Don't Touch The Rearview Mirror

Most people think of their rearview mirror as just a driving tool — but what if it’s also your most honest posture coach?

In this episode, Dr. Fred Bagares unpacks a small everyday habit — adjusting your mirror — and how it silently reveals the way your spine compresses, your posture changes, and your body adapts throughout the day. It’s a surprisingly powerful feedback loop about how awareness, not intensity, shapes recovery.

By the end, you’ll see how one mindful pause — a five-second mirror check — can become 730 posture resets a year.

Whether you’re a clinician, an athlete, or just tired of feeling “off” by the end of the day, this episode reframes posture as a practice of attention, not perfection.

🕰 Timestamps + Key Themes

[00:00] The Moment in Traffic
 How a simple mirror adjustment sparked a decade-long observation about posture and spine compression.

[01:00] What the Mirror Really Shows
 Why your height changes throughout the day — and what that says about your discs, gravity, and daily movement patterns.

[02:00] The Honest Feedback Loop
 Your mirror versus your Fitbit — the only device that never lies about your body position.

[03:00] The Science Behind Shrinking
 Hydration, discs, and the physics of spinal compression explained in plain language.

[04:00] Behavioral Blind Spots
 Why we adjust the mirror instead of our posture — and what that teaches us about how the brain avoids friction.

[05:00] The Hidden Training Effect
 How each “quick fix” reinforces unconscious habits and accelerates postural drift.

[06:00] The Real Problem: Invisibility
 When something becomes automatic, it becomes invisible — and eventually, it becomes permanent.

[07:00] The Five-Second Reset
 The simple practice: pause before you adjust, sit tall, and reset yourself to your morning posture.

[08:00] The 730-Day Rule
 How twice-daily awareness adds up to 730 posture checkpoints a year — and why that small math changes everything.

[09:00] Real-World Examples
 How one software engineer used the mirror cue to reduce shoulder pain — and the ripple effect that followed.

[10:00] Awareness vs. Perfection
 Why progress in rehab starts with noticing drift, not eliminating it.

[11:00] Turning Daily Habits Into Checkpoints
 How micro-awareness moments build sustainable posture integrity over time.

[12:00] Your Challenge for the Week
 Set your mirror once in the morning — and don’t touch it for seven days. Let awareness, not adjustment, guide you.

[13:00] Closing Reflection
 You can’t stretch away eight hours of compression — but you can catch it twice a day. Awareness is the first rep.

👉 If this episode shifted how you think about posture, recovery, or the quiet ways your body adapts, subscribe and share it with someone who needs a reminder to pause before they adjust.

For movement guides and clarity tools, visit MSKDirectVB.com or FredBagares.com.

