I was asked whether Arnold Schwarzenegger began as a lifter or a bodybuilder. The answer is neither and both. Arnold's goal was always bodybuilding. But bodybuilding and strength were not considered as distinct and separate things until the late 1970s onwards.
The history is a big lengthy and many of the details argued, but basically bodybuilding competitions started in the 1930s. You got extra points if you participated in a sport, and the most common sport was weightlifting, since practicing baseball doesn't really give you big gunz. US weightlifting was basically run by Bob Hoffman out of York barbell club - yes, York weight plates, etc, the name continues to this day. He thought bodybuilding was odd, he only cared about strength. But it was popular so he got into it.
Then Joe Weider came along, he only cared about looks, not strength. He used to publish magazines of naked bodybuilders, this appealed to women of course but also closet homosexuals (it was the 1940s and 1950s, they were all in the closet then, and most of them married). Weider didn't care since firstly he wasn't homophobic, and secondly he just wanted money and fame and didn't care where it came from. Weider started up bodybuilding competitions with no extra points for a sport.
It was function vs looks, old conservative commie-hating red-blooded Americans vs young liberal gay-loving Americans. Weider won.
Anabolic steroids first popped up in the 1956 Olympics. Hoffman sent his weightlifting team there, the team doctor Ziegler was having dinner with the Soviet coach, who got a few drinks into him and asked Zeigler what drugs he was giving the Americans. Ziegler thus heard about steroids in sport, went home and invented Dianabol, and used Hoffman's lifters as guinea pigs. These were small doses and most tried it for several weeks, felt no difference and stopped. But they were fully into it by the 1960 Olympics.
Weightlifting used to have snatch, clean and jerk, and clean and press. The first two are more like javelin or discus, strength is important but skill matters too. The press was more pure strength. Nowadays people ask how much you bench, they used to ask how much you press, so much so it's even given as example to illustrate the "Strength" attribute in something as unsporty as early edition Dungeons and Dragons. After 1972 they got rid of the press for various reasons. Then a few years later Pumping Iron came out, and Arnie had enormous chesticles. So the bench press became popular.
Thus, form won over function.
So Arnie built most of his size using basic barbell lifts and a small amount of anabolic steroids, but his career and fame has helped contribute to people doing less basic barbell lifts and using shitloads of anabolic steroids. This is how in fifty years we went from Steve Reeves to Jay Cutler.
Physical training can change how you look, feel (health) and perform. I think in order of importance they are
1. health,
2. performance and
3. looks.
But most people come into the gym with the order reversed.
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