Swing Arm Exercise

This is the story I thus have heard :
The ancient famous Greek philosopher (not sure if it is Socrates) taught his students to swing their arms as a form of exercise daily. In the beginning all students followed their teacher's advice. After one month, only three students practised the swing arms exercise daily. After one year, only one student (not sure if it was Plato) continued with this swing arms exercise and became the best student of the Greek philosopher.
The actual name of the philosopher and student aside, one can derive a number of 'moral of the story' from is mentioned above. For example, what makes a good student, persistence leads to success etc etc.
Moral of the story aside, here is a simple swing arm exercise I read about recently :
Youtube videos :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEp5Wh6AcWE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JjtfUmzM2Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c80I01HKAvM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7kEvs0Ww6w

Other links :

http://www.lapislazuli.org/TradCh/magazine/200811/20081105.html

http://www.meimen.org/health/wonder/wonder-main.html (menu items on the left)