Simone Puddu Personal Training

Simone Puddu Personal Training Welcome to Simone Puddu Personal Training. I help real people — especially those overcoming pain, rehab, or burnout — build real strength.

Wim Hof Method Certified Instructor
I help YOU to control your health and fall in love with your body

Full coaching is for:
- stress management
- fat loss
- muscle build
Contact me if you are motivated to change � From in-person sessions in Malta to fully guided online programs, I offer transformation, not just training.
👇 Scroll down for success stories, real-life wins, and simple insights.
🎯 Ready to start? Message me or book a free consult.

Vanessa described the result better than I could:“I have become stronger, fitter and more confident in myself.”That came...
08/09/2026

Vanessa described the result better than I could:

“I have become stronger, fitter and more confident in myself.”

That came from training that was actually built around her.

The exercises, difficulty and progression need to match the person doing them. That is where a personalised programme earns its name.

If you want to get stronger, improve your body composition and have your training built around your situation, send me PROGRAMME.

A hard set is allowed to get ugly in one sense: the rep slows down, you get red and make a ugly face, and a grunt marks ...
08/09/2026

A hard set is allowed to get ugly in one sense: the rep slows down, you get red and make a ugly face, and a grunt marks the reality of your effort.

But there is a point where you are no longer doing a harder rep of the same exercise. you are doing... "something else".
In Oxford University hidden Vocabulary, you are Fu**ing Up the exercise if, out of your will:
> your range of motion suddenly becomes much shorter
> your position collapses
> you start throwing the weight with momentum that was not there before
> another muscle group takes over because the target movement is gone

IF you are not applying some intensity technique here, then counting another 2-3 reps is "Fu***ng it up" and no more "pushing harder."

Sometimes the set is-simply-finished and what's beyond the last rep is just a medical bill.

If last week you did 10 clean repetitions and this week you did 12 by turning the last two into a completely different movement and getting a Nurofen, it is unlikely you have progressed as much as the number suggests.

Your goal is to do "more useful work with the intended exercise".

It is not that every repetition looks identical or effortless. Near the end of a hard set, speed will often decrease and technique may change slightly.

The question is:
Are you still performing the exercise you intended to train?

If the answer is no, end the set.
Your ego will survive.
And your training log will lead to improvements instead of the next visit.

Save this as a rule for your next hard set or send it to you friend that keeps on pushing while twisting like a eel.

A full gym gives you more equipment and, especially, more convenient ways to keep adding load.That is a real advantage. ...
07/09/2026

A full gym gives you more equipment and, especially, more convenient ways to keep adding load.

That is a real advantage. We can’t pretend a resistance band and a smith machine are interchangeable.

But a Home Gym program can still be proper strength training.

The important part is knowing what you are trying to train and how you are going to progress it.

If the Full Gym version uses a leg press, the Home Gym version needs an exercise that can train the same target effectively with the equipment available.

And then it needs a progression.

For example, with a split squat you might:

* build from 8 to 12 good reps
* increase the dumbbell load
* increase the useful range of motion
* move to a harder unilateral variation when load becomes the limiting factor
* add a pause where it makes the exercise harder, rather than just making everything slower - which still, it is useful.

Same with pressing.

No chest press?

Fine.

Dumbbell press, floor press, weighted push-up or a harder push-up variation may all be useful depending on what you actually have.

The program should choose the appropriate tool and then keep progressing it.

There is also an important limitation to understand.

If you train at home with two 5 kg dumbbells forever, eventually some exercises will simply become underloaded.

No programming trick can manufacture infinite resistance.

At that point you need more load, a more demanding exercise, different equipment, or eventually a gym if your goals require it.

That point, might take years to be reached.

That is very different from saying Home Gym is the baby version.

In JOA Battle Program, Full Gym and Home Gym are two routes through the same program.

The exercises can change.The available loading options can change.

The objective, progression and expectation that you actually train hard enough do not disappear because you are in your garage.

Choose the route you can realistically train with.

Then make it progress.

06/09/2026

A personalised programme has to work in your real life.

Your schedule. Your equipment. Your training history. Your goal. Your progress.

That is what I use to decide what you train now and what comes next.

If you want to get stronger and work on your body composition with a programme built around you, DM me PROGRAMME.

Hip thrusts are useful and I programme a lot of them. Keep them.But if your entire glute strategy is hip thrusts, kickba...
06/09/2026

Hip thrusts are useful and I programme a lot of them. Keep them.

But if your entire glute strategy is hip thrusts, kickbacks and five versions of band abductions, you are leaving a lot on the table.

