hey glitter! 😂
i dont lift weights, so i can't help you in that department, but a couple things you can work on in general are negatives (lowering yourself down from teh position) if you can't achieve the lift itself. so for SM, that would mean working shoulder dismounts supppper slow. another thing you can work on is sitting on the floor in front of your pole, either iwth your legs in a straddle (harder) or with your feet off the ground in a little tuck (easier). get your hands on the pole in whatever grip you use for SM, get the meaty part of your shoulder on the pole, and practice lifting off the ground... when you do it this way you can guarantee that you're doing it with NO KICK whatsoever. the further in front of the pole that you sit yourself, and the more you lean back so that your upper body is close to horizontal, the easier it will be. so start further away- almost laying down-- and gradually scootch in closer and closer and more upright for each attempt. does that make sense?
for the iron x, i'm still working on this myself, but one really great tip i got in a private with alethea was that you want to stay square to the pole for as long as possible, facing the pole, and get your body really horizontal to the ground, before you start twisting your hips around. this has helped me a lot. and for iron X, i think the easiest way to practice is starting up in the air, from either a tg/true grip handspring, or elbow aysha, and then trying to control the descent more and more. if you can have someone spot you, and hold you IN the iron X position for a second or two (so you can feel what muscles really need to work to hold you there) that helps a lot too.
