FreeRidin'

K so I ride hardtail freeride and the drops have been severly spraining my ankles. What type of exersize can i do to burly them up??

alcahueteria

stand on one foot

zx108

i think you should get some physical therapy.

scrublover

stop dropping to flat. (if that's what you're doing)

get smoother. (go watch trials vids, and see how smoothly those guys can drop)

ankle braces to lessen the chance that you'll roll one.

fatter tires, lower pressure.

not knowing how you do your drops, it's kinda' hard to give anything more than that.

Maelstrom 

661 has an ankle brace that will assist. I am generally against them as they don't allow your muscles to develop.

Personally I would take on a plyometric routine similar to what basketball players do. Standing jumping two foot, single foot
Box jumps up
Box jumps down
Standard Calf raises however using MASSIVE weight. Calves get worked constantly when you walk, jump, pee etc..., do the opposite when you workout, attack them with loads of weight they aren't used to. Get enough weight on your shoulders so you can only do 8 to 15 TOPS. Massive weight also strains the muscles differently, as well as the tendons and bones. All of which will help get rid of sprains.

In the process you will also develop explosive muscle power (not necessarily strength) which will assist in all aspects of riding.

Also, and this is a the bad note, weak ankles is rarely a muscle thing, I have massive leg strength and size, especially in the calves, and have always had small ankles. I fight with sprains almost constantly. Things have gotten better as I strengthened them, but its a long slow process and you will always suffer from it.

WISHBONEjg

also get a pair of 3/4 top sneakers with ankle support, like the 661 dually.
I have bad ankles, I sprained them a bunch of times playing football, so they are kinda shot. I wear the duallies(the 2004 model, they have the best ankle support) and i also wear and ACE slip on brace for extra support. and i've had little problem while dropping.

FreeRidin'

sounds good, I'll give em all a try

sngltrackdufus

another method is to stand on the edge of a step or something on the balls of your feet,raise & lower with ankles.when you start advancing hold 50 lbs in your hands.

gromitz49948

those are calf raises

sngltrackdufus

yup.If thats not good enough strap weight on the top of the foot & liftwith ankle.
How's about going for long walks with heeled boots.. is a third way.
Yup,yup,yup,yuk,yuk,yuk.....

scrublover

i've got these; they do only a little bit to brace. i use them when at the lifts, more as extra ankle protection against rocks and so on. i don't count on them to prevent an ankle rolling, but any little extra help they give, i'll take.

they aren't super comfortable; i'd not want to wear them each ride.

there are all sorts of more comfy braces out there though, if needed.

junkyard

Follow Arnold's calf workout in this book:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/068...Fencoding=UTF8

willtsmith_nwi

This is a very tricky exercise. What I suggest is doing ankle rotations with resistance. Basically, instead of spinning your ankle around, you resist it with your arm. Of course as you go around in a circle you will have to change how you apply the resistance.

It takes some getting used too, but this exercise will both strengthen and stretch.

wvxc

What I would consider the first proper response. Calf strenth has little to do with ankle flexibility. You must stretch the tendons and ligaments. We used to walk on the outsides of our feet before football practice, then do exercises similar to what willtsmith described and we had a ultra low rate of sprains (3 people in 4 years). It takes time, but you have to build up flexibility. Braces will do the opposite and I stay as far away from them as possible.

Hopper

For ankle support, I recommend ankle braces, I destroyed my left ankle in an accident, now my left ankle dislocates very easily, I wear ankle braces similar to the 661 ones but mine is no name, better and cheaper (got it from sportsmed, an AAustralian sports injury specialist place). I also have a wobble board from my rehab (circular disc with a hemishpere on the bottom, you balance on it. This wobble board increases calf muscle and strengthens your ankles.