For complete glute development, you need different movement patterns covering different jobs across the week.

A simple framework:

• Thrust and bridge patterns: hip thrusts, glute bridges, frog pumps
• Squat and lunge patterns: squats, split squats, lunges, step-ups, single-leg variations
• Hinge and pull patterns: RDLs, deadlifts, good mornings, back extensions, reverse hypers
• Abduction and external rotation: cable, machine, band and side-lying variations, clams
• Kickback and quadruped patterns: cable kickbacks, band kickbacks, quadruped hip extensions

Why all of these? Because they challenge the glutes in different ways.

Thrusts and bridges are great for producing high force as the hips approach extension. You can load them hard.

Squats, lunges and hinges expose the glutes at longer muscle lengths — where the muscle is actually weakest. That matters.

Abduction and external-rotation work trains a completely different function of the glutes, rather than just repeating hip extension.

Quick note on single-leg work: useful, yes — and not only for aesthetics. My clients are more stable and solid in everyday life partly because of it. But it is not its own magical category. A Bulgarian split squat is still a split squat. A single-leg RDL is still a hinge.

Use unilateral variations when they give you something. Do not create a new category just because one foot left the floor.

No single exercise is THE ONE. Glute development is teamwork across patterns.

And then the part that actually drives results: progress it. Track load, reps and ex*****on. Keep exercises in long enough. Increase the variables over time.

Also worth saying — glute-focused training can and should still train your quads, hamstrings, adductors and trunk properly. A good lower-body programme does both.

Save this if you are building your own sessions, or send it to someone whose glute programme is currently 14 variations of the same movement.

Rest periods change what you can actually do in the next set.Rush them and you may turn a perfectly good strength or hyp...
05/09/2026

Rest periods change what you can actually do in the next set.

Rush them and you may turn a perfectly good strength or hypertrophy session into cardio with dumbbells.

A practical starting point:

Big compound exercises: 2-3 minutes

Squats, presses, rows, RDLs, pull-ups, heavy split squats.

If the set was very demanding, especially close to failure, 3-5 minutes can be completely reasonable.

Smaller accessory and isolation exercises: 60-120 seconds

Lateral raises, curls, triceps work, leg extensions, abductions and similar exercises usually recover faster.

Then use your performance to judge it.

Say you bench:

60 kg x 10

You rest 60 seconds and get:

60 kg x 6

Maybe your chest did not suddenly lose 40% of its strength.

Maybe you simply started the next set too soon.

Give yourself 2-3 minutes and you might get:

60 kg x 10
60 kg x 9
60 kg x 8

Now you are accumulating far more useful work with the load you actually wanted to train.

The same rule applies to hypertrophy.

Being breathless is not evidence that the muscle received a better stimulus.

You should start the next set when you can again produce a good set with the intended technique, load and effort.

There is also no prize for staring at Instagram for seven minutes between lateral raises - or worse: keeping busy a machine, you monster! 😆

Rest enough. Then train.

A simple rule for most sessions:

- Heavy compounds: start around 2-3 minutes
- Very demanding heavy sets: take longer when needed
- Accessories: start around 60-120 seconds
- If performance collapses from set to set, consider whether you are resting enough
- If you are completely recovered and wasting time, get on with it

And if your program gives you a specific rest period, follow it.

It is there for a reason.

Set the timer. Stop guessing.

A simple rule for knowing when to add weight:Earn the top of your rep range first.Say your program gives you 3 sets of 8...
04/09/2026

A simple rule for knowing when to add weight:

Earn the top of your rep range first.

Say your program gives you 3 sets of 8–10 reps at 30 kg. Over a few sessions you build up:

8 / 8 / 8
9 / 9 / 8
10 / 10 / 10

Now increase — and use the smallest jump available. No need to skip straight to 35 kg when 31 kg exists.

Your reps will drop a little after the increase. That is completely normal:

30 kg: 10 / 10 / 10
31 kg: 8 / 8 / 8
31 kg: 9 / 9 / 8
31 kg: 10 / 10 / 10

Then increase again. That little wave keeps going: build the reps up → add a little weight → let the reps settle → build them back up.

The jump was too big if your 8–10 rep exercise suddenly becomes 5 ugly reps, your form starts breaking down, or you are swinging and bouncing just to finish the set. The number on the dumbbell is not doing you any favours at that point.

Equipment can also get in the way. Some gyms only have 2 kg jumps between dumbbells, or big gaps on the machines. In that case, stay at the current load a little longer, build more capacity, and use microplates if they are available.

