ANATOMY - STRUCTURES OF THE FOOT AND ANKLE

The foot is made up of many bones and soft tissues such as muscles, ligaments and tendons. The bones of the foot are often divided into 3 regions: hindfoot, midfoot and forefoot.

A joint is the area where two bones come together and it includes all of the soft tissue structures inbetween the two bones.

Cartilage is a thick tissue and is found on the ends of the bones. It acts as a protective cushion and a sliding surface on which the bones move.

Using your computer mouse, very carefully move over the foot diagram directly to the right of this text. The individual names of each bone will appear as you do so. The calcaneus bone, which is not seen to the diagram on the right, can be seen on the diagram to the bottom right. You must have the Flash Player© installed on your computer to effectively view the names. You can download it here.

Ligaments and tendons are "soft tissue" structures that are very strong. A ligament joins two bones together.

A tendon is a thick, cord-like structure that joins muscle to bone. One of the most well known tendons is the Achilles tendon. The Achilles joins the calf muscle to the heel (calcaneus). Again, the calcaneus bone can be seen directly below and also on the bottom right picture.