In the last issue of austin FiT magazine, we told you about the second month of Paul Reyes’ training for his comeback fight in early September. Reyes, an out-of-shape, former amateur boxer, is determined to enter the ring again and emerge a winner. He’s given himself three months to get ready for his comeback fight and we’re tracking his progress along the way. This month find out how the final part of his training went.

In a perfect world, Paul Reyes would have spent every spare moment leading up to his comeback fight training in the gym. But instead, during the past month, Reyes was rarely seen at Bruce’s KO Boxing Gym. Unfortunately, his visits were few and far between.

It wasn’t sickness or laziness that impeded his intense training regimen — it was a test, a really difficult one that ultimately sidelined his workouts. As the Bar Exam, an intense three-day test covering the Texas and U.S. legal systems loomed near, Reyes quickly realized he was seriously behind in his studying. In panic mode, he camped out at his apartment and immersed himself in his books.

“Every time I went to work out I felt guilty about not using the time to study,” he says. “As the Bar approached, I realized that I was not managing my time efficiently, so my training suffered.”

Although Reyes didn’t make it to the gym often, when he did find time to train, he pushed himself as hard as he could. As a result, Reyes feels relatively confident about his upcoming fight.

In addition to spending time shadow-boxing and working on his footwork, Reyes entered the ring three times last month to engage in mock fights, also know as sparring matches.

“Sparring has exposed my most glaring weakness — conditioning,” he says. “Johnny (a pro fighter) was gracious enough to get in the ring and work with me a couple of times, but I felt worthless as my left arm, and my entire body, got really tired, preventing me from effectively working my jab. I have begun to dedicate five rounds a day using solely my jab on the heavy bag,” he says.

Although Reyes didn’t get to train as much as he would have liked this past month, he did manage to reduce both his body weight and total body fat by eating healthy. “My body fat is now around 12 percent and my weight is in the low 180s,” he proudly reports. When Reyes started training three months ago, he weighed approximately 200 pounds and his body fat percentage was close to 20 percent.

With the Bar Exam now behind him, Reyes has increased the intensity and frequency of his workouts in anticipation of the upcoming fight later this month. He’s concentrating on keeping his gloves up to block punches to his face and working on his jab. Sparring has made him realize he also needs to work on his cardiovascular fitness, otherwise he could end up completely exhausted half-way through the first round of the fight.

Be sure to keep up with Reyes and his daily training by visiting http://backinthering.blogspot.com. Also, check out Part 4 in the September issue of austin FiT magazine.

Photo:
Reyes sparring in the ring.