⭑ I like shuffling should I start jogging? - item #1
⭑ Be amazed - jogging, running - which burns more calories over 5km? - item #2.
⭑ No "correct" style for running, but how you swing your arms matters - item #3.
⭑ How to find your own unique running style - item #4.

All strength to Ukraine 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

Hello,

I trust you are well and active.

It's springtime down under. I love seeing more people running, especially since I'm back running myself following my slow-healing hamstring injury.

I see people shuffling, jogging and running and it got me thinking about the difference, and how to get the most of of each. This is today's newsletter.

Let's bust a few myths which I hope will help you make better and more useful choices in whatever way you want to move:

• Myth 1: Running is better than jogging or shuffling.
• Myth 2: You burn less calories when jogging or shuffling, than running.
• Myth 3: There is a "correct" way to swing your arms when running.

The point is that moving in whichever way satisfies you is beneficial, but if you have specific goals such as to run 5 km in 25 minutes then you need to know how to optimise your chances.

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01 Running, Jogging and Shuffling - Each Serve Your Purpose

Runners might dismiss shufflers as simply poor runners, but shuffling serves as a fabulous way to move because, combined, short strides, low knee lift, and minimal arm swing reduce peak (knee) forces and vertical movement.
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This means that foot impact is low, the twisting demands on your body are low, and you use less energy per stride than running. This combination gives you the best chance to achieve your distance or time goals.

Joggers can tolerate slightly higher impact forces and greater torso rotational forces. The latter typically manifest as stereotypical small stiffish arm swings.

This jogging gait is a neurological response for conserving energy by only allowing enough swing to reduce the energy expenditure of the lower body in resisting the rotational forces. The energy saved in your shoulders and core can then be directed to your legs to keep you going forward.

Beginning joggers often find to their surprise that the lack of endurance in their core and shoulder muscles is their limiting factor.
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⇒ Tip: exercising and strengthening your core and shoulders will help you achieve your jogging goals faster.

Joggers also get mood-boosting benefits, from mild increases in serotonin and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). But this falls short of a "runner's high".

Uniquely, runners get a high from their exertion crossing a neurological threshold, typically from running at moderate intensity for more than 30 minutes. Most joggers never cross this threshold therefore the release of endorphins and dopamine and serotonin never triggers a runner's high.

A runner's high might be enough to motivate you, but most runners have some kind of "comparable" performance goal, whether implicit or explicit e.g. to run 5km in 30 minutes, to run the local park run in a certain time. Whereas shufflers and joggers are more about finishing the distance rather than the performance.

If you are a runner and you want to optimise your performance, then stick about for Myth 3 "There is a correct way to swing your arms" below.

​

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02 Should I Start Jogging or Running to Burn More Calories?

No. You should stick with what you enjoy best and what you are capable of sustaining consistently.

Here's a rarely understood fact: Whether you shuffle, jog, or run, you’ll burn about the same number of calories over the same distance.

Years ago I worked this out from first principles. I was in disbelief. It seemed impossible that all my sweat and tears in running 5km was worth no more in calories than a jogger's!

Surely running harder burns more calories?

Here’s why it works: faster running uses more energy per minute but gets you there faster. Shuffling uses less energy per minute but takes more time. Over the same distance, the totals converge.

On flat ground, running costs roughly 1 kcal per kilogram per kilometer — whether you’re cruising at 7 km/h or pounding along at 12 km/h. For a 70 kg person, that’s about 70 kcal per kilometer (0.73 kcal per pound per mile — for a 154-lb person, that’s about 112 kcal per mile).

⇒ For most of us, whether we shuffle, jog, or run, a 5 km outing will land within ±10% of the same total calories.

However, if you are a runner and want to burn less calories in order to (1) go further, or (2) save a burst for the finish, or both, then you have to optimise your personal arm swing - see the next item.​​​​

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03 There’s No “Correct” Arm Swing — But How You Swing Them Matters

Now let’s talk about arm swings for runners. Is the correct arm swing the most prescribed part of running technique, or the most overlooked?

Should you keep your elbows bent, hands above your elbows, thrust back not forward, etc etc?

None of the above. Here are two facts which make clear everything you need to know about swinging your arms:

• The function of your arm swing when running is to minimise your wasted energy consumption.
• The way you swing your arms to minimise energy consumption is unique to your personal running biomechanics.

One of the biggest myths is that arm swing is about “propelling yourself forward.” It isn’t. Your arms are there to stabilise, not propel.

Stabilising means that you must optimise arm momentum to reduce the energy which would otherwise be drained from your entire lower posterior chain. This includes muscles which tire over a long run and cause you grief if you have drained them early from a poor swing technique e.g. core, postural stabilisers, hip stabilisers, glute, foot and ankle stabilisers.
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See the next item to learn how to determine your optimum personal running swing style.

In the meantime experience the force of your natural rotational torque by clasping your hands together, raising them vertically above your head - arms in line with your ears - and walk about the house or take a short jog. You will feel the enormous forces that your arms have to stabilise in order to optimise your running energy use.

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04 How Do I Find My Unique Running Swing Style?​​​​​​​​​​​​

To find your unique arm swing style is easy, and not easy. It takes practice.

I have read articles and watched Youtube videos and what I am going to recommend is, in my opinion, the only method which truly teaches your mind and body your personalised unique style for optimising your energy use.
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Our arms and legs are neurologically linked. When your left leg swings forward, your right arm naturally does too. This “cross-body coupling” is deeply wired into human locomotion. If that rhythm is off, your body compensates with muscular corrections which burn energy.

You have to use a technique to convey the feeling of your natural running mechanics to your brain. It's actually quite hard, so best to do it in bursts and tune in each time:

• Imagine a diagonal line from the front of each hip to the opposite shoulder.
• As you run mentally picture the ends of the line.
• As your left leg moves forward visualise the lower point and the upper point and allow your arms to swing - no tension - to keep this line always "facing forward".
• Keep concentrating on the end points of the lines as you run, allowing your arms to find their own natural counter-momentum to minimise your body rotation.

You will know when it is working because you will feel a new sense of fluidity come into your running. But it takes time and concentration and practice, because you have to undo years of less effective movements. Keep trying.

⇒ This is the best video I have seen explaining how to do this and why.

Thanks for reading!

>> My Latest Blog Post: Energise Your Golden Years: Boosting Your Desire to Exercise with Gut-Healthy Foods​

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