How to Stop Walking Duck Toed

If you walk with your toes pointed slightly outward, with most of the weight on your heels and the arch, then you walk duck toed. While functional, walking duck toed can cause unnecessary wear and tear on your ankles, arches and feet, and problems with your back, hips and knees. The best way to prevent this is to stop walking duck toed, which may take some practice since you need to break the habit and replace it with a more natural gait.

Instructions

• 1

  Take off your shoes and socks so that you're barefoot. Walk the way you normally do when you're duck toed, and look at your feet. Concentrate on what it feels like, where you put your weight and the sensations in your feet. If you're going to stop walking duck toed you need to first know what walking duck toed feels like.

• 2

  Straighten out your feet. Your feet should be parallel to each other, facing straight forward from your body. This means that your ankles, knees and hips should all be aligned. Straightening out the angles takes pressure off your joints, and relieves weight from your arch and ankles.

• 3

  Relax your ankles. Many people tend to keep their ankles stiff when they walk, which leads to pressure as the heel rams down. Keep the ankle relaxed so that as you walk, there's a smooth impact and roll that doesn't put pressure on your legs.

• 4

  Walk with your legs straight out and keep your joints loose and relaxed. Keep your feet parallel, and allow your chest to rotate slightly along with the natural swing of your arms. Keep your head up as you walk, and allow your body to find its natural rhythm. Keep walking like this consciously and it will eventually become habit that will replace walking duck toed.