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I know Craig always gets these up before me, and then when I post he yells at me, but I do not recall having seen this one, which has come out of the Salomon lab in France.
Apologies in advance if it has already been posted...!

Eur J Appl Physiol. 2013 Apr 14. [Epub ahead of print]
Impact reduction through long-term intervention in recreational runners: midfoot strike pattern versus low-drop/low-heel height footwear.
Giandolini M, Horvais N, Farges Y, Samozino P, Morin JB.

Abstract
Impact reduction has become a factor of interest in the prevention of running-related injuries such as stress fractures. Currently, the midfoot strike pattern (MFS) is thought as a potential way to decrease impact. The purpose was to test the effects of two long-term interventions aiming to reduce impact during running via a transition to an MFS: a foot strike retraining versus a low-drop/low-heel height footwear. Thirty rearfoot strikers were randomly assigned to two experimental groups (SHOES and TRAIN). SHOES progressively wore low-drop/low-heel height shoes and TRAIN progressively adopted an MFS, over a 3-month period with three 30-min running sessions per week. Measurement sessions (pre-training, 1, 2 and 3 months) were performed during which subjects were equipped with three accelerometers on the shin, heel and metatarsals, and ran for 15 min on an instrumented treadmill. Synchronized acceleration and vertical ground reaction force signals were recorded. Peak heel acceleration was significantly lower as compared to pre-training for SHOES (-33.5 ± 12.8 % at 2 months and -25.3 ± 18.8 % at 3 months, p < 0.001), and so was shock propagation velocity (-12.1 ± 9.3 %, p < 0.001 at 2 months and -11.3 ± 4.6 %, p < 0.05 at 3 months). No change was observed for TRAIN. Important inter-individual variations were noted in both groups and reported pains were mainly located at the shin and calf. Although it induced reversible pains, low-drop/low-heel height footwear seemed to be more effective than foot strike retraining to attenuate heel impact in the long term.

 

The question should be this:

Is heel impact (i.e. impact peak) the cause of running injuries? Answer? We don't know.

Not a single study suggests that heel impact forces are the cause of injury. In fact, Nigg's prospective study concludes that those runners with higher impact forces have fewer injuries. In addition, the heel impact peak is not solely due to the heel impact transient, but due to contributions from both the heel and forefoot.

 

Already posted at end of his thread on a similar topic:
http://www.podiatry-arena.com/podiatry-forum/showthread.php?t=80974

 

dammit!!!!!! clenched fist to mouth,, mmmmnnngggg!!

 

Simon,
why do you say that it's coming from the Salomon lab?

 

The project was a collaboration between 5 labs. One of those labs was the Salomon SAS Amer Sports Footwear Laboratory..
Salomon funded the study
The lead author's email is ....@salomon.com
Salomon shoes were used in the study

 

lol..:drinks A better question might be: what difference should this make in our interpretation of the results reported and moreover, the discussion of those results therein?