Great article from our friends at Running Times about whether

or not it matters how your foot hits the ground when you run.

It's important to highlight that inserting cushioning into shoes to manage impact does work--heel-toe running in a shoe with a cushioned heel does reduce impact loading rate. In fact, Daniel Lieberman's barefoot running study showed that average impact loading rate wasn't significantly different between shod heel-toe runners and barefoot forefoot strikers. As always, it's important to note that variation among individuals was considerable. Lieber-man reported that for "the majority of barefoot FFS [forefoot strike] runners, rates of loading were approximately half those of shod RFS [rearfoot strike] runners.

Click the image for the full article.