While not abundant, Mexican food does exist in Finland. Carlos López Muñoz found out firsthand after spending a year in the country, encouraged to make the journey from a high school exchange student. He attended school and played semiprofessional soccer for VG-62 Naantali in the southwestern part of Finland. He played as an attacking forward.
Muñoz found one “legit” restaurant while in Finland, in Turko: “Everything else I had was tacos, burritos, hard shells,” he says, recalling when he was 17. His time abroad sparked questions about his Oaxacan heritage and he began wondering more about gastronomy.
Last week, he launched his restaurant, Istmo, in Lakeview on Clark, just north of Belmont. Istmo will eventually introduce dinner — including a prix fixe option. But for now, they’ll focus on breakfast and lunch,
The chef’s resume also includes more traditional culinary experience. He returned home to Mexico, finished culinary school, and eventually moved to Chicago where he staged with Carlos Gaytán at Michelin-starred Mexique (Muñoz was originally enrolled in a program through Disney which would have stationed him at Disney World in Orlando. The partnership with the Mouse didn’t work out as Muñoz fell in love with cooking).
Muñoz also worked with Rick Bayless, joining a list of Mexican-born chefs who honed their skills in Chicago. Muñoz also befriended Diego chef Stephen Sandoval and oversaw the kitchen at Leña Brava, working there before and after Bayless exited the West Loop restaurant. Muñoz’s black mole, which unites the culinary traditions of both his grandmothers — sweet and rich, with tart from pineapple — remains at the restaurant. Muñoz says he worked four to five years perfecting the recipe, but he’s not possessive. He’s happy when others enjoy his family’s culinary traditions.
After spending seven months in D.C., he returned home to Chicago. This brings us back to the present, as Istmo provides an enticing option for Cubs fans who want an alternative to the Ricketts family’s Hotel Zachary complex.
Istmo is backed by Juan Carlos, the owner of Xurro Churro Factory, a popular dessert chain with locations all over the city. Istmo’s beverage program is also top-notch. Carlos owns North Center cocktail bar Raizes, so expect serious drinks. There’s also a full espresso bar with coffee imported from Nicaragua and Mexico.
Istmo is named Istmo de Tehuantepec, the largest region in the state of Oaxacan — where Muñoz hails. While Oaxacan food isn’t new to Chicago, Muñoz says Istmo’s menu is distinctive and underrepresented. He’d joke that during preshift Bayless would needle him and observe that all his menu ideas stemmed from family dishes. Istmo food is heavy on seafood and pickled and cured ingredients. There are also Lebanese influences.
“These are flavors that I honestly haven’t seen in Chicago,” Muñoz says.
Muñoz hopes his restaurant can cater to a variety of tastes, even vegans. It’s easy when you have a cheat code: “If you have a good mole, it’s going to be a great dish,” Muñoz says, knowing mole is naturally vegan.
Lakeview and Wrigleyville can be a challenging space for a restaurant that wants to challenge the status quo. That’s why Muñoz is starting with breakfast and lunch while easing into dinner. But he’s confident that “everyone surrenders to Mexican cuisine at some point.”
Walk around the space and check out more food photos below.
Istmo, 3231 N. Clark Street, open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday through Sunday
LiFESPORTS, a summer camp hosted at the University of Maryland, is trying to make playing sports more accessible with a focus on important life lessons.
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U.Md. summer camp helps middle schoolers with life lessons through sports
A summer camp hosted at the University of Maryland is trying to make playing sports more accessible for lower-income kids with a focus on important life lessons.
The program, LiFESports, started at Ohio State University and is replicated at other colleges around the country. It provides middle school students with four weeks of free summer camp, with transportation and meals included, and introduces them to a different sport every day. This is the program’s first year in College Park, and it’ll be hosting about 30 kids from Mount Rainier.
“What we’re trying to do is teach them, essentially, a curriculum on ‘SETS’ — which is self control, effort, teamwork and social responsibility — as a way to help build their resilience through their formative years,” said Dr. Jay Goldstein, a senior lecturer at the School of Public Health and the director of the LiFEsports initiative at UMD. “What we do is we teach them in a classroom for ‘chalk talk’ and then we actually supplement them through nine other sport-related activities.”
There are a variety of sports for the kids to play, including soccer, lacrosse and even pickleball.
On Thursday, the Terrapins and NBA legend Walt “The Wizard” Williams joined the kids on the basketball court and even offered a lesson on the “effort” in SETS. He told them as charmed as his life has been since making it to the pros, it wasn’t always like that.
“I didn’t even learn shooting on a real basketball court. I was shooting off the monkey bars,” Williams told the kids. “The monkey bars are really big at the bottom — these squares all put together — it got smaller and smaller. At the top, it was just this one square and I used to shoot at that thing all day.”
