So yeah. I've been watching Spartacus with my girlfriend and having a great time of it. It's fucking hot and awesome. Best fucking fucking softcore I've ever seen (and barely at that). And I had this idea that if combat were made more entertaining then 'training gear' could be an expendable commodity. The better the gear the more it provides (because it has greater endurance and provides longer training sessions before having to heal). People already say a great way to increase hunger to speed up development is to injure yourself. Since this is already an intuitive function of the game why not just incorporate into the most reasonable and historically internationally traditional exercise to produce the development of combat.
I could totally see this minigame integrating with the current LP replacement ideas if consideration is given to the idea in its development.