Hello Red Pillers,

A bit of background on myself - I have never been very athletic but I've generally not been too out of shape until recently. I've been living abroad and put on too much weight over the past year (no excuse - just laziness and bad prioritization) and have started to notice a slight shift in how people are acting towards me which I attribute to my appearance. The solution is obvious - start lifting and get rid of the beta body.

I want to do the StrongLifts 5x5 to start building more muscle and lose some weight. My issue is that I haven't ever used free weights before and want to minimize the risk of injury and maximize having good form. If I was back in the UK I would simply go with one of my friends or even shell out for a personal training session, but I'm currently in a relatively rural area of Thailand where no-one speaks English and my male Western friends don't go the gym.

Is the best thing for me to do just watch videos online and do my best to mimic them? One part of me is being cautious and not wanting to do more harm than good, but the other part of me is saying to stop being a bitch and just do it.

I'll post this in r/fitness as well, but I also wanted some input from you guys. If you have any good specific resources or advice for someone in my situation it would be appreciated.