'Bio-hacking' brothers' season of bone-chilling workouts melting away

NS personal trainers use cold exposure Brothers and personal trainers Brad and John Mayo use cold exposure to reach their fitness goals.

The bone-chilling workouts of two Nova Scotia brothers are coming to an end with the arrival of spring.

Fitness trainers John and Brad Mayo’s arctic adventures at Lake Echo, just outside Halifax, have gained them millions of views on social media.

The Mayos have more than 57,000 followers on Instagram and their often campy videos show them doing yoga and calisthenics on the frozen lake, cannonballing into an opening in the ice, and running a frigid obstacle course.

They say ice baths – part of a technique called cold exposure - have many health benefits, including reducing muscle inflammation.

The two describe their approach to fitness as “functional mobility training and extreme bio-hacking.”

John acknowledges it’s something of a mental game to prepare for the shock of the cold.

“But then once you get in, you just kind of have to breathe through the pain because no doubt it is painful.”