Transcript

0:00

So about. Eight to 10 years ago, I'm sitting in traffic on my way home, long day at the clinic podcast playing, just kind of zoning out. I reach up to adjust my rear view mirror and about mid reach. I had this thought, wait, Didn't I just adjust this thing this morning? So I started paying attention. The next morning I set the mirror. Wednesday evening, I adjusted it again, then again on Thursday, and then again on Friday. As each day went on, I noticed I kept adjusting my mirror. Every time I got in and outta the car I thought to myself, my seat hasn't moved. Nobody else has driven my car. The car hasn't settled or shifted or whatever, so what's different? That's when I realized I'm what's different. My body literally shrank by about an inch throughout the day. And that mirror I set perfectly in the morning by 5:00 PM My eyes are in a completely different place. And here's the thing that got me. I've been doing this for years, every single day, at least twice a day, and I never once asked why you're doing it too. You just haven't noticed it yet. This is what we're gonna explore today. I'm Dr. Fred Biris, and this is The Talking Rehab Podcast. Quick favor, before we dive in. If this podcast has changed how you think about your body or your recovery, hit that subscribe button. It's free. It takes two seconds, and it's how we keep bringing you these conversations every week. No fluff. Just real talk about what actually works. Thanks for being here. Now let's get into it. Now, most people would say, yeah, my posture gets worse during the day, and they'd be right, but they would also be missing the bigger picture. It's not just your posture that gets worse throughout the day. The spine literally starts to compress. You are measurably shorter at the end of the day. The inter retrieval discs are these little water filled cushions between your vertebrae. They lose up to 20% of their height by evening, but here's what nobody's talking about. That mirror adjustment you make without thinking, it's the most honest feedback loop your body gives you all day. It's just like your Fitbit. Your Fitbit lies to you. Your scale lies to you. Your mirror at home lies to you because you adjust your posture before you look at it. But that rear view mirror, it doesn't care about your feelings, it just shows you exactly where your eyes are. And twice a day, every day, it's telling you, Hey, you've drifted again. All right, so let me explain what's actually happening inside your spine because once you understand this, you can't unsee it. Your spine is basically a stack of bones with sponges filled with water in between them. Again, these are the intervertebral discs, which are about 70 to 80% water content. They offer a shock absorber effect for the spine. When you're laying down for eight hours overnight, these discs begin to rehydrate. They swell like sponges left in the sink. When you wake up, you are half. An inch to a full inch taller than when you went to bed. This is a measurable change. Once your alarm goes off, you stand up and then gravity starts to compress these discs subtly throughout the day. You get into your car, you sit in traffic, you get out of your car, you sit at a desk. Gradually, as the day goes over, you hunch over your phone and laptop and hour after hour that water gets squeezed out. Your spine shortens, your posture starts to shift forward by 5:00 PM you are genuinely a different height than when you started off at 7:00 AM. Now here's where things get interesting. From a behavioral standpoint, when you get the car in the morning, you set your seat position based on comfort, right? Can I reach the pedals? Is my back supported? Can I control the car? Once you have all that adjusted, it's set it and forget it. However, when it comes to the mirror, you tend to adjust the where your eyes were at that exact moment. After modifying the seat, eight hours later, you're back in the car. The seat is in the exact same position, but something's off. You can't quite see outta the rear view mirror. So without even thinking about it, you reach up and tilt that mirror down. Not the seat, never the seat, just the mirror. It's a very quick fix. Two seconds and then you're done. Except here's what's actually changed. Your eye level dropped two inches for a couple different reasons. The intervertebral discs have dehydrated. Your shoulders have rolled forward. Your neck is now jutting forward. Your entire spine has been compressed into this slouched position and the mirror is the only thing honest enough to show you what happened. Now you're probably thinking, okay, cool, I get shorter during the day. So what's the actual problem here? Here's the problem. Every time you adjust that mirror, instead of fixing your posture, you're training yourself that external adjustments are easier than internal ones. Think about how effortless it is. Two seconds, you tilt the mirror and then you're done. Compare that to actually resetting your body, sitting up straighter, pulling your shoulders back, lengthening your spine. Actually paying attention to your workspace, where your computer is, where your phone is, et cetera. That all takes effort and awareness. It's uncomfortable because your body's been locked in that compressed position for hours and it doesn't want to move. So what do we do? We adjust the mirror every single time. And listen, I'm not just talking about your car anymore. This pattern shows up everywhere. Your computer screen is too low. You lean down to it. Instead of raising the screen, your phone's in your lap. You crane your neck down instead of bringing the phone up. Your couch is too soft. You just sink into it rather than sitting upright or getting a better couch. We constantly adjust our environment instead of demanding that our environment and our bodies meet a higher standard. Here's the