You know it’s almost summer when gyms are constantly packed with people exercising – trying to get their summer bodies in shape.

Lydia Namyalo, a first-year pre-nursing student at Algonquin College is one of them. “I’d gained so much weight and wasn’t comfortable in my new body,” says Namyalo who works out at Fit4less on Merivale Road.

Enter the solution: exercise. “To get the ideal bikini or summer body, you need work out at least three to six months,” says Jude Ogwara, a personal fitness trainer at Blair’s Fit4less gym. “It won’t be easy, it won’t be instant but it’s a gradual process.”

In Namyalo’s case, she shared a photo of one of her workout sessions on Instagram recently with the hashtag #summergoals.

Soon after, she noticed similar hashtags like – #summerbodies were also trending online.

Ogwara says that most people who post photos online do not actually come to the gym regularly. “They do it to get attention,” he says. In his opinion, this is because those that really work out and are bent on achieving their goals and don’t have time for photos while working out.

“Most people do not actually workout,” Sarah Khorram, front desk host at Blair’s Fit4less gym. “What they do is, they wait when it’s almost summer and they register for a two weeks boot camp just to loose weight.”

She explains that most of the women she’s worked with actually confessed to her that they were taking the boot camp because they had to go on a vacation in Hawaii or somewhere in the Caribbean, and wanted to look good in their bikinis.

However, lots of people sign up for the gym at the beginning of the year as part of their new year’s resolution but after about three weeks, they don’t come again, explained Ogwara.

“We also see an increase of people at the gym in September because everyone has their schedule and can manage time,” says Khorram.

It is true that people work out for different reasons and for someone like Ogwara, he works out to stay fit. He explains that a meaningful and lasting change on the body doesn’t happen overnight. “You have to put in effort and consistency,” he says.

What exactly you need to do in order to get results depends on a number of factors. First of all, you need to know what you’re trying to achieve, your diet and your body type.

When you exercise can also matter. Usually, people show up to the gym at the beginning of the week and as the week goes by, it slows down. “Friday is the slowest and weekends are really quiet,” says Khorram. Gyms are usually busy between 5 to 6 p.m. because that’s when most people finish work. Other people prefer early morning workouts before work.

“When working towards a body goal, you need patience and it will work,” says Ogwara.