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What are ligaments?

What are ligaments?
Inside the Body


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by Kate Simmons >> more about the author

Touch your head, then your elbow, and then your knee. Do you feel the bones underneath your skin? Your skeleton is made up of many, many bones—in fact, a grown-up’s body has about 206. What holds them together? Ligaments! Ligaments are tough bands of tissue that connect your bones and add strength to your joints, or the areas where your bones meet.

Ligaments are a bit like a string of elastic, because they can stretch a little to help you move! Ligaments do more than join bones. They also add support to some of your internal organs, such as your bladder and liver!




Some ligaments have long names. For example, the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, can be found in the middle of your knee. This ligament helps you to rotate and move your shin (lower leg) bone forward.