brutal truth that nobody wants to hear. You cannot stretch away eight hours of compression and bad posture. I have patients who tell me, yeah, but I do yoga twice a week. That's great. However, you're slouching 40 hours a week and doing yoga for two. The math doesn't work. It's like drinking 12 beers every day and then having a green smoothie on Sunday and expecting your liver to be fine. But here's what really concerns me as a physician. It's not even the physical damage though that's real. It's the awareness that you lose after you adjust that mirror 50 times, a hundred times, a thousand times without even thinking about it. It becomes invisible. And when something becomes invisible, it becomes permanent. That's when postural creep turns into chronic pain. That's when I'm just tired today because I'm always tired. That's when you look at a photo from five years ago and think, when did I start standing like this? Alright, here's what we're gonna do, and I'm not giving you some complicated protocol. I'm not telling you to buy a standing desk or join a Pilates class though, if you want to do those things, that would be great. I am giving you one intervention, one friction point that hijacks something that you're already doing. Next time you reach for that rear view mirror, pause. That's it. Just pause for five seconds. Before you adjust it, ask yourself two questions. Where was this mirror this morning? You have to learn how to be more insightful. Where's your body in space? Where's your spine? Where's your neck? Where's your shoulders? before you actually do anything, reset yourself. Sit up. Pull your shoulders back, lengthen your neck, and be super tall. Get your body as close as you can to where it was in the morning. Then check the mirror again. I'm willing to bet you, I'm willing to bet you that you won't need to adjust it nearly as much. Maybe not at all. This works because you're hijacking an automatic behavior and turning it into conscious checkpoint. That mirror adjustment happens twice a day. Every single day, that's 730 times a year. You're getting a reminder that your body drifted. Most people completely ignore this. Now, look, I'm realistic here. You're still gonna compress during the day. Gravity always wins. You're still gonna slouch. Sometimes that's completely normal. That's also part of being human. But if you catch it in the mirror, checkpoint twice a day every day, that's seven 30 posture resets per year. You weren't getting anywhere close to before. And here's what surprised me when I started doing this myself and recommending it to patients. Once you start noticing it in the car, you start noticing it everywhere else. You'll start catching yourself leaning into your computer, and then you'll sit back. You'll notice craning down your neck at your phone or your laptop, and you'll bring up your phone to your eye level, Or you'll choose to use a bigger laptop or a desktop computer. You'll feel yourself syncing into the couch, and you'll just simply readjust or pick a different seat. The mirror's, just the gateway. It's the first domino. Once that awareness gets activated, it spreads to everything else in your life. I had a patient last month who is a software engineer, so they said a lot because of the nature of their job. They messaged me after trying this for two weeks. They said that they couldn't believe how effective this was. A lot of their neck and shoulder pain went away so much to the point that they actually added a mirror within their office, just above their monitor. This was very helpful to them, and I'm sure it can help you as well. So this is the major shift from unconscious automation to conscious awareness. This is where the real change happens and look. I still catch myself doing this, and I literally teach this stuff for a living, but that's exactly the point. This isn't about perfection. It's about awareness. The patients I see who actually improve long-term. Who stop showing up every few months with the same symptoms. They're not the ones with perfect posture. They're the ones who notice when things start to drift. They catch it early. They have these little checkpoints built into their day and that seems to keep them honest. The rear view mirror is one of the best checkpoints I've found because It's something that you have to use every day. You don't need to remember something new or add anything to your daily routine. This is way more sustainable than trying to remember to stand up every hour or do stretches at lunchtime. Although that would be great to add into your daily routine, I would start off with a mirror. All you're doing is just adjusting your overall awareness. So here's your action step. Tomorrow morning when you get into your car, adjust the mirror like you normally would, but once you said it, don't ever touch it again. When you get back in the car at the end of the day and you get that urge to actually adjust your mirror, this is a perfect time to reset your body. Sit up, shoulders back, get super tall. And envision your spine exactly how it was first thing in the morning. I'm betting that for most of you, you won't need to move it nearly as much as you think try for one week, just seven days. See what you notice. If you want more practical strategies like this, head over to fred bigs.com. I've got guides and movement resets that build this kind of awareness into your life without feeling like another chore. But for now, just try this mirror. Test one week, see what happens. Thanks again for listening. I'll catch you next time. Thank you for listening to The Talking Rehab podcast. I hope that this podcast stimulates you to question your own practice and how you approach rehabilitation. I truly appreciate your time and attention. If you enjoyed listening, make sure to like and subscribe to the podcast. I wish you a movement filled day. Take care.