Knees feel weird

Hi there

I have no idea what is going in with my knees.

after a couple of weeks of training with higher training volume than I was used to my knees started feeling weird. It started with a lot of muscle soreness in my quads which I trained through.
After some time the area around the patella (sometimes above, sometimes below) started feeling “aggrevated” (sorry, English is not my native tongue so I am not sure I am describing it properly), like a constant urge to scratch or massage the area. They became stiff that I avoided bending them, particularly in the morning. It also seems to get worse after standing for an extended period. But I was only very rarely in actual pain (and even that was mild). By now the described feeling is permanent (lying, standing, walking).

I have not squatted heavy for 4 weeks but tried around with lighter exercises (tempo squats), reduced ROM (pin squats fairly above parallel) or isometric work (were recommended in the pain&rehab podcast around Tendinopathy). I am still deadlifting as usual (2/week, conventional). Nothing really seems to make it any better. But I also feel no pain while exercising (maybe due to the SBD sleeves). But afterwards the symptoms described above flare up

Any idea what it could be? If it’s tendon related I will just keep at it (in the podcast they mentioned this could take time), but I am in no way competent to diagnose this myself. Honestly, it’s debilitating not knowing what to do and not being able to train. Usually when I am in pain I reduce volume/load and wait until it get’s better. But this is no real pain and it also does not react to any changes.

Kind regards
Daniel

PS: Sorry if this is the wrong board. Since I am not in actual pain I was unsure whether to post this here or in the “Pain & Rehab” section.