When I read your words about more recovery time, that rang a bell, that felt right to me. I need to allow myself to heal between workouts instead of just following the instructions on websites and youtube videos.

Yes, listen to your body and wait until you feel fully recovered (or almost fully recovered -- a bit tired and stiff is okay sometimes) before you lift again. And you'll almost certainly find that you recover faster and faster, and can build up to lifting multiple times a week; it'll just take time to get to that point.

Also, useful knowledge to have: lifting once a week can be enough to get strength improvements.

I think the stabbing may be failure to stretch-when I turn my head, the muscles are too tight, and so it stabs.

Yeah, tight neck and shoulder muscles can cause all sorts of crap, and it's really easy for that to build up, especially if you spend lots of time on a computer.

I'm a rock-climber -- which tends to pull shoulders into a hunched position -- and spend most of my life on the computer and tend to "carry tension" in my neck/shoulders, and as a result I have to fight a constant war to open/stretch my shoulders enough to avoid problems.

Ooh, question -- do you have a foam roller, or tennis balls, or other self-massage tools? If you haven't tried them yet, there are a lot of DIY tools that can make a huge difference, and I will babble about them at the drop of a hat.