To stay connected to your body, it is important to know a little about the connective tissues that help you stay together. It is easy to confuse tendons and ligaments, but these two connective tissues are not the same and actually serve different functions for the body. This is what you need to know.
Tendons connect muscle to bone. These bands of fibrous tissue, both strong and flexible, connect skeletal muscles to the bones they move. Essentially, tendons allow you to move. Think of them as intermediaries between muscles and bones. You've probably heard of the Achilles tendon (named after the Greek hero Demigod who has the fatal weakness of his eponymous tendon), which connects the calf muscles to the heel bone. This tendon is vulnerable to tears and tendonitis, so take care of yourself and stretch your calf muscle so that the tendon remains flexible.
Although similar to tendons, ligaments connect one bone to another and help stabilize the surrounding joints. They are primarily made up of long, fibrous collagen fibers that create bands of tough, fibrous connective tissue. Ligaments are slightly elastic, so they can be gradually stretched and lengthened, increasing flexibility. But if they are stretched beyond a certain point, the ligaments can overstretch and compromise the integrity of the joint that they are supposed to stabilize, hence stretch - with caution. The term double joint actually refers to people with highly elastic ligaments, allowing them to move their joints into more extreme positions than most people. Although no ligament plays a role in Greek myths, knee ligaments, especially the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), are often mentioned on sports pages, because they tend to tear, to separate the quarters. , soccer stars and skiers
Photo Source: POPSUGAR Photography / Rima Brindamour