He recalled that he practiced “not missing” because when he missed the ball would roll down the hill of the playground and he’d have to run after it: “I mean, it was a long run if you missed.”
Williams explained how the first organized basketball team he ever played on was in high school, where he started off as the team manager because he skipped a day of tryouts and was told the team was already set. He credited his older sister with making him go back.
He joined the team halfway through, when most of the other players became academically ineligible and the team needed bodies.
“That’s how I got my chance to play basketball,” said Williams. “I understood right then — ‘Oh man, because I can’t say I just like love schoolwork.’ I’m not going to tell you that. But I understood this right here, in order for me to play basketball, I needed to get my schoolwork done.”
The curriculum used in LiFEsports is one backed by science, said Goldstein, but he already sees it anecdotally.
“You see their behaviors change, and they start making those cognitive choices,” he explained. “When doing the right things when nobody’s looking, being a good friend, being a good teammate, being positive. We hope that they take that back to their homes, to their communities.”
Some of the boys in the program say that’s already happening.
“On the weekend, when I went home, my brother wasn’t doing so good. So I cheered him up,” explained Douglas Rodriguez Alvarado, a student at Hyattsville Middle. “I remember how to use SETS to cheer him up. Then, when we were playing soccer in my backyard, and he wasn’t doing too good and I encouraged him.”
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Ever since Disney Lorcana launched on Aug. 18, curious friends and family have wasted no breath asking me their most pressing questions: What’s it like?How does it compare to Magic: The Gathering? To thePokémon Trading Card Game?And why the hell can’t I find any product in stores? It’s complicated, I say. The game is quite good, and compares favorably to both of the leading trading card games on the market. Product is hard to find because, well… people are very eager to try and turn a buck on collectibles these days. Also, spooling up the manufacturing capacity to compete with the two global revenue leaders in all of tabletop gaming is hard. Quite hard, in fact.
But the thing I end up talking about the most in these casual conversations is the fact that there are lots of gaps in the design of Disney Lorcana — holes that very clearly need to be filled in with new cards, new mechanics, even whole new decks to play with. With the release of Rise of the Floodborn, at least some of those holes are beginning to get filled in.
I’ve spent some time with its two new starter decks — both Amethyst and Steel as well as Amber and Sapphire — and they’re every bit the match for the three starter decks that came before. In fact, they fit into the metagame like a key fits into a lock… almost like they’d been designed that way.
My favorite of the two, Amethyst and Steel, is a hefty, brawling thing with a slower ramp-up than my previous favorite, and The First Chapter’s breakout star, Amber and Amethyst. Played right it’s almost as effective, so long as you have enough patience to pad out a few early rounds just dropping ink. But once you get Madam Mim and Merlin cards bouncing back and forth, earning lore left and right, it’s satisfying to then start taking a few big swings with Tiana, Celebrating Princess or Kronk, Junior Chipmunk. Keeping everyone protected with a few sets of Mouse Armor, it’s possible to cruise to a mid-game win nearly unopposed.
Image: Ravensburger and Disney
Image: Ravensburger and Disney
On the other hand, my 13-year-old daughter prefers Amber and Sapphire. Also a slow burn, this one’s a team-builder that accelerates surprisingly fast in the mid game thanks to Snow White’s Seven Dwarfs. The Dwarfs vary in cost from two to five ink, but the more of them you get on the table the more powerful they become individually when challenging. It’s a terrific little swarm of charming ruffians, buoyed by none other than Christopher Robin, Adventurer, capable of snagging four lore each round — so long as he has enough friends in play beside him.
Adding these two starter decks to the game, however, does more than just open up two new ways to play. Each 60-card deck in Disney Lorcana must be built from either one or two different colors, and these starter decks are split more or less right down the middle. Amethyst and Steel, for instance, includes 29 Amethyst and 31 Steel cards, respectively. With just a few booster packs — maybe even the ones that come bundled in with each starter deck — you could easily round each of those stacks into two 30-card half decks.
Paired with the other three decks sold at launch in August, those 10 half-decks give you 45 different combinations.
Are all 45 combinations of decks going to be as viable as the five starter decks that the game shipped with across its two launch sets? No. Absolutely not. There are gonna be some real bad matchups in there, to be sure. But until you mash ‘em up together and play them against another deck of cards, you won’t know. And, once you do know, you’ll have a better idea of how to augment those decks to make them better. At its best, the game is intuitive enough that you’ll discover unique maneuvers and combinations at a steady pace. It’s a starting point, and an entrée into the larger world of collecting and building decks for competition.
