14 Types and Functions of Ligaments

The ligaments are considered bands of elastic tissue that are tough around your joints. They are important because they connect bone to bone, limit their movement, and provide support to the joints.

Ligaments are all around your body, such as your knees, elbows, shoulders, and ankles. The more you stretch and injure your ligaments makes your joints unstable. Most people injure their ligaments through physical activity, accidents, or wear and tear. When they become unstable, you can self-treat at home with rest and icing it. If the ligament is in bad shape, surgery will be needed.

It is important to know the eight types of functions of ligaments. Some people don’t even know the functions, but once you know you’ll know to take better care of your body instead of pushing yourself when playing sports or exercising. The more you know about how your ligaments work, the more you will appreciate them.

1. Range of motion is a type of function of the ligaments.

It determines how much the joint and/or muscle can extend. It will prevent dislocation of the joint. It holds the joints together when they are flexed or extended.

When you overextend a joint and/or muscle the ligament becomes injured. A lot of the times the only way a ligament can be fixed is through surgery. For instance, a ballerina is expected to extend her leg as high as possible.

When stretching she has to throw her leg up as high as possible. If she does this too many times at a high rate of speed, she can injure herself. That’s why a lot of times ballerinas have to cut their dance careers short because of an injury.

They pushed themselves too hard and it caused them to be unable to dance the same again. Even if they have the injury fixed, they could cause more injury to the area.