Body weight exercises you can do at home for weight loss and fitness.

By Cassie White.

When performed as a high-intensity interval circuit (HIIT), bodyweight exercises can be fantastic for losing weight and increasing fitness.

The best thing about these workouts is that they are free and totally portable.

Even the busiest person can fit 15 to 20 minutes of HIIT into their daily schedule.

Unfortunately, bodyweight exercises are often done with poor technique. If you power through them at top speed with sloppy technique, you will not get results, but you probably will get injured.

If you are new to these exercises, take time to go through them and practice the correct technique, based on the instructions in the videos. Once you have that nailed and feel more confident, you can turn them into a high-intensity circuit.

Even if you are an old hand at them, do a dynamic warm-up first. I recommend a few rounds of the circuit, starting slowly and gradually building intensity.

Benefits of HIIT

To get the most of your HIIT circuit, your heart rate should be at or above 90 per cent of its maximum beats per minute. The easiest way to work out your maximum heart rate is to subtract your age from 220.

Working at this capacity improves the quality of mitochondria in your body. Mitochondria create energy — they act like batteries and power our cells, which are responsible for every function in the human body.

HIIT training also increases the rate of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. Basically, it means your body continues to use energy (read: burn calories) for hours after you have stopped exercising.

Here are six exercises to try. Do each exercise in the order below for 30 to 45 seconds without resting in-between. At the end, rest for a maximum of 30 seconds, then aim to repeat three to four more times.

Squat

Push-up

Lunge

Triceps Dip

Hip Extension

Plank

How do you find time to fit exercise into your day?

Image: iStock

This post originally appeared on ABC News.