Ivysaur 448 – 3-Day Beginner 4-4-8 Program

Ivysaur 448 (Ivysaur 4-4-8) is the three-day beginner program that u/lvysaur posted to r/Fitness in 2016 as a fix for the "sets of 5" routines: bench press in every session, deadlift twice per two-week rotation, squat once or twice, chin-ups and barbell rows for the back, and 4×4 / 4×8 days whose AMRAP sets decide how fast the weight climbs. Hardy calculates every set from your training max and raises it from the reps you get on the AMRAP sets.

The post's case against Starting Strength and StrongLifts: too much squatting relative to everything else, too little bench and deadlift, and a fixed weekly jump that ignores how the lifter is actually doing. Ivysaur's answer is more pressing and pulling volume, AMRAP sets as the progression signal, and direct arm work through chin-ups.

Weekly structure

Three sessions a week with at least one rest day between them (Monday / Wednesday / Friday is the usual), six different workouts across Week A and Week B. Every Ivysaur workout opens with the bench press.

• Week A Day 1: bench 4×4, squat 4×8, overhead press 4×8, chin-ups 4×8
• Week A Day 2: bench 4×8, deadlift 4×4, overhead press 4×4, barbell row 4×8
• Week A Day 3: bench 4×4 (last set AMRAP), squat 4×4 (last set AMRAP), overhead press 4×8, chin-ups 4×4
• Week B Day 1: bench 4×8, deadlift 4×8, overhead press 4×4, barbell row 4×4
• Week B Day 2: bench 4×4, squat 4×8, overhead press 4×8, chin-ups 4×8
• Week B Day 3: bench 4×8, deadlift 4×4 (last set AMRAP), overhead press 4×4 (last set AMRAP), barbell row 4×8

4-rep sets sit at 80 % of your training max and 8-rep sets at 72 %, which is the program's "8-rep weight is about 90 % of the 4-rep weight". Rest 2–3 minutes on 4-rep and AMRAP sets, 90 seconds to 2 minutes on 8-rep sets.

Progression

Set the training max at 90 % of a recent 1RM, or start light like the original: the empty bar for bench and press, about 45 kg (95 lb) for squat and deadlift. The increases are aggressive and you reach hard weights within a few weeks.

Each lift gets one AMRAP set per two-week cycle, and that set decides the next cycle:

• 4 to 7 reps: squat and deadlift +7.5 kg (15 lb), bench +5 kg (10 lb), overhead press +2.5 kg (5 lb)
• 8 or more reps: double it, 15 kg (30 lb), 10 kg (20 lb) and 5 kg (10 lb)

Barbell rows have no AMRAP set; a clean 4×4 row day (Week B Day 1) adds 5 kg (10 lb) to their training max. Chin-ups run on double progression: once every set reaches 8 reps, add 2.5 kg (5 lb) on a belt and build back up from 4. Every change is shown for review after the session. Miss the prescribed reps on a lift three sessions in a row and its training max drops by 10 %; there is no scheduled deload.

Tips

• Cannot do chin-ups yet? Swap in underhand barbell rows at a 30-degree torso angle, the substitute the post suggests, and go back to chin-ups once you can do 4.
• The Ivysaur beginner program suits complete beginners and lifters returning after a long layoff. Run it for three to four months at most; when the AMRAP sets stop clearing 4 reps even after a reset, move to 5/3/1 for Beginners or 5/3/1 Boring But Big.
• Coming from a stalled StrongLifts 5×5 or the r/Fitness Basic Beginner Routine: keep the training maxes conservative, the extra bench and deadlift volume is the point.
• The original reddit post is gone; Liftosaur's write-up and the Lift Vault spreadsheet preserve it.