There are pads you can wear on your ribs, braces you can wrap around your knees and orthotics you can put in your shoes, but when you play in the National Football League, there is no measure of protection against old age. When the body signals the end, it's over.

It hasn't happened yet to the Green Bay Packers' Brett Favre, who then at age 37 (2007) was the oldest starting quarterback in the NFL and the second-oldest quarterback overall.

If it doesn't happen this season, Favre can at least be assured that he will be in the best physical condition he possibly could. He and his personal trainer, Ken Croner, have seen to that, teaming on an eight-week program designed to sharpen the skills Favre needs most to play quarterback.

"Brett, his focus, his determination and the effort he put in, I can't even tell you," said Croner, a performance specialist for Athletes' Performance in Tempe, Ariz. "He looks better now than he did two years ago when I worked with him. I'm talking about movement, physically, everything."

"He's made the commitment to do everything he possibly could to get himself ready for the season. There's nothing that I do. It's Brett Favre. His work ethic makes this program work."

Croner lived with the Favre family in Hattiesburg, Miss., in 2007, while he trained the quarterback, putting Favre through five workouts a week beginning the first week of April. The only break in their routine was during the weeks the Packers held mini-camps and organized team activities at their facility.

During the three weeks before training camp, Croner and Favre kicked the program into high gear, focusing on exercises that are quarterback-specific. Five days a week, they got up at 7 a.m. and prepared for a 60- to 75-minute workout that simulated what Favre might go through in a typical game.

Sometimes they would throw at night, and three times a week Favre would go over to nearby Oak Grove High School and practice with the football team, throwing passes to their receivers and running sprints and stadium stairs with the entire team.

"What Brett does on the field, that's Brett Favre," said Croner, a former Butler University basketball player who met Favre when he assisted with the Packers' strength and conditioning program during the 2003 off-season. "He deserves all the credit. We try to do things to help him and give him the best chance to succeed. It doesn't guarantee anything.

"But I can tell you he's moving better than (two years ago). I admire Brett, how he plays and why he plays and his work ethic. The time and effort he put in was amazing. It really is."

Under former coach Mike Sherman, Croner was sent to Hattiesburg to help Favre get ready for the season. Last year, 2006, under coach Mike McCarthy, Favre didn't work with Croner, in part because there was no relationship between McCarthy and Croner and Favre didn't make his decision to return until late April.

McCarthy visited Athletes Performance this off-season and gave Croner his blessing to spend the spring with Favre, getting him ready for the 2007 season. Not only did Favre need to prepare himself for another year, but he was coming off surgery to remove bone chips from his left ankle.

When they first got together, Favre's ankle was in fairly solid shape, and Croner's only concern was rebuilding its strength. From the start, they began working on Favre's overall conditioning, working primarily with movement drills designed to increase the quarterback's endurance and stretch his muscles.

"Initially we did a lot of dynamic movement, basically getting him moving and doing active flexibility, not static stretching where he's going down and touching his toes," Croner said. "We were trying to get those muscles moving again. We try to get that soreness out."

In 2007, Favre, who has maintained his weight at around 220 pounds, doesn't run sprints or hills or miles around the track.

He works with medicine balls, bungee ropes and different kinds of weights to build up his strength and endurance. Instead of countless stomach crunches, he two-hands a medicine ball against a wall, making sure his form is proper and his feet and legs are involved.

In June 2007, using a plan approved by the coaches and the medical staff, Favre began simulating movements he'll have to make in a game, working specifically on maintaining his fundamentals under physical duress.

"He's done this in previous years," quarterback coach Tom Clements said. "He liked doing it. I thought he came to camp in 2007 and was in pretty good shape. He's moving well. I think the work paid off."

I am sure the New York Jets were aware of Favre's conditioning plans for the 2008 off season because there were none. He was going to retire... so what was the point.

In New York, the Jets have always played second fiddle to the Giants, Yankees and Mets, with trading for Favre, they are now relevant and will get plenty of media coverage and a larger fan base. They must know he won't be in the same shape he was prior to the 2007 season.