10 Best Side Hop-sprint Alternatives for Quad Strength

Original Exercise: Side Hop-sprint

Primary Muscle

Quadriceps

Equipment

Other

Difficulty

Intermediate

Type

Compound

Secondary Muscles: Abductors, Adductors, Calves, Hamstrings

How to Perform Side Hop-sprint

1. Stand to the side of a cone or hurdle.
2. Begin this drill by hopping sideways over the obstacle, rebounding out of your landing to hop back to where you started.
3. Hop for a prescribed number or repetitions as quickly as possible, and finish this drill by sprinting a short distance upon landing the last hop.

Pro Tips

• Category: Plyometrics
• Force: Push
• Movement type: Compound

Ranked Side Hop-sprint Alternatives

Best Match

1. Side To Side Box Shuffle

96.6% Match

Quadriceps Other Intermediate Isolation

How to perform this exercise

1. Stand to one side of the box with your left foot resting on the middle of it.
2. To begin, jump up and over to the other side of the box, landing with your right foot on top of the box and your left foot on the floor. Swing your arms to aid your movement.
3. Continue shuffling back and forth across the box.

2. Single-Cone Sprint Drill

88.9% Match

Quadriceps Other Intermediate Isolation

How to perform this exercise

1. This drill teaches quick foot action. You need a single cone. Begin standing next to the cone with one arm back and one arm forward.
2. Chop the feet as quickly as possible, blocking with the arms. Circle the cone, keep your knees up, with violent foot action.
3. Rest after three trips around the cone.

3. Trail Running/Walking

88.7% Match

Quadriceps Body-weight Intermediate Isolation

How to perform this exercise

1. Running or hiking on trails will get the blood pumping and heart beating almost immediately. Make sure you have good shoes. While you use the muscles in your calves and buttocks to pull yourself up a hill, the knees, joints and ankles absorb the bulk of the pounding coming back down. Take smaller steps as you walk downhill, keep your knees bent to reduce the impact and slow down to avoid falling.
2. A 150 lb person can burn over 200 calories for 30 minutes walking uphill, compared to 175 on a flat surface. If running the trail, a 150 lb person can burn well over 500 calories in 30 minutes.

4. Carioca Quick Step

82.9% Match

Adductors Body-weight Intermediate Isolation

How to perform this exercise

1. Begin with your feet a few inches apart and your left arm up in a relaxed, athletic position.
2. With your right foot, quick step behind and pull the knee up.
3. Fire your arms back up when you pull the right knee, being sure that your knee goes straight up and down. Avoid turning your feet as you move and continue to look forward as you move to the side.

5. Single Leg Butt Kick

82.1% Match

Quadriceps Body-weight Beginner Isolation

How to perform this exercise

1. Begin by standing on one leg, with the bent knee raised. This will be your start position.
2. Using a countermovement jump, take off upward by extending the hip, knee, and ankle of the grounded leg.
3. Immediately flex the knee and attempt to touch your butt with the heel of your jumping leg.
4. Return the leg to a partially bent position underneath the hips and land. Your opposite leg should stay in relatively the same position throughout the drill.

6. Linear 3-Part Start Technique

77.9% Match

Hamstrings Body-weight Intermediate Isolation

How to perform this exercise

1. This drill helps you accelerate as quickly as possible into a sprint from a dead stop. It helps to use a line to start from. Begin with two feet on the line. Place your left foot with the toe next to your right ankle. Place your right foot 4-6 inches behind the left.
2. Place your right hand onto the line, and thing bring your nose close to your left knee.
3. Squat down as you lean foward, your head being lower than your hips and your weight loaded onto the left leg. This will be your starting position.
4. Take your left hand up so that it is parallel to the ground, pointing behind you, and explode out when ready.

7. Push To Run

77.1% Match

Cardiovascular-system Body-weight Intermediate Isolation

How to perform this exercise

1. Start in a push-up position with your hands shoulder-width apart and your body in a straight line.
2. Lower your chest towards the ground by bending your elbows, keeping your body straight.
3. Push through your hands to extend your arms and return to the starting position.
4. Quickly bring one knee towards your chest, then quickly switch and bring the other knee towards your chest.
5. Continue alternating knees as fast as you can while maintaining good form.

8. Single-Leg Lateral Hop

76.3% Match

Quadriceps Other Advanced Isolation

How to perform this exercise

1. Stand to the side of a cone or hurdle. To get into the start position, stand on one leg with your knee slightly bent.
2. To begin, execute a counterjump to hop sideways over the cone.
3. Land on your jumping leg, and immediately rebound out of it by jumping back to the start position.
4. Continue hopping back and forth.

9. Bench Sprint

75.2% Match

Glutes Other Intermediate Isolation

How to perform this exercise

1. Stand on the ground with one foot resting on a bench or box with your heel close to the edge.
2. Push off with your foot on top of the bench, extending through the hip and knee.
3. Land with the opposite foot on top of the box, returning your other foot back to the start position.
4. Continue alternating from one foot to another to complete the set.

10. Walking, Treadmill

75.2% Match

Quadriceps Machine Beginner Isolation

How to perform this exercise

1. To begin, step onto the treadmill and select the desired option from the menu. Most treadmills have a manual setting, or you can select a program to run. Typically, you can enter your age and weight to estimate the amount of calories burned during exercise. Elevation can be adjusted to change the intensity of the workout.
2. Treadmills offer convenience, cardiovascular benefits, and usually have less impact than walking outside. When walking, you should move at a moderate to fast pace, not a leisurely one. Being an activity of lower intensity, walking doesn't burn as many calories as some other activities, but still provides great benefit. A 150 lb person will burn about 175 calories walking 4 miles per hour for 30 minutes, compared to 450 calories running twice as fast. Maintain proper posture as you walk, and only hold onto the handles when necessary, such as when dismounting or checking your heart rate.

Why You Might Need a Side Hop-sprint Alternative

You may need substitutes because of knee or ankle pain, lack of space or equipment, or a goal shift from high-speed work to controlled strength. High-impact lateral hops demand rapid eccentric control and strong hip abductors; alternatives let you isolate the quads or reduce joint loading. For example, Bulgarian split squats let you load concentric knee extension without repeated high-impact landings, keep the torso upright and descend with controlled eccentric tempo to emphasize quad tension. If you want power but can’t sprint laterally, perform lateral bounds with a controlled landing to preserve frontal-plane force production while lowering impact.

How to Choose the Right Substitute

Choose a substitute based on your goal, joint tolerance, and available equipment. For power and lateral explosiveness pick skater jumps or lateral bounds and cue a long push-off and soft, knee-dominant landing to train rapid knee extension and hip abduction. For raw quad hypertrophy or rehab pick split squats or single-leg press, using slow eccentrics and a full knee bend to overload the quadriceps. If you need low-impact progression, use sled pushes or step-ups and keep knee alignment neutral to avoid valgus stress while still targeting knee-extensor torque.

Frequently Asked Questions

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