Middle age problems..,

Did a leg heavy workout Monday with a whole bunch of weighted lunges and sled pushes and running. Felt fine during the workout. Once I cooled down and went to work my left knee become swollen and stiff, particularly around the knee cap but also some in the back of the knee and in the ham and quads right above my knee a bit. No pain, no popping, no instability. It's just swelled up a bit, and sore and I've lost about 20% of the range of motion in bending.

This is a new one for me, and the description seems like bursitis. I am training almost daily as usual, and am looking for ways to help recovery with this and still train/exercise.

Probably not bursitis but just diffuse joint inflammation causing a joint effusion, based off my understanding of your description.

I rarely see true bursitis in the knee except medial knee pain once i ruled out the MCL. Sounds like joint is pissed off. Did you have ACL surgery in the past?

Nope, this is my "good" knee. I am pretty careful doing lunges. My ACL/meniscus surgery knee did it's half of the workout just fine.

If I put my palm on my kneecap, the area covered by my hand is puffy and swollen, from about 2" above the kneecap to the bottom of it.

Leg straightens fully. If I try to point my toe back towards me, it feels tight under my patellar tendon.

It really feels like someone injected a bunch of gelatin under and around my kneecap.

I slapped on some heavy knee sleeves, kept all my "squats" very shallow and weights moderate, and did stationary bike instead of running and made it through a workout ok. No pain, it's just a bit sore and stiff, but like any minor ding, it feels best when it is warmed up and working instead of idle and stiff. It helped the program today was upper body heavy.

Well, whatever it was is steadily improving. Less swelling, more mobility. It's still a bit sore on the back side, top of calf to bottom of ham. Must have just tweaked or irritated it pretty good.

Well it wasn't bursitis if it healed up that quickly. Glad it is feeling better.

It's sore and has a ways to go but yep, getting better. I've just never had it swell up and lose mobility that quick. I have full extension, but am missing about the last 15% of bending it normally has in a deep squat. The joint really tightens up around the front and ends of the quads, I guess due to the remaining swelling. The back of the knee very top of the calf is still a bit sore too.

It feels alright when exercising, especially once warmed up.