While squatting - I felt discomfort coming up from the squat. There was no popping sound or anything like that. The next day, my knee was swollen to the touch. It hurt even for anything to brush against it. Range of motion did not seem to be affected. But the affected knee was much larger than the other, and was puffy.
I avoided squats and lunges for a week, but did some deadlifts yesterday and on the last set my knee felt weird so I stopped. And now it feels and looks like there is a hot water balloon inflating in my knee cap. It burns.
I am very interested in protecting my joints and do not want joint issues as I age. I have been switching from powerlifting with low reps and very heavy weight, to lifting slightly lighter weight with slow, controlled reps, in the interest of protecting my joints (ironically, then this happens).
I have never had an injury before. Do I ice this? Should I be trying not to bend it, or bend it often to keep the blood flowing?
Also, should I be wearing wraps when I squat, to protect my joints? Never did before, but again, I want to take all precautions to avoid injury (aside from not lifting of course). My squat is 205 for reps, so 151% of my bodyweight if that matters.