About

Mat 360 was created by Richard Plaskow, a parent and lifelong fitness advocate who noticed something important:
While there are many workout products for adults, there are very few that help families stay active together.

Inspired by making fitness more inclusive, more enjoyable, and easier to start, Mat 360 was developed and then trialled with fitness professionals at Fit Kitz UK.
These trials helped shape age-appropriate workout programs for children (7–15) and teens/adults (15+), making Mat 360 one product the whole household can use.

The result?
Fitness becomes quality time, not a chore.

Mat 360 aims to establish a presence across the UK, Europe, USA, and Asia-Pacific through partnerships with distributors, retail groups, home fitness brands, and digital training platforms.

Our long-term value lies in building a recognised, trusted consumer brand in the emerging category of guided, at-home family fitness.

The idea for Mat 360 was developed by Richard Plaskow in 2019. As a regular participant in HIIT, Pilates, Yoga and Karate, Richard noticed there were very few ways for adults and children to train together in a small space, without equipment or gym access.

Mat 360 was trialled and validated by fitness professionals at Fit Kitz UK, who created structured routines for:

• Children ages 7–15

• Teens & Adults (15+)

This makes Mat 360 one of the only multi-age, multi-ability guided fitness tools, turning exercise into shared family time — improving strength, confidence and wellbeing at home.

With Richard’s proven experience in product introduction, channel development and multi-market rollout (including previous success bringing new technology to the UK market), Mat 360 will be launched through:

• Retail and TV shopping channels

• E-commerce & subscription training content

• Influencer and creator partnerships

• Licensing with major fitness brands

Most people think push-ups are “too hard” — but the science says you don’t need to start on your toes.

Research in the Journal of Applied Biomechanics shows that knee push-ups activate the same muscles, just with less load. That means:

Knee push-ups still build real strength.
They’re not a downgrade — they are the correct starting point.

Once you can confidently complete 16 knee push-ups, you’ll naturally progress to doing push-ups on your toes.

Push-ups also activate 51% more core muscles than a bench press — making them one of the best functional, real-world strength exercises we have.

And the Mat 360 helps by showing exact hand placement, core alignment, and body positioning, making push-ups achievable for all ages and ability levels.

“Don’t leave push-ups out of your workout because you cannot perform them on your toes. Knee push-ups are a valuable alternative.”

“We have been able to demonstrate that the overall ratio of muscle activation in the upper body when you do a push-up on your knees or toes is actually the same,” says Lead Researcher, Dr. Jinger Gottschall. This means that you are training the target muscles in the same way, just using less load when you are on your knees.

This is good news for people who cannot safely or successfully perform push-ups on their toes with a full range of motion.

“Whatever you do, don’t leave push-ups out of your workout because you cannot perform them on your toes. Knee push-ups are a valuable alternative to toe push-ups in order to give your chest, shoulders, and arms a quality workout, at the same time strengthening the muscles of the core,” Gottschall says.

During the study researchers also compared push-ups with another chest training favourite, the bench press. Study participants experienced 51 percent more activation of the abdominal muscles when completing push-ups versus bench press repetitions with parallel weight. This highlights how push-ups are a superior functional exercise. Functional exercises typically involve the integrated training of limb muscles with core muscles and are hugely valuable when it comes to training muscles to do everyday activities safely and efficiently.

There’s no dispute that the most effective push-ups are push-ups on your toes, as they engage a greater amount of activation in the muscles of the upper body and core – demanding whole-body integration. However, push-ups on your toes can be challenging and many people, especially older adults or individuals new to exercise, cannot safely complete multiple push-ups on their toes. All too often the hips and neck are not aligned properly and consequently, the risk of injury outweighs the rewards. “When people are struggling to lower themselves towards the ground in a toe push-up position, they shouldn’t give up or feel discouraged, says Gottschall. “We can now be confident that push-ups on your knees are an effective modification.”

The good news is that if you do enough push-ups on your knees you’ll be up on your toes in no time. Gottschall explains that as the muscle activation in knee and toe push-ups is the same if you consistently perform enough push-ups on your knees to reach a point of fatigue you will soon become strong enough to do push-ups on your toes.

Bryce Hastings, Les Mills’ Head of Research and Technical Advisor agrees with Gottschall’s advice, saying once you are confident doing 16 push-ups on the knees, then you are ready to try push-ups on your toes.

“If you feel confident doing 16 knee push-ups, you can just start to try some on your toes and see how you feel. If you need to, you can revert back to the other style until you gradually build up your strength over time to be able to do more on your toes than your knees,” he says.

You can pick up some more in-depth technical advice when you read up about the three common push-up mistakes to avoid.

Once you’ve mastered the toe push-up the sky’s the limit. The Guinness world record for most push-ups in one hour is held by David Escojido who did 2,298 push-ups in 60 minutes. Charles Servizio holds the current world record for most push-ups in 24 hours. He ticked off a whopping 46,001 push-ups in just 21 hours, 6 minutes.