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A Brisbane Runner’s Guide:
Common Running Injuries and How to Prevent Them
Most runners don’t get injured because they’re doing something wrong. They get injured because running is a high-load, repetitive sport, and the body needs the right preparation to handle it.
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Research suggests anywhere from one in five to as many as seven in ten runners will deal with an overuse injury in a given year, and at PEAK, Sports Medicine Australia data backs this up: the knee is the single most commonly injured area among runners of every level.
If you’re training for your first 5km or chasing a personal best at the Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast Marathon, the goal isn’t to avoid every niggle. It’s to understand what’s causing it, catch it early, and build a body that holds up to the kilometres you’re asking of it. That’s the mindset we bring to every patient who walks through our Hawthorne or New Farm doors. (At PEAK, we call all our patients Athletes, not because of fitness level but because of mindset: our job is to help you reach your goal, whatever that is.)
This guide covers the running injuries we see most often in clinic, why they happen, how to prevent them, and when it’s time to get a professional opinion.
Why Running Injuries Happen
Running injuries are rarely caused by one single thing. Most of the patients we see have a combination of the following:
- Training load increases too quickly. Adding distance, speed, or hill work faster than your tissues can adapt is one of the most common drivers of overuse injury. Tendons, bones, and muscles all need time to remodel and strengthen under new load.
- Inadequate recovery. Running breaks tissue down; rest and sleep build it back up stronger. Skipping recovery days or stacking hard sessions back-to-back doesn’t let that adaptation happen.
- Biomechanics and gait. The way your foot strikes the ground, how your knee tracks, and how your hips and core control your stride all influence where load goes. Small inefficiencies, repeated over thousands of strides, add up.
- Footwear and surfaces. Worn-out shoes, a sudden switch in shoe type, or a jump from soft trails to hard pavement can change the forces travelling through your legs.
- Strength and mobility gaps. Weakness through the hips, glutes, and calves is one of the most common, and most fixable, contributors to running injury.
This is exactly why Running Gait Analysis is one of the first steps we take with patients who are injury-prone or building up their kilometres: a 60-minute assessment combining video gait capture, footwear review, and strength and mobility testing across the three phases of your running stride: initial contact, midstance, and propulsion.
How to Prevent Running Injuries
You can’t eliminate every risk of injury, but you can stack the odds heavily in your favour:
- Build load gradually. A common guide is to increase weekly distance by no more than around 10%, though every body and every goal is different.
- Strength train. Two sessions a week targeting the glutes, hips, and calves does more for injury prevention than almost anything else. Our Exercise Led Prevention Classes are built specifically around this.
- Get your gait checked. A Running Gait Analysis can flag inefficiencies before they become injuries, and guide decisions on footwear or Custom Foot Orthotics.
- Replace your shoes on schedule. Most running shoes lose meaningful support somewhere between 500 and 800km.
- Respect recovery. Sleep, easy days, and deload weeks are part of training, not a break from it.
- Train with guidance. A tailored Running Program built around your goals, whether that’s your first fun run or a marathon, takes the guesswork out of how hard, how far, and how often.
When to See a Professional
Most running niggles settle with a few days of easier training. But some symptoms are a signal to get assessed rather than push through:
- Pain that wakes you at night or is present at rest
- Pain that’s sharp, localised to one specific point, and doesn’t ease into a run
- Swelling, visible deformity, or an inability to bear weight
- Pain that’s been getting worse, not better, over one to two weeks
These are exactly the signs we ask our patients to watch for, because catching a bone stress injury or significant strain early can be the difference between two weeks off and two months off.
How PEAK Supports Brisbane Runners
We built PEAK around the idea that recovery and performance shouldn’t be split across five different providers. Under one roof across our Hawthorne and New Farm clinics, our Physiotherapy and Podiatry teams work together on gait, strength, footwear, and load, so your treatment plan actually fits together. It’s the same pain, prevention, and performance approach behind everything we do: treat what’s bothering you now, build in the work that stops it coming back, then help you perform at whatever level you’re chasing.
If you want to run alongside people who understand exactly what your body is going through, The Stride Club is our free-to-try Brisbane running group, coached by our own Podiatry and Physio team and built for every level, from your first session to marathon training.
Whatever stage you’re at, our job is to help you get back to (and beyond) the experiences you never felt possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common running injury?
Runner’s knee (patellofemoral pain) and shin splints are the two most common complaints we see in clinic, with the knee being the most frequently injured area among runners overall.
Can I keep running with a running injury?
Sometimes, at a reduced load, but it depends on the injury. Sharp, localised pain, night pain, or pain that worsens during a run are signs you should get assessed before continuing to train on it.
How do I know if my running injury is serious?
Watch for pain at rest or at night, swelling, or pain that’s getting worse rather than better after a few days of easier training. Any of these warrant a proper assessment rather than guesswork.
How can a gait analysis help prevent running injuries?
It identifies the biomechanical patterns (footstrike, knee tracking, hip control) that put extra load through specific tissues, so we can correct them with strength work, footwear changes, or orthotics before they become an injury.
What is The Stride Club?
PEAK’s free-to-try Brisbane running group, coached by our Podiatry and Physiotherapy team and open to every level, from beginners to marathon runners.
Ready to Run Pain-Free?
If something’s been nagging at you for more than a week or two, don’t wait for it to become a bigger problem. Book an appointment with our Hawthorne or New Farm team, or give us a call:
- Hawthorne: (07) 3399 3318
- New Farm: (07) 3399 4668
Running Injury Assessment
Book Your Appointment Today