Can hypnosis fix my failing fitness routine?

Many of us have already given up on our workout resolutions. Claire Cohen tries out a new class which uses a surprising technique to boost motivation

- Claire Cohen

I'M lying under a blanket in a dark room, my eyes closed, trying to imagine walking along a beach. "You're following the coastline as the waves trickle up to the shore," says holistic hypnotherapist Hannah Apperley in a slow voice, to the 10 of us arranged in a circle on gym mats. "You are calm, peaceful, and you can smell the fresh air."

It's only when she starts speaking about the bright blue sky and the sun's warm rays that I realise I've not been on the sort of tropical sands clearly expected of my subconscious, but strolling along the pebble beach in wintry Dungeness. I'm not sure what that says about my state of mind.

Welcome to "commitment therapy", a new class from Gymbox that aims to help fitness flip-floppers like me - with good intentions but little long-term motivation set out our aims for the year and stick to them. They intend to do this not via boot-camp-style shouting but hypnosis. Yes, really.

Since it launched last month, there have been long waiting lists (it's first come, first served). Little wonder - a new study estimates 30 million Britons made new year's resolutions, yet according to research by David Lloyd Leisure, almost half (45 per cent) of our fitness resolutions don't make it past January.

Apperley, 28, says meeting goals (for me, more Pilates and boxing classes) means reprogramming our brains. "A lot of people tell me that they're 'trying' to do more, but I don't believe in trying, because if you try then you have a belief that it's hard to achieve," she says.