Yesterday I picked up a used copy of Gray's Anatomy. It is a pristine hardcover edition that apparently had been sitting on the shelf in the store for years. I talked the guy down to $12 from $25 for just that reason. As far as I can tell, the spine of the book had never even been cracked open. Yet no one, over the span of years, had been interested in picking up this "old" book. I guess they wanted the new, flashy, color splashed anatomy books that are now available. I have a bunch of those too, and I like them. But I love this Gray's Anatomy that I just acquired. It's got charm. It's got tons of detail. It's still relevant. And it's a classic.
This got me to thinking about how we seem to be drawn towards the "newest" and "latest" inventions and versions of our favorite products. Your local fitness club is probably a great example. I bet there are lineups for the shiniest new computer driven treadmills in front of the sharp looking new plasma screen TVs while the dingy looking old barbells in the corner go largely unused. But the thing is, those old barbells hold out a much larger bang-for-buck ratio than all those fancy machines! But I guess they are just not "cool."
This lead me to ponder on why Clubbells and kettlebells are coming on so strong. They are so ancient, simple and technologically unsophisticated! However, I think that beyond shine and polish there is another source of cool that taps into authenticity. The thought of Middle Eastern strongmen swinging clubs and of Russian athletes wielding kettlebells elicits a certain reverence for time tested methods and a return to no-nonsense strength and conditioning.
And then I realized the brilliance of Coach Scott Sonnon, inventor of the modern Clubbell and founder of the Circular Strength Training® System. He takes "old" and makes it "new." But he doesn't just do it for the sake of making it new. He infuses new life into ancient and tested methods using his own research into the science of sport melded with his inexhaustible passion for training himself and his clients. He makes old stuff sexy again...
Just take a look at a Clubbell. Coach Sonnon was not content to just reproduce the old Indian clubs. He tested, fiddled, rejected, adopted and innovated until he came up with a tool that not only worked, but naturally looked sleek and sexy precisely because of its efficient and effective design!
And this runs through the entire CST System. It takes the beauty of authenticity and infuses it with the appeal of efficiency, effectiveness and "newness." So to answer the original question, I do not think newer is better. But I think it is shear brilliance to package old stuff that works so that people will be attracted to it. Fighting human nature is a losing battle. So one might as well use it to good advantage and give people what they need through providing what they want.
This got me to thinking about how we seem to be drawn towards the "newest" and "latest" inventions and versions of our favorite products. Your local fitness club is probably a great example. I bet there are lineups for the shiniest new computer driven treadmills in front of the sharp looking new plasma screen TVs while the dingy looking old barbells in the corner go largely unused. But the thing is, those old barbells hold out a much larger bang-for-buck ratio than all those fancy machines! But I guess they are just not "cool."
This lead me to ponder on why Clubbells and kettlebells are coming on so strong. They are so ancient, simple and technologically unsophisticated! However, I think that beyond shine and polish there is another source of cool that taps into authenticity. The thought of Middle Eastern strongmen swinging clubs and of Russian athletes wielding kettlebells elicits a certain reverence for time tested methods and a return to no-nonsense strength and conditioning.
And then I realized the brilliance of Coach Scott Sonnon, inventor of the modern Clubbell and founder of the Circular Strength Training® System. He takes "old" and makes it "new." But he doesn't just do it for the sake of making it new. He infuses new life into ancient and tested methods using his own research into the science of sport melded with his inexhaustible passion for training himself and his clients. He makes old stuff sexy again...
And this runs through the entire CST System. It takes the beauty of authenticity and infuses it with the appeal of efficiency, effectiveness and "newness." So to answer the original question, I do not think newer is better. But I think it is shear brilliance to package old stuff that works so that people will be attracted to it. Fighting human nature is a losing battle. So one might as well use it to good advantage and give people what they need through providing what they want.
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well said bro! I loved this article!
Posted by: Quentin | June 08, 2008 at 02:59 PM