Much of what bodybuilders do is strength training, especially at the non-professional levels.
At amateur levels, effective strength training and effective body building are going to be pretty similar.
If after you a bit of time you stall in strength and wish to go farther add in more bodybuilding type exercises or switch to another program like Wendlers 5/3/1...etc
But really if I had to recommend anything to most people to stay strong (esp as you age and live the lives we live today), the basic barbell exercises taught in Starting Strength are all you really need for a lifetime.
I do the three main ones (squat, press and pullup) 3X a week. No push day, no pull day, every workout is squat day. No machines -- evah! No curls. None of that. I do a small amount of accessory work for core, forearm muscles, and neck muscles, as well as PT work. I also spend a LOT of time warming up, probably 30 minutes. I'm in my lower 40's and recently tested with pretty solid testosterone of 670, and bloodwork is all good. I look way younger for my age. I also do intermittent fasting (really just skipping breakfast). I do drink, however.
There was a period when my gym closed during the pandemic and I had no alternative. I had to take a couple months off. Well, the muscles remained muscles (which does not happen so much with bodybuilders, who tend to get their muscles convert to fat pretty quickly), and after a few months I'm back to squatting pretty decently (I can do 1.6X my bodyweight for 5x5).
I absolutely recommend strength training for the older guy. Especially the PC nerd older guy.
I plan to continue weight training but cut out 1 day and instead learn proper calisthenics.
Olympic Weightlifting is generally understood to refer to the movements of clean+jerk, snatch, and associated movements like deadlifting and squatting which are components of the complex lifts.
Strength Training very broadly just means a rep range that makes you stronger, not bigger. But commonly one thinks of powerlifting movements: bench press, squats, deadlifts.
Notice in none of the above did we talk about bicep curls, pulley exercises, leg curls, or any concentration exercises. We didn't even talk about leg press, because in the above two we only use barbells.
So the two big differentiators are:
1. rep range is high with bodybuilding because bodybuilding cares about volume
2. This is the big one. The exercise range for bodybuilding includes many (perhaps mostly) single or few joint exercises.
So when you say that at the amateur level it doesn't matter, that's only true in that any amateur will get stronger. That's true. But the similarity ends right there.
I speak from experience when I say, starting off as an amateur by copying what bodybuilders are doing (bicep curls and other mirror exercises, high rep ranges and doing many single joint movements instead of functional movements) is a recipe for bad habits and movement patterns that you need to spend years to re-learn later. Not to mention machines are garbage and cause injury since they make you do unnatural things (unless you really know what you are doing, which amateurs do not).
There is no such thing (edit: well, except maybe 1-2 reps, because it's hard to get much volume with those. But beginners shouldn't be doing those anyway). You get stronger in the rep range you practice. People often (in gym circles) mean "1-rep strength" when they say "strength", but such a narrow definition only makes sense if you are competing in powerlifting.
As a beginner you want the rep range that maximizes gains/risk and also gains/unpleasantness ratio, which will usually be 5-10.
> rep range is high with bodybuilding because bodybuilding cares about volume
People who train for strength also care about volume because volume is a great way to get stronger. And also great way to get bigger. Which makes sense, because getting bigger is a great way to get stronger.
> starting off as an amateur by copying what bodybuilders are doing
I think this is where the most of the confusion comes from. It is bad to start amateurs on stuff that professional body builders do, but it would also be bad to start them on stuff professional powerlifters do (low bar one-rep max squats or speed deadlifts).
On the other hand, as an amateur, whether your goal is strength or better physique - the best approach is going to be very similar.
> Not to mention machines are garbage and cause injury since they make you do unnatural things (unless you really know what you are doing, which amateurs do not).
Some types of machines are absolutely fine (cable machines), other types are also mostly fine - they get a bad reputation from few of the worst offenders such as leg press and leg extension machine.
Your comment about 1-2 reps not being good for beginners is questionable, though. It depends what you're training for. 1-2 reps is good or bad, but it all depends on what percentage of your max output you're attempting. a 1-2 rep range at something like an 85-90% of 1 RM isn't particularly offensive or dangerous, but it might not be optimal programming-wise if that is All you do. But it'll give you more strength increase faster than doing 8 reps.
Your "there is no such thing" comment is wrong, though. I have in front of me Practical Programming for Strength Training by Mark Rippetoe, and there is a whole chapter that discusses the three muscle fiber types, twelve characteristics, and their relation to rep ranges. There is a continuum of strength v. hypertrophy, and the rep-range of 5 and below being optimally useful for strength training. Sure, any rep range really where you're not doing cardio will lead to both strength and hypertrophy, Especially for an amateur, but there is a rapid fall-off at either end of the scale (low rep = more strength increase / higher rep = endurance + muscle hypertrophy).
In short: it's nuanced and I think your 5-10 number is again, a sort of "bodybuilding mentality" seeping into popular discourse, instead of a "good rule of thumb."
It will give you more strength if you measure how much you can lift in a 1-rep set. It will give you less strength if you measure how much you can lift in an 8-rep set.
The key false dichotomy here is strength vs. hypertrophy. They are not in opposition, bigger muscle is a stronger muscle. To be as strong as you can, you need to do two things:
1) Get the biggest muscles you can.
2) Get practice in the rep range you are interested in being tested.
As good as Mark's books are, a lot has been researched and discovered since. For rep ranges in particular, this is a good article (backed by research): https://www.strongerbyscience.com/hypertrophy-range-fact-fic...
In any case, if you or anyone else reading this are interested in learning more, here are some additional links:
- Size vs. Strength: How Important is Muscle Growth For Strength Gains? - https://www.strongerbyscience.com/size-vs-strength/
- Training Based On Muscle Fiber Type: Are You Missing Out? - https://www.strongerbyscience.com/muscle-fiber-type/
- Eddie Hall doing 10-rep sets when training for his 500 kg deadlift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKPgu8JMY8k (which were explicitly called out as an important part of his training here: https://www.joe.co.uk/fitness-health/how-eddie-hall-trained-... )
I'm telling you that whenever I walk into a commercial gym or my building gym (i.e. not a powerlifting or oly gym) I see easily 90% of the people doing stuff I know is in bad form at worst, and at best will give them the most mild of training regimens. I blame the culture of bodybuilding (in the U.S. at least. I read that in Eastern Europe there is a very different attitude and training culture starting from school).
I argue that barbell training -- functional training more broadly, which includes calisthenics if you want -- is vastly safer and superior to bodybuilding and indeed yes, it does require a bit of personal training and instruction in the beginning.