Other than groin injuries rib injuries fall into the top two injuries sustained by combat sport athletes. Watch as UFC fighter Tanner Boser visits Dr. Nick Nelson - Tanner visited to address rib pain and difficulty breathing after a Jiu Jitsu training session. Watch now to see the difference between having your ribs out of place vs fully aligned. 

DR. NELSON: Good, just like so, good.

TANNER: Oh, there we go.

DR. NELSON That was the thud we needed.

DR. NELSON: What’s up everyone, Dr. Nick Nelson coming backhere from Element Chiropractic Edmonton. We are here with Tanner Boser from the UFC. So this gentleman is a beastin the ring. You’ve probably seen him massacre a few people in the last coupleof months. Um, so we’ve been working together for about eight months off andon. When we first started he was training and he was really trying to get in tothat first UFC bout. He demolished it, and since then he’s had about three, wasit three or four?

TANNER: I’ve had four…

DR. NELSON: Four. Four in the UFC officially and he is nowknown as number 15 in the UFC. So we’ve worked on a few different issuesthroughout that time, but today he’s coming in with something very specificthat we’re going to take a look at. So go ahead.

TANNER: I’ve got some sort of knot going on under my shoulderblade, I noticed it during Jujitsu, I don’t know exactly what it is. Nickthinks it’s some sort of rib that’s slightly out of place, it’s just aching,kind of causing an ache to go down my arm, it was hindering me from taking deepbreaths for a couple days. Again these are just kind of typical wear and tearand bumps and bruises of a fight camp. Not the end of the world, but Nick isalways good to help me get back in tip top shape so I can crush my trainingsessions again tomorrow.

DR. NELSON: So what we’re going to do, we’re going to realquickly look at assessing that, so before we started this I did go in and do apreliminary assessment. So we’re just going go through and show you what we’redoing to confirm that. And then we are going to get to the adjustment.

DR. NELSON: So right away when we’re going to the area ofconcern, when I go to the left side it’s not that bad. When I’m pushing in hereis there any tenderness there?

TANNER: Uh, a bit yeah.

DR. NELSON: Right in there?

TANNER: Yeah.

DR. NELSON: So what we can see when I just scan the area ismy fingers actually drop in to this pocket of edema. I know right here thatthis side doesn’t jump in to that sort of area. So we do have some swellinginside one of these rib heads. And now just going to take a look at isolatingthat. So what I’m going to have you do is I want you to take a really deepbreath in for me. And out. Good. So I want you guys to pay attention to my thumbsright now. Another deep breath in. See how this left one expanded, and theright did not. And out. So what we’re seeing there is that this rib isdysfunctional right now that is not allowing it to inhale which is going toimpact this gentleman’s ability to get air in, which is very important in afight. Now what he’s also feeling is some numbness and some tingling referringdown into this lat region, and down in to the arm. So this is very common withrib injuries because when the rib pops out, the rib will actually pop out as aunit. So all the way to the very front this thing will come out and it willactually impact some of the nerve pathways that are going past that. So I candefinitely feel the rib head right here that I know we’re going to be workingon. So we are going to get to the adjustment and we are going to put this backin to place.

DR. NELSON: So scanning this area again, we can feel thispocket, and there’s actually a rotation to the vertebra in here. So there’s alot of damage that can happen to the body while you’re in a fight. Especiallywhen you’re a high level UFC fighter. A lot of that stuff can give you issuesthat you don’t feel pain or you don’t feel for a while after. So tanner said hewas just doing some Jujitsu, so we don’t know if that was actually the link orif this could be coming from a previous episode. But we’re going to get thisvertebra right here and it’s going to rotate that rib with it. So take a deepbreath in, and all the way out. [Cracking sound] Good. Beautiful. Take one morebig one here. And out. Mhmm. There we go. So always check in the whole systemhere. We can see there’s a restriction to this left hip on Tanner. So we’regoing to check what’s causing that. Okay. Good. So some rigidness in thatsacrum. So we are going to go ahead and have you turn this side up. Like this,Good. There we go. And on to the other side. So with Tanner you don’t hear hugereleases on him quite often, because he is fairly full of muscle. So if you’reever wondering what it’s like to fight a grizzly bear- this is probably asclose as you are going to get. Okay. And on to your back.

TANNER: Okay.

DR. NELSON: Okay. So we are going to get those upper ribs onthis left side up here. Good. And we’re going to recheck this side- this is theproblem side. So just swing that way, good. And then hold the top of yourshoulder just like so. Good. [Crack].

TANNER: Oh there we go.

DR. NELSON: That was the thud we needed. Okay. Let that armrelax. So what you heard there was that rib coming through underneath theclavicle. So that rib moving like a unit, it affects the entire shouldermobility. Relax just there. [Crack]. There we go. So not usually a positionTanner let’s his head relax in, but we get it there. [Crack]. Again always checkingthese feet. With his sport there is a little more impact than most people haveto worry about. So it’s important to make sure the top of his foot is moving.It’s pretty rigid on this one here, so we’re just going to just let that fallfor me. There we go. Alright my man, come on up.

TANNER: Awesome.

DR. NELSON: So we’re going to take a look just here. I justwant to confirm this. So we’re going to find again that first rib. I want youto take a big breath in again. Beautiful. And out. So you see how those bothare moving together. And then we’re going to check these upper ribs, anotherbig breath. Good. And out. Good. So both these upper ribs expanding as well.Beautiful. So this is just another day in the life of Tanner, but we will be inhere again probably seeing him after his next fight. But this gentleman isgoing to crush another one. When’s the next round?

TANNER: November 7^th, against Andrei Arlovski.

DR. NELSON: Alright, so tune in on that- you won’t bedisappointed! Catch you later.