Eliminating Pain Through Purpose: Dan Cullen’s Journey from Athlete to Healer

In this episode of Struggles, presented by NCBI, host Brian Butkowski sits down with Dan Cullen, owner of More To Give Fitness, to discuss how he helps people eliminate chronic pain and injury through advanced stretching techniques.

Dan shares his personal journey from competitive athlete to pain-relief specialist after discovering a unique approach that traditional healthcare couldn’t offer. From helping clients avoid surgeries to relieving migraines and scoliosis, his story highlights the power of movement, standards, and purpose-driven work.

Listen as Dan reveals:

• The difference between his stretching method and traditional yoga or stretch labs
• Why establishing standards in flexibility is key to long-term healing
• Real success stories from clients of all ages
• How his personal struggle with pain became his mission to help others

🎧 Struggles is a podcast by NCBI, where we navigate challenges together—sharing the real stories of entrepreneurs, business owners, and leaders who’ve turned adversity into strength.

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) I've helped people with migraine headaches get out of pain, stop having them. I saved someone from having carpal tunnel surgery. Wow. I've helped people with plantar fasciitis. I helped a teenager with scoliosis get rid of it, like eliminated, she's no longer in pain. I've helped people with just random calf pains, shoulder pains that were so bad they were keeping them awake at night, they couldn't sleep, they had so much pain. I even helped someone with degenerative nerve disease. Welcome to another episode of Struggles presented by NCBI, the podcast where we navigate challenges together. All right, welcome to this episode of the Struggles podcast. I'm Brian Bukowski. Today, I'm sitting with Dan Cohen. Good to have you here, Dan. Thank you for having me, Brian. Absolutely. So I know one of the struggles that you talk about from time to time is that people don't really know who you are or what exactly you do. Could you tell me a little bit about that and what that really means? Of course, Brian. So my name is Dan Cohen. I'm owner of More To Give Fitness, and I specialize at helping to eliminate pain and injury through advanced stretching techniques. And most people think, well, stretching. I stretch, I do yoga, I go to stretch labs. But what I do is completely different from what yoga and stretch labs do. Okay. What I do is stretching to a standard. I have a standard for every stretch that I do. Yoga doesn't have a standard and stretch labs doesn't have a standard. You need a standard so you have a goal, something to aim for, something to work towards. So a quick question on that, that standard, is that a standard per individual that you're working with, or is that a standard that is a baseline for every single person that you'd ever work with? So it's a baseline for every single person I work with. Okay. So each person has their own individual baseline? Well, everyone has their own starting point, but everyone has an overall standard that they should be at. Oh, okay. Do you want to expound on that a little bit more? Sure. One standard I have is for arms behind and up. Everyone should be able to get their arms up to 120 degrees. That's approximately in line with their head. Okay. That's how much flexibility there should be in the bicep tendons. Okay. So how many people typically struggle with that? Every single person, right? I've only seen one person hit the standard first time when I worked with them. And were they already a major athlete probably? No, he was just some guy who was very genetically blessed with flexibility. Interesting. Interesting. So yeah, to those points, who is it that you work with? Could you tell us a little bit about that? Who are the people that you can maybe help the most? Honestly, I can help people of all ages, from high school people all the way up to Grandma Josephine. Okay. All ages, whether you're an athlete, stay-at-home person, average day-to-day worker, high-level athlete or entrepreneur, businessperson, CEO, I can help anyone. Okay. That's good. So I know you talked a little bit in the past to me about the locations, the geolocation for that. Can you speak to that a little bit? Well, I work out of a gym in North Royalton, and I can also do virtual sessions and house calls, if needed. Okay. And come to the person if they're, say, very far and they don't want to make the drive to me, I can come to them. Okay. Or if maybe they're just in that much pain and they can't really get to me. Okay. Virtual sessions that work nearly as good as an in-person session. Excellent. Excellent. Yeah. Are those something that you do quite often, those virtual sessions, or is it mostly in-person that you do? Mostly in-person up until this point. Sure. BOM Image appreciates the opportunity to sponsor this podcast. BOM Image provides brand firepower, precision-targeted brand messaging and visual identities, empowering small teams in the professional services space to attract their most rewarding and profitable customers. We work hand-in-hand with