Albert Einstein is widely credited as having defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” This attribution is refuted by some. For instance, the literature of Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous states, “Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.” While the more specific idea of repeating genuine mistakes and expecting better results would ring true in its logic, the broader definition attributed to Einstein seems to fall short.
After all, a tenet of kinesiology tells us to persist in an activity in order to improve. Eventually, running a distance will condition our body’s capacity to run that distance more efficiently and therefore faster. In the same vein, lifting weights strengthens our muscles. Raising a weight over and over again in the same motion will eventually improve the capacity of those muscles to lift even greater weight.