Wednesday Kettlebell Practice: Getting Ahead of Myself

This workout was probably not a good idea. But I saw it on Mike Stehle's wonderful site, http://www.jerseykettlebell.com/, and couldn't resist giving it a shot.

It's quite simple:

KB snatches, R, 12 kg x 15 sec., rest 15 sec.
KB snatches, L, 12 kg x 15 sec., rest 15 sec.
Burpees, 15 sec, rest 15 sec.

Repeat 15 times for a workout that takes just over 20 minutes.

My cadence throughout was a uniform 6 reps per work set, so I ended up doing 180 snatches and 90 burpees total.

So why was this not a good idea?

It all comes down to technique. I love timed sets but tend to think they work best if you select exercises with which you are very familiar; otherwise you may find yourself sacrificing quality for quantity. I've made some progress with kettlebell snatches but am not yet proficient enough to be doing timed sets with them. In fact, when I realized my cadence was always going to be about 6 snatches per 15 seconds I decided just to pretend I was doing 6 rep sets starting on the half minute, and weirdly that worked better. I found it easier to focus on my technique once the element of time pressure was off. Is this true for anyone else, or am I just a weirdo?

(Note: the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.)

Hands don't feel too bad. I've got a bit of a torn callous at the base of my ring finger, but I can deal. I'll have to get some Corn Huskers.