Trainers know that Craig's List is an indispensable resource for building a client base. However, it's also interesting to peruse the fitness help-wanteds, just to see what else is on offer out there. And so it was that my heart jumped to see this ad from the David Barton Gym looking for trainers with Comprehensive Pilates Certification, and then days later this ad from Half Moon Pilates advertising their work-study internship for -- you guessed it -- Comprehensive Pilates Certification!

These two ads illustrate what's so cool about being a personal trainer: there is not only the possibility of making a very comfortable living doing something really fun and healthy, but the opportunity to learn how to do so can be totally free! Comprehensive Pilates training can take well over half a year, and good, PMA-recognized courses are no joke, with both written and practical exams sprinkled throughout months of lectures, homework, and guided as well as self-practice, often in the neighborhood of five grand for tuition alone. Yet, as the David Barton Gym ad demonstrates, the rewards are quite fair, especially considering how fulfilling it is to learn something so fun and then teach it for a nice living! And opportunities are particularly lucrative for those certified through an established upscale studio following PMA guidelines, given all the attendant cachet.

Half Moon Pilates is just such a studio, widely-recognized in the industry and a focal point for contemporary Pilates in New York City. Going on two decades in the business with three locations in the metropolitan area, the husband-and-wife team have an impressively broad range of expertise between them: shiatsu, clinical nutrition, strength conditioning, aerobics and dance, and of course Pilates! They run their Pilates Certification work-study all year-round, recruiting as interns graduate and leave, so you trainers might want to keep track of them and check up periodically!