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The Incredible Shrinking Woman 

As a child growing up, do you remember comparing your height to every relative who stood still for five minutes? Remember your joy as you slowly grew taller than an aunt or your mother?

But as you became an adult, did you suddenly notice that they started getting even shorter? Did you ever consider why?

Could it be that your female relatives have indeed been shrinking?

On average, women can lose up to 2 to eight inches of their height once they hit menopause. Medical experts used to believe that this loss was unavoidable. However, now the experts say that it isn't.

The loss in height is related to osteoporosis, which is a lessening of the density of the bone. While this occurs in both men and women, it's more common - and more noticeable - in women. One of the best ways to prevent this - in addition to taking supplemental calcium - is through a regular fitness routine.

If you are 40 years old or over - it is vital that fitness is part of your daily routine. In order to stay at your current height, it is important to retain your bone mass and this can be done through exercise. By exercising regularly, you will reduce your risk of developing a large number of health issues involving your cardiovascular system and even cancer or diabetes.

Before you set out on your new routine, you should make it a priority to choose an exercise or group of exercises that provide you with a sense of pleasure.Don't jump on any exercise of fitness fad because it seems to be popular. Before you commit yourself, ask yourself what activities you could visualize yourself participating in for the rest of your life. If you actually enjoy the specific exercise, you're much more likely to continue with it faithfully.

Whatever you exercise you choose, you should also incorporate some form of weight training. This will help to keep your bones strong by stimulation of the mineralization and remodelling process. Since every major muscle is attached to the bones by tendons, whenever these muscles contract, the force that is exerted on that bone will help build bone mass.

While activities like yoga and t'ai chi build bone mass, one of the most widely known ways is through weight lifting. Now before you begin to form images in your head of what you believe the average weight lifter looks like, let us just add something. Weight lifting isn't necessarily the domain of just those testosterone-energized men out to outbuild their muscles. And if you decide to lift weights, you needn't worry about developing overstuffed muscles like the woman competitive lifters.

The results of this study conducted by Miriam Nelson, Ph.D. of Tufts University will give you a good idea of what an amazing impact this exercise can have on your body and your life.

Two groups of post-menopausal women were studied by Dr. Nelson. None of women in either group were doing a regular fitness program or taking any hormone replacement supplements.

One group began a basic weight lifting program, twice a week for 40 minutes at a time. The other group remained inactive. The women who lifted weights greatly improved their strength tests after one year. In fact, they had scores which matched women in their late 30s and early 40s. In addition, almost all the women lost inches from their body and lost weight without changes to their diets.

However the most telling result in the women was how they chose to spend their free time. Those who had begun the simple fitness program one year before were now much more active in other areas in their life - dancing, in-line skating and doing things that they had only dreamed of doing before.

The more on the go you are, the stronger your bones will stay and ultimately, the taller you will stay for the rest of your long, healthy life! There are few "fitness musts" for women over 40 years of age but the only real "must" is to chose an activity or two that you enjoy doing and just keep on doing it.

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