Ligaments and tendons fall into a category of structure in the body known as dense regular connective tissue.

In terms of their structure they are very similar, both being made up of bundles of closely packed collagen fibres that run in the same direction. This arrangement of flexible 'bands' gives them large tensile strengths in one direction, and they can resist large pulling forces.

With large tensile strengths tendons are the cords that attach muscle to the bones outer covering (periosteum) using strong structures called Sharpey's fibres.

With a slightly more elastic nature ligaments are the tissues that bind bones together at joints and maintain the stability of our joints.