Quad Sweep Exercise: A Beginner’s Guide

A quad sweep exercise is a great way to strengthen and tone your quads. It can be done at home, in the gym, or anywhere else where you have space to move around. This post will show you how to perform the quad sweep exercise from start to finish!

What Is a Quad Sweep?

Quad sweep is a strength training exercise that targets the quads, often used as a warmup. This kind of exercise is typically done by people who are already familiar with the weight room and know how to protect their bodies from injury.

Quad sweep is a great way to start doing quad exercises because it’s easy on your knees, unlike other kinds of squats or lunges. When you do this exercise properly, you should feel an intense burn in your quads!

How To Do a Quad Sweep Exercise Safely

To start this exercise, stand up straight with your feet together and hands at your sides. Make sure that you are standing on a flat surface.

Now, take a step forward with your right foot while keeping the weight in your left heel. Lower down into a lunge position until both knees make a 90-degree angle and place both hands on either side of your front leg for support.

Come back to starting position by pushing yourself up through the heels of both feet while keeping your back straight.

Do the same thing on the other leg by stepping forward with your left foot while keeping weight in your right heel. 

Take another step forward, lowering into a lunge position and placing hands on either side of the front foot for support before pushing yourself up to come back to starting position again.

It is important that you never let your front knee go over the toe of your foot. This could cause injury to your knees, so make sure you are careful while performing this exercise!

Reps + Sets: There are many different ways you can do quad sweep exercises, depending on what kind of workout routine or fitness goal you have in mind. For example, if doing a quad sweep exercise is part of your warm-up should do the full movement only once to get your heart rate going.

If doing this exercise as a strength training move during your workout, try starting with five reps on each leg and go up to ten if that feels comfortable. Try adding an additional set or two, depending on how much time you have for your workout.

Remember that the goal of this exercise is to feel a burn in your quads, so if you aren’t feeling it at all during any point of the movement, you might be going too heavy! If you can go through several repetitions without struggling or really feeling anything, chances are there isn’t much of a challenge to the exercise. Try adjusting your weight or number of reps next time!

Feel free to experiment with this movement because there are several different ways you can do quad sweep exercises, depending on what kind of workout routine or fitness goal you have in mind. For example, if doing a quad sweep exercise is part of your warm-up, then you should do the full movement only once to get your heart rate going.

5 Methods To Do A Quad Sweep

1)  Front Lunges

Lunge forward with your left foot while keeping weight in your right heel.  Lower down into a lunge position until both knees make a 90-degree angle and place both hands on either side of your front leg for support. Push up through the heels of both feet to come back to starting position again. Do this same thing on the other side.

To know more details about this exercise, check this out:

2) Box Step

Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, facing forward.  Step out one foot to the side, so you are standing on your left leg and right toes. 

Keep your back straight! Hold for a second before stepping up onto the box with your right foot first, then bring your left foot up after it. Step down off of the box in reverse order (left foot first, followed by right).  You should feel it in your quads!

To see the tutorial on how to do this exercise, check this:

3) Sideways Shuffle

Start with feet shoulder-width apart, facing forward.  Take a large step out to the right side and lower yourself into a lunge position by bending your right knee until it is at about 90 degrees (keeping your left leg straight). 

Place both hands on either side of the front foot for support before pushing up to come back to starting position. 

Do this same thing on the other side, but take a large step out to the left instead of the right. Make sure you are facing forward with your shoulders squared up before moving!

See this video to do this exercise correctly:

4) Weighted Side Step

This is a great quad sweep exercise you can do at home with absolutely no equipment!  Start by standing on your right leg and lifting your left foot up off of the ground. 

Place weight in your raised heel to keep yourself balanced, then slowly step out to the side while bending into that same side’s knee (like taking a wide stance).  You should feel it in your quads! Keep feet together before stepping back to starting position.

Do the same exact thing on the other side, but start with weight in your left heel instead of right. Remember that you are trying to keep yourself balanced throughout this movement, so if you need to switch up how much weight is placed into each heel, that is totally fine!

Learn how to do this exercise rightly in the video below:

5) Lateral Lunge

Make sure that your feet are hip-distance apart, then step out to the side (about three or four steps). Keep weight in your front leg and bend into it until both knees make a 90-degree angle. 

Place hands on either side of the front foot for support before pushing up through heels of both legs to come back to starting position again. Do this same thing on the other side, but start with weight in your right heel instead of left.

Check this video for more guidance about the exercise:

Conclusion

The quad sweep exercise is a great way to target your quads, especially if you are just beginning an exercise routine and want something simple! 

This movement has several different variations depending on what kind of workout plan or fitness goal you have in mind.  If doing the full movement only once feels like too much for your warm-up, you can always stop at the halfway lunge point instead.