stably than walking. 

By design, jogging is low-impact, which minimizes the stress on your joints, while ensuring that your body acquires the health advantages of sustaining an elevated heart rate for a period of 30 minutes or longer without placing undue stress on your body.

However, this also means that jogging is incapable of preparing your body to be competitive in a half-marathon or a marathon, because your body will not be able to complete all of the essential adaptations that it needs to undergo in order to withstand long-distance running efforts where speed is a factor.

Running

When you say you went for a run as a form of exercise, most people are likely to interpret that as you saying that you ran for an extended period of time — at least 10 minutes — at a pace that is substantially faster than walking. In fact, this category of runs at a six-to-10-minute-mile pace is the box that most running-oriented workouts are likely to fall into.

During extended runs, your body experiences a number of changes. Aside from improving your aerobic conditioning, the anatomy of your joints and muscles also adapts to prepare you to endure the rigors of the repeated impact of your feet on pavement and other hard surfaces.

The bottom line is that if you have any aspirations of competing in any races of five kilometers or greater, your workout must consist of a vast quantity of standard running, at varying speeds, but certainly at a pace that greatly exceeds that of jogging.

Sprinting

Chances are, sprinting is the least likely form of running that you’re headed outside to engage in, and that’s a shame. Studies indicate that short rounds of sprinting can improve strength, power, and endurance at an equivalent or faster rate than at slower running speeds, but with less time. 

Despite the high speeds involved, people engaging in regular sprinting workouts also improved their multi-mile running times in just six workout sessions, and with only sprinting workouts taking place over the course of the study. This means that sprinting seems to offer the broadest range of overall benefits that can be applied to real world situations. In essence, if you train your body to sprint, it will also hold up well during longer tests of your body’s endurance.

By their very nature, sprinting workouts take less time than jogging or running workouts. Even the bodies of world-class sprinters simply can’t maintain an all-out sprinting pace for much longer than 20 seconds before the obstacles imposed by fatigue begin to assert themselves. This means that true sprinting workouts are typified by sessions of work, rest, and recovery, and tend to last less than 20 minutes in total. 

Time for All Three

There’s no need to isolate yourself within one variety of running training. Over the course of your life, you may find yourself spending most or all of your time training with one form of running more than the other two, splitting your time evenly amongst all three, or exclusively using one method (more than likely jogging) out of physical necessity. 

The point is to make sure you are knowledgeable about the advantages and drawbacks of each running method before you devote all of your time to just one of them. There are few things worse than learning the hard way that your preferred form of running failed to prepare you for the demands of the race you now find yourself struggling through.

Takeaways

1. Knowing the form of running you are engaging in is critical for identifying what you are training your body to endure.

2. Jogging takes place at around a four-mile-per-hour pace, and improves the health of the heart through low-impact training without necessarily causing other physical adaptations.

3. Most running occurs at speeds between six and ten miles per hour, which trains your aerobic system while causing the physical adaptations that will allow your body to hold up over long distances.

4. Sprinting improves muscle strength and power while also improving conditioning, enabling you to achieve a broader range of benefits in less total work time.

5. Knowing which style of running you’re training with can help you to know if your body is as prepared as you’d like it to be for races and other athletic competitions.