Progressive overload sounds like a complicated concept online. In practice it often looks like this:

10 / 10 / 10. Add a little weight. 8 / 8 / 8. Build it back up. Repeat for months.

This is not the only progression that exists, but it is an incredibly reliable one: waving load increase on the same volume. Once it stops working, you move on to something else.

Boring and consistent beats random and exciting every time.

Save this and use the rule next time you are standing at the rack not sure whether to move up.

Your warm-up actually has two separate jobs — and mixing them up is one of the most common things I see.The first part i...
03/09/2026

Your warm-up actually has two separate jobs — and mixing them up is one of the most common things I see.

The first part is simple: a few minutes of general movement to get the joints moving and the heart rate up. Done.

The second part is what most people underuse — the specific warm-up for the exercise you are actually about to do. These are called ramp-up sets.

If your work sets are 80 kg × 8 on the squat, you might do something like this:

Empty bar × 8–10
40 kg × 5
60 kg × 3
70 kg × 1–2
Then your work sets.

The load goes up. The reps come down. You are getting yourself ready for heavy weight without burning through energy you need for the sets that actually matter.

And those ramp-up sets tell you things: Does the movement feel right today? Is there any pain? Is the weight feeling heavier than expected? Do you need to make a technique adjustment?

This is also why I do not automatically give everyone ten minutes of mobility work, activation drills, and stretching before every single session.

If something is limiting the position you need, deal with it. If nothing is limiting you, there is nothing to fix.

Warm up enough to be ready. Not so much that the warm-up itself becomes the problem.

Save this and use the ramp-up approach in your next strength session.

Choose your three training days before you choose your exercises.First I need to know when you can actually train.Take y...
02/09/2026

Choose your three training days before you choose your exercises.

First I need to know when you can actually train.

Take your real week and decide:

* Which 3, 4, or even 5, 6 days can reliably hold a proper strength session?
* How much time do you realistically have on each one?
* Are two of those days forced to be consecutive?
* Which day is most likely to get destroyed by work, family, appointments or life generally being annoying?
* Where is your backup slot?

Then the program has something solid to sit on.

For example:

Monday - 60 minutes
Wednesday - 45 minutes
Saturday - 60 minutes
Backup - Sunday

Good. Now I can distribute the training properly for you.

Maybe the longer sessions carry more accessory work.

Maybe Wednesday needs to be tighter and more efficient.

Maybe two consecutive training days need different emphases so you are not asking the same muscles to perform 18 hours earlier.

Maybe your schedule makes a Home Gym session useful as the backup instead of losing the workout completely.

This is one of the reasons JOA is flexible.

You have three strength sessions to complete. The program does not need everybody pretending Monday, Wednesday and Friday were written into the Ten Commandments.

You organise those sessions around your week while keeping the training sequence and enough recovery for the program to work.

And with my bespoke clients I go further.

Available training time is something we discuss in the initial interview and again during the monthly check-ins.

Because availability changes.

Your job changes.
Your shifts change.
You start travelling.
A previously perfect training day becomes impossible.
You suddenly have 45 minutes instead of 75.

That information affects programming.

I would much rather write you a strong 45-minute session that you can reliably complete than a magnificent 90-minute masterpiece that lives untouched inside my app.

So before you spend half an hour deciding whether your program needs Bulgarian split squats or step-ups, open your calendar.

Choose the three places where training can actually live.

Then build the workouts.

Your first workout back should feel easy.Not useless. Not lazy. Just easy.If you have been away from training for a whil...
01/09/2026

Your first workout back should feel easy.

Not useless. Not lazy. Just easy.

If you have been away from training for a while, your first session back is not the time to test what you can still lift.

You already know what happens. The first sets feel good, your ego wakes up, you start adding weight or extra sets — and then the next 48 hours give you the invoice.

Too sore. Too tired. Class skipped. Week 2 derailed before it started.

A better approach:

Choose loads you can control and finish most sets with around 2 clean reps still in reserve. The moment you think "I could still do two more" — stop there. That is exactly the right place to stop.

Do the work you planned. No bonus sets just because you feel fresh today.

Then check in with yourself afterwards. How sore are you? How tired? How did your technique feel? Would you be happy to train again in the next day or two?

That is what Week 1 is for.

Your first session back is data, not a performance. It exists to give you a real starting point for Week 2.

Repeat it with me:
Soreness is not a progression metric.
Exhaustion is not a progression metric.
Destroying yourself after a break proves nothing.

Get a clean start. Build from evidence, not optimism. Progress from there.

Address

Triq Maria Teresa Spinelli
Gzira
GZR1301

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