Originally Posted by noimagination

Sorry, but Spinnaker is right, you gave bad advice in your post. And trying to squirm out of it by playing semantic games is not going to work. The post specifically asked for guidance, you said "if I were you", which is advice.

Telling a beginner who is already exhausting themselves to "dig in" is bad advice. It takes time to develop the musculature and, more importantly, the supporting structures (tendons, ligaments, and sometimes even bone) which allow one to "dig in" without injury. Spinnaker, Vintage Schwinn and others have given KittyBikes good, solid advice. Your advice, if followed, would increase the risk of overuse injury or even acute injury that could knock Kitty off the bike and completely derail her attempt to improve her quality of life.

KittyBikes, congrats, I truly admire what you're doing, and it inspires me to try harder to reach my own goals. You're got lots of good advice, the most important being to talk to your doctor. But also, if you can make cycling fun, you will be more likely to stick with it. I'm not saying that you won't hurt, that you won't get all sweaty and gross or that you won't get tired and discouraged at times. But exercise should be strenuous at most, not torture.