The edge you can feel
Press gently on the front of your lower leg. Feel that hard edge? That's your tibia, right under your skin.
There's almost no muscle or fat between the skin and the bone there. That's why bumping your shin on a table hurts so much!
Run your finger down the edge from your knee to your ankle. You're tracing almost the whole bone.
The second longest bone
Your tibia is the second longest bone in your body. Only your thigh bone is longer.
At the top, the tibia is wide and flat, like a tabletop. Your thigh bone rests on it to make your knee.
At the bottom, it makes the bump on the inside of your ankle. Can you feel it? That's the end of your tibia.
Holding you up
Your lower leg has two bones, but the tibia does most of the work. It carries most of your weight from your knee down to your foot.
The thin bone beside it, the fibula, carries only a little.
When you run and jump, your tibia gets stronger to keep up. Bones answer the work you give them.
A bone named after a flute
Tibia is a Latin word for a kind of flute. Long ago, people made flutes from the long leg bones of animals.
Muscles on the front of your shin lift your toes up. Try it: stand on your heels and lift your toes. Feel the muscle next to your shin bone get hard?