Hoisting heavy metal with a powerful, controlled push, Texans veteran left offensive tackle Duane Brown treated a series of 400-pound bench presses as if they were a charging pass rusher crossing his path.

Sweating his way through a vigorous upper-body and abdominal workout at Hank's Gym in Houston, Brown is diligently rehabilitating from a torn quadriceps tendon that was reattached during a January surgery.

By throwing himself into a grueling regimen to regain his old strength, mobility and stability in his surgically repaired right leg, Brown is optimistic he's on track for the Texans' season opener against the Chicago Bears.

"I'm listening to my body a lot," said Brown, a former Texans first-round draft pick from Virginia Tech entering his ninth NFL season. "I'm 30 years old and I've played in this league a good amount of time. I'm not going to push it to the point where I have a setback. I'm listening to my body closely, but I feel good and I think I'll be ready to go when the season starts.

"I'm feeling great. The rehab process has been amazing, and the surgery went as well as expected. It's been a challenge, but a pretty good challenge."

Back to Gallery A determined Duane Brown presses on in comeback 16 1 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff 2 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff 3 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff 4 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff 5 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff 6 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff 7 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle 8 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle 9 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle 10 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle 11 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle 12 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle 13 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle 14 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle 15 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle 16 of 16 Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle































Brown has made steady progress since suffering the extremely painful injury and being carted off the field during the Texans' regular-season finale against the Tennessee Titans. For an athlete whose job requires sudden, explosive stops and starts while protecting quarterbacks' blind side, it was a devastating injury. For weeks, Brown was unable to move his leg and had to keep it immobilized for the most part with a straight leg.

"I could move around a little bit, but it was hard," Brown said. "Not being able to drive a car, the little things you take for granted, that was the hardest part. Just knowing it was a light at the end of the tunnel, I'm getting there right now.

"I think the best part for me was it happened at the end of the year and I didn't have to sit there and watch football too much. Watching that playoff game was rough. After that, not having to watch football too much longer, that helped me to process everything."

As difficult as the mental aspect of dealing with a severe injury can be, there's a pain factor that Brown has grown accustomed to. The 6-4, 303-pound three-time Pro Bowl selection has dealt with everything from the initial sharp pain of his leg giving out underneath him during a violent collision, to the incision of the procedure performed by Texans team doctor Walter Lowe with sutures that have since dissolved and breaking through the adhesions and retraining his muscles to perform old, practiced movements.

"It's painful, but I have a pretty high tolerance for pain," Brown said. "It's kind of expected. Whenever I have aches and pains, it comes with the process. It's nothing unbearable or overwhelming. I've been able to push through everything so far."

On a daily basis, Brown aggressively works his way through a stretching program to regain his range of motion. He does single-leg exercises, including a single-leg leg press. Everything is done with the intention of activating his quadriceps.

"You also want to make that glute muscle strong to kind of take the pressure off my lower back," Brown said. "That's another very important muscle."

Now, Brown has reached the point where he can run on a specialized treadmill supporting roughly half his body weight. He can also push or pull weighted sleds.

"That's a big step for me," Brown said. "I think I'll be running on the field in the next couple of weeks."

A full recovery from a torn quadriceps tendon can range from six to 12 months, with a healthy return hinging on the athlete's conditioning level, work ethic, severity of the tear and the skill of the surgeon.

"So far so good," Brown said. 'When they reconnected it, I didn't completely lose my muscle. I still had a lot of muscle development there, which helped."

In Brown's case, he's far ahead of schedule. He attributes that partly to the PeerWell PreHab program, a company that approached him prior to his surgery.

"They helped me with my recovery, it's a network of surgeons and experts that connected with me before my surgery to give me a head's up about what to expect, and I talked with some of my peers to guide me through it after mu surgery," Brown said. "They helped me with what exercises to do and what to eat and jumpstarted my process. Anybody can use this program, and it helps a lot."

Brown hasn't been alone in his recovery. He's had the support of his wife, Devon Angelica, coaches, trainers and teammates, including being joined at workouts by fellow offensive linemen Xavier Su'a-Filo and Oday Aboushi.

"Duane's attacked his rehab," Su'a-Filo said. "Everything he's had to do to get back, he's attacked it and he's ahead of schedule. From what I've seen of him, he's the same Duane, in shape, a hard worker and trying to get healthy."

There's no pressure on Brown to rush back onto the practice field since the Texans re-signed offensive tackle Chris Clark to a two-year, $6 million contract in March as an insurance policy and swing tackle.

"I just want to continue to get healthy," said Brown, who's due a $7 million base salary this year as part of a six-year, $53.4 million contract he signed in 2012. "That's the main goal for me and to continue to be a leader. I'm going into my ninth season with this organization, and it's a blessing to be here. We've got some elder statesmen as well as some guys who are very young. I'm going to work my way through it mentally and be a student of the game and do as much as I can do until I'm ready to go full-speed physically."

Brown will join his teammates Monday when the Texans officially start the first phase of their offseason conditioning program, including new quarterback Brock Osweiler and running back Lamar Miller and offensive linemen Jeff Allen and Tony Bergstrom.

"I'm looking forward to working with those guys," Brown said. "I think they will be good additions. I'm looking forward to meeting up with them and pushing this thing forward."

Brown measures his progress incrementally. He's maintaining his patience and big-picture approach. Each centimeter more he can bend and stretch or amount of power he can generate with his leg is absorbed and appreciated.

"I came in with the right attitude," Brown said. "I enjoy the little victories like getting off the training table and being able to do some conditioning work. That's a big deal. The more I see the strength come back, the more I'm able to do mobility-wise, it's huge."