Our new strain rate sweep method is capable of continuously measuring the hardness over strain rates from 000.1 1/s to 0.1 1/s within one single experiment. From this the strain rate sensitivity as well as the activation volume can be calculated. The method is demonstrated on a variety of materials with different microstructures and mechanical properties. These include the superplastic alloy Zn-22% Al - which shows a high dependence of the strain rate sensitivity on the strain rate - fused silica, a metallic glass, as well as different single and polycrystalline metals. Furthermore, the strain rate history dependence of materials was investigated by reversing the strain rate sweep direction within the loading segment. This gives valuable insights into nanoindentation creep testing as well as nano-impact testing where the strain rate is intrinsically continuously changing.