Personal trainer trying to humiliate me at the gym with Bruce Springsteen

Say please and beg him. Prostate in front of him if necessary. Give him money. Offer to do his laundry.

"My patience is running thin though. I’m thinking of challenging him on
the treadmill someway. If I win he stops playing the song."

dead troll giveaway

Not a troll at all. He’s a very competitive trainer. He fills himself doing his lifting and tries to do workouts. He’s been impressed in the past when I’ve set my treadmill at 530 pace or did 15% incline for a full hour at 10 min pace.

If this is true, you must project clown vibes. I can't even imagine having someone trying this on me. Most people could shut this down with one look or comment.

If necessary, be direct, but in a friendly tone "Hey, fuk off with that".

I will never stop. Here ya go!...

A couple different ways to resolve this:

1) tell him to F off and play some decent music

2) go run outside instead of a treadmill

Or he could stop the tape and play Careless Whisper. Then announce in a loud voice, “This is for all the gay trainers out there! Yeah baby!” Then crosses arms and just stand there. Wait for his reaction.

Show up wearing a Brandos shirt, a band Springsteen only wishes he could play and sing like.

Troll confirmed

Ask him to play “Eye of the Tiger”. Great tune that the other patrons would love. Problem solved.

Prostrate is the word you were looking for...

Just tell him "it was funny once but I find it (distracting, don't want attention, makes me uncomfortable, fill in the blank) and would he please not do it anymore? Thanks for understanding"

Update heading to the gym to do a bit of strength training and sauna. If he is there I’ll talk to him. I’ll let him know it has become a bit overbearing.

So the update is this. As I said it’s a commercial gym so the trainer often works the front desk near the key scan in. He’s loud as you can imagine so he says my name out loud and asked “we running today”. I said no. I then asked if he can please from now on please stop playing Born to Run every time he sees me on the treadmill. He apologized as other said he would and mentioned that it was partly to be funny and to motivate you. As you know, he said, I try to motivate everyone here. I said it’s ok it’s not that big of a deal but I’d rather not hear it every time. He then asked me about my running and I told him my goals of going to this race in California called CIM and said I wanted to try to run a sub 2:22 marathon. He was encouraging and impressed (I know it isn’t super fast but he’s a lifter). He then said if I reach my goals he will be playing this song called congratulations by Post Malone and laughed. I said ok and chuckled and left it at that. I’m hoping that’s the end of that at least for a while. I wasn’t too comfortable as I don’t like confrontation.

I think this makes perfect sense

If it was me, I'd try to handle it lightly, in a good natured, gym-bro kind of way. Next time he tries it, look at him, shake your head in a "no" gesture (back and forth), and make a gesture of sweeping your hand across your throat (meaning 'cut it out'). If he looks puzzled, do the thumbs down gesture and keep shaking your head.

That should be clear enough, but if not, follow-up discussion might be necessary,

EDIT: just read your update and apparently all is well. Good luck. You're the boss.

I bet the gym's on 10th avenue

Why was my post removed? Mods I really hope you’re boosted. Boost up morons!

Not on 10th avenue. Not in Atlantic City either. I also didn’t have to bring on my wrecking ball. I hope you all enjoy these silly jokes at my expense. It wasn’t too nice having a late 30s man child try to make jokes about someone to make his day. In my opinion, he needed to get a life. However, thankfully it’s over.