💊Daily Pill: Tendon vs. Ligament

If you train, you need to know.

The Daily Pill is a series of very short daily posts where I share the definition of a medical term I think you should all know. Read it every morning and build up your medical vocabulary.

🩻Tendon Vs. Ligament

Tendons and ligaments are both made of tough, fibrous connective tissue, but they have very different roles in the body. Tendons connect muscles to bones, helping the muscles move the bones as they contract. For example, did you know there are no muscles in your fingers? tendons that go through your hands make your fingers move when your forearm muscles contract. Ligaments, on the other hand, connect bones to other bones, providing stability and support to joints. Ligaments help keep the bones in the correct alignment and prevent excessive movement that could lead to injuries. So, in short, tendons link muscle to bone to enable movement, while ligaments link bone to bone to stabilize joints.

---

Why you need to know:

You can hurt both in training, but unlike bones, tendons and ligaments are not vascularized, and therefore, lack the ability to heal rapidly . You can’t just immobilize the joint in a cast and hope them to fully heal in 4 weeks. When ligaments/tendons snap, they typically need to be surgically repaired. Take care of your joints. A Practical Guide to Joint Health: here

🧠Trivia

The Achilles tendon, one of the strongest tendons in the human body, can handle stress of about 5-12 megapascals (MPa) and up to 13 times the body weight during intense activities like jumping… Kangaroo hind leg tendons, on the other hand, can store about 6 times more elastic energy than human tendons can.