our client partners, implementing our unique set of processes, focusing on listening, raw objectivity, and accountability to help them present a more impactful brand story. Our passion is inspiring clients to create their BOM Image. And I think I've asked you this before, but if you could tell us here, are you able to do any kind of group sessions where maybe it's more than just one individual that you're working with at a time? So far, I've only done one-to-one sessions, but I'm open to the idea of doing group sessions for, say, like a school or a business that wants to do like a, say, healthcare program for their employees. Excellent. Excellent. Is there anything else that you'd want to talk about to that end, as far as your programs or things of that nature? I guess the biggest thing is just people don't really know that they have another option outside of like traditional healthcare. People think, well, I'm stuck with this injury, this ache or pain I've had since college, or this nagging thing that's been developing over the years, and I'm here to tell people that, no, you have another option. You can come see me, and I can help stretch the problem away, help stretch you to the standard, because what do most injuries feel like when you have an injury? It feels tight. Right. So people just need to stretch, and through a structured system, they have a goalpost, something they can aim for in order to help eliminate the ache or pain, and it doesn't even necessarily have to be something minor. It can be something major. I've helped people with migraine headaches get out of pain, stop having them. I saved someone from having carpal tunnel surgery. Wow. I've helped people with plantar fasciitis. I helped a teenager with scoliosis get rid of it, like eliminate it. She's no longer in pain. I've helped people with just random calf pains, shoulder pains that were so bad they were keeping them awake at night. They couldn't sleep. They're in so much pain. I even helped someone with degenerative nerve disease, just stretching. Okay. And obviously, what you do is pretty rare, pretty different than what most people know. Can you tell me a little bit about how you got into that or where that came from and what it means to you to now be able to help people in a way that maybe they didn't even know could be helped? Sure, Brian. So it's very near and dear to me because I was grown up an athlete, and I also developed an injury that stretching fixed for me. So it's very near and dear to my heart because I had this nagging ankle issue that doctors couldn't fix. I was competing in the sport of fencing, and I had this pain for years and went to multiple doctors at the Cleveland Clinic. They didn't know what was going on. Talked to pretty much anybody with an ankle problem. They didn't know what was going on. So I found one person here in Ohio who does a little bit of stretching. Not exactly what I do, but taught me the value of stretching. And apparently, I had this one muscle in the front of my shin here. It's responsible for pulling your toes up. It was locked up. He got it to release in one session. Years of ankle pain. And it's not like I was old. I mean, I'm 29 now, but when I had the injury, I was in my late teens, early 20s. Like on paper, my body shouldn't be breaking down this early where I knew something was wrong. And quite frankly, I wasn't satisfied with the answers I was getting from the medical field. Yeah. So you kind of created it on your own after reaching out to him. Yes. Wow. That's awesome. And do you have any specialized training that you've done to get to where you're at and figure out these baselines? Yes. So I'm certified with Ultimate Human Performance. That's a company founded by a man named Joe Hippensteel. He lives out in San Diego, California. He works with the Navy SEALs, professional athletes, and people of any and all ages. People may even have heard of David Goggins. He's the one who helped fix David Goggins. That's awesome. I loved it when you told me that originally, and it's great to hear that again. But yeah, when people need real help, it's amazing. Yeah. Those are the things that you can do to get that done. What would be the best way for someone to get in contact with you so they can see if they can get help from you? Well, the best way would be either call my cell phone, text it, or email me at moretogivfitness.gmail.com. Yeah. Can you say that once again? So my company name is moretogivfitness, LLC, at gmail.com. It's a long email, I know. So just call or text me. Excellent. Excellent. So we'll have some stuff with the notes as well. But it's great to have you here and talk a little bit about the struggles that you helped solve and what got you to where you are today. So thanks, Dan. Thanks for having me, Brian. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Struggles presented by NCBI, where we navigate challenges together. Don't forget to subscribe, listen, and share this podcast with others who might benefit. We'd love to hear about the struggles you're facing or have overcome, and we'd be thrilled to have you as a guest on a future episode. Let's continue this journey together.