What’s next? The most common question asked at the end of a program.

For Nathan Barnes this question led him on a minimalist journey to discover A+A training and a single exercise focus on the clean and jerk.

Nathan explains: “When I started this exploration after completing timed Simple, I didn’t know how to continue a long-term program, or even what kind of training to do. Pavel’s Q&D book came out at about the same time, and I immediately gravitated towards it for its use of swings (in line with StrongFirst’s principle of “continuity of the training process”) and pushups (specificity of training for my military requirements). As Q&D pushed me towards A+A and my own experimentations, I had no idea I would end up doing double kettlebell drills, let alone the clean and jerk. Yet my appreciation of minimalism and my increasing time constraints of work and family led me to where I am now: where a practice session of more than thirty minutes seems excessive and practicing more than two or three exercises seems luxurious. It would be nice to have hours a day to really practice and enjoy all the different kinds of exercises and goals, but until then double kettlebell exercises are more efficient and time saving than single kettlebell exercises, and I can’t think of a better all-around, general physical preparedness (GPP) exercise than the double kettlebell clean and jerk.”