Quad Pain from Shallow Squats

For years I have squatted atg style. About a month ago I started squatting a bit heavier and stopping above parallel. The difference in weight wasn’t much. I would normally go very low with 225 to 245. Stopping just shy of parallel allowed me to use 275 on my heaviest sets.

I noticed a lot more tension in my quads when squatting this way (even if the wieght was the same). Tension to the point that it even hurt a little when I stopped and reversed the movement. I got a bit overzealous and did another leg workout in the same fashion just four days later. This would normally not be a problem from squats but the new style of training was obviously shocking to my legs as the soreness was huge.

Now after the second workout I have not been able to squat without pain in my quads for one month. My strength on squats, leg press, leg ext…etc. has been very weak in comparison.

I’m wondering if I tore into the muscle to such a degree that I would need six weeks or more to recover. I have heard that very invasive forms of training such as pure negatives can leave the muscle damaged for up to six weeks before compensation takes place.

The upper body workouts have been good as well as hamstrings and calves. I also don’t have any real knee pain except my left once in a while and it is minor.

Is it possible that I did actual damage to the quad muscles? Any help would be appreciated.