Well I went into it a bit before. By no means am I saying take a break!
I don't want to get into this long explanation of all this cuz i know you don't want to read all that right now but I'll try to put it in a different way and I will compare my view to the "starting strength" view so that it's clear what I'm saying, even if you choose not to take my advice.
Lot's of time people like to use a concept but they refuse to take that concept to it's furthest extent. Because they are too busy making comprimises to "satisfiy" everyone.
So here is the kind of thing Rip and others will say, but notice that they treat all these statements as isolated in a way.
1. When you're learning a lift, heavy and correct are mutually exclusive. So Rip says that. You need to 'start light', basically.
2 Beginners will get stonger at first pretty much right off the bat no matter what they do. This is a period in resistance training that is known as "general adaptation". Rip says this too.
3. You must use a weight that is heavy enought to require proper form while not being so heavy you can't do it properly. Rip and others say that also.
4. Such and such reps and sets are best for a beginner as they will cause the "fastest possilbe" strength gain while ensuring recovery between workouts. Rip says that.
First notice that for any given individual there are some innate contradictions in all that.
Heavy, and fatigued (even a bit fatigued) can equal to the same thing. In other words it is true that you can't learn a lift with a weight that is too heavy. But for many, using a weight that is "heavy enough" and then forcing them into a prescribed route of sets and reps is doing the SAME THING. To learn a lift you DO NOT emphasive volume PERIOD. You emphasize QUALITY.
The more times you do it well, the faster you will get better at it.
While you are learning the lift, if you chose the same weight but instead of emphasing 3x5, you did something like sets of 2, 3, 1, 1,2,3, 2, 2 or whatever felt right with the rest you need to maintain quality....your going to end up lifting that weight with more quality volume as opposed to just volume and you also may just be lifting that weight more times.
Now the total workload may not be that different between what you did this time and what you would have done using my advice. BUT you could have concentrated more on getting under the bar. More rest would have facilitated more recovery therefore you could have practiced the lift MORE and still recovered. So on and so forth. Then when you have to start really counting the reps and sets and trying to load the bar every workout you at least feel like you have your form down.
Although form is always something you have to work on and tweak.
Is this making sense? I understand it goes again't many things that you've read.
I know, I know that rip says learning these lifts is a ten minute thing, lol. Well, learning the verbal cues is a ten minute minute thing. Where all these people are who became bench and squat masters in ten minutes...I don't know
. I'm STILL working on perfecting little things.
So let me be clear. I am not talking about doing less. At least as much if not more. Just spreading out the reps more and allowing more rest in between. This will actually allow those beginning neural improvments to happen quicker.