Dante pushes protein powder hard and coincidentally has a supplement company with a primary focus on... protein!
His program is great for building tons of strength. I was benching 3 plates under 170lbs which is great for a REAL LIFE LIFT and not a fake e-stat. I never see kids my size pushing weight like that. Was doing rack deads for 8 reps with 450lbs on the bar and same with squats (all the way down because I was obsessed with being hardcore). I was very, very, very proud of my lifts but got more and more scared of my log book. The nice thing about his program and that you hold yourself accountable. If you cheat and push heavy weights, the next workout you'll pay for it. So you really can't deviate away from things when you're recording the numbers and having to routinely beat them. I honestly liked his program a lot and after following it for a while, my log book thankfully got destroyed in the rain and that's when I stopped.
His program makes a lot of sense but after a while you don't keep gaining mass. Strength doesn't mean mass, it means strength. Pushing heavy weights helps to build mass, but it's not the only pillar to support everything. I think just about anyone could follow a similar program as what he lays out. I tried the different splits and put my own spin on things. I like volume training too, so I'd do some heavy training along with a couple extra exercises to balance things out. I still use things I adopted from his program like the extended rest-pause sets along with some focus on the eccentric phase of lifts. And I also do a big ass volume set which he calls widow makers and he is really pissy about because "no one understands it properly".
He's a bit of an ass and is egocentric. A lot of his principals were adopted from others too, so I don't like how rigorously he protects his program because no one really invented shit in the last few decades. It's all a rehash of something that someone else did a few decades before. But taken ego out of the equation, he's got a good general outline and lots of good ideas. Don't worry about rinsing your beef, crushing a kilogram of protein a day or cutting off carbs at night. That's all hog wash gimmicks because everyone resonates and gets a gushing pussy when someone offers a gimmick. But gimmicks aside, good program to start with and mold into your own. And his gear information was pretty good too. Keep things simple, push weights, eat in alignment with whatever your goal is. That's not Dante's advice, it's just good advice period.