The bottom line is that Disney Lorcana is growing, just like Magic and Pokémon started growing more than three decades ago. Rise of the Floodborn includes more than 200 new cards in all, effectively doubling the number of cards available with which to build and play. It’s a great game, and its complexity is building at a speed that even its youngest fans can keep up with — and, at $16.99 a starter deck, at a price that many people can afford.
Just don’t you dare pay a penny more than $16.99 (plus taxes) for those starter decks.
Grab a deck or two, maybe all five starters if you can find them with the reprint launching around the same time, and get started learning the game. Quit worrying about the outlandish prices being paid for shiny, sexy cards online. Stop confusing these things for bitcoin. It’s a card game, one with a massive fandom and a healthy momentum behind it. It’s going to be a long journey, one that gets even better as it rolls along.
Disney Lorcana Rise of the Floodborn’s two new starter decks arrive at local retailers on Nov. 17, with a wider release on Dec. 1. They were reviewed using pre-release physical copies provided by Ravensburger. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.
The eagerly awaited game, Ghostrunner 2, developed by One More Level, is set to hit the market on October 26, 2023. The trade press has recently published reviews, confirming the high quality of the new game, which has received positive votes.
Critical Reception on Metacritic
Metacritic, a renowned ratings aggregator, currently shows an average Metascore of 80 for the PlayStation 5 version of Ghostrunner 2. This score is based on 32 reviews at the time of writing.
Excerpts from Trade Press Votes
Here are some excerpts from the trade press votes for Ghostrunner 2:
Dual Shockers – 9.5
IGN – 9
Finger pistols – 9
VideoGamer – 9
Noisy pixel – 9
CGM Magazine – 9
MP1-9
WhatifGaming – 9
Game Informer – 8.5
Hey poor player – 8
District Jugones – 8
Prima Games – 8
PSX Brazil – 8
Eurogamer – 7
Click Start – 6.5
Press Square – 6
Positive Reviews for Gameplay and Art Direction
Most of the trade press reviews for Ghostrunner 2 have praised the game’s gameplay. Additionally, many reviewers have commended the game’s art direction, noting that it is consistently captivating without being cliché.
Highlight on Motorcycle Usage
One of the standout features identified by several editors is the use of motorcycles in Ghostrunner 2. Critics consider it to be one of the most significant additions in the new game.
Reminders and Demo Version
Ghostrunner 2 is set to release on October 26, 2023, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S consoles, and PC. Don’t forget that a demo version of the game is available for those interested in trying it out.
As animal shelters all across the country head into “busy season,” the impact that volunteers make is often underestimated and sometimes overlooked. At Austin Pets Alive!, the people who donate their time and experience to the animals who are fortunate enough to get to APA!, are part of what I consider our “lifeblood.
APA! volunteers are here because they love animals, but what sets APA volunteers apart is that while they are here they become experts in animal welfare. They become experts in neonatal kitten care. They become experts in giving dogs an enriching experience while waiting for a family in an extremely challenging shelter environment. They become experts in helping a high volume of animals recover from surgery. They become experts in helping dogs overcome behaviors related to puppyhood isolation and trauma. They become experts in treating cats for ringworm. They become experts in supporting others as they foster animals who need more than what a shelter kennel can provide. They become experts in high volume laundry support to ensure the pets in the shelter have something dry and comfy to sleep on. They become experts in parvovirus care and treatment. The list goes on and on (literally!).
I hope that volunteers at APA! see that their actions make a difference and that they are not just an “add on” to staff–they are an integral part of what makes our organization able to accomplish so much. I’m a veterinarian so forgive the anatomy analogy, but if you think of staff as the vertebrae or backbone of the organization, the volunteers and fosters are the limbs that make it possible to walk and write!
And when I say “accomplish so much,” I mean that APA! has been able to be one of the top adoption organizations in the country (apparently the 2nd highest in the US!); is the largest foster care organization in animal welfare; and has mentored many other organizations so they can save more lives. And it is all because of our collective work. Without volunteers, it would not be possible to envision a future that ensures all pets in shelters are given the individual support they need to survive AND that prevents pets who don’t need to be there from being subjected to a shelter kennel in the first place.
When I look at one of my own APA! adoptees, Echo, I see all the hands that made her life possible. As a semi-paralyzed and incontinent survivor of distemper, her needs passed through the hands of volunteer data support to keep her lengthy records updated, volunteer long stay trackers to ensure she was headed toward adoption, other fosters who helped carry the burden in the early stages of her disease when I was out of town, the dog marketing volunteers who made sure that she was visible to adopters, and of volunteers in our foster adoption team who helped me make her stay at our house permanent.
I’m so thankful for what volunteers do to support the people and animals we touch every day. I know it is a cliché, but it truly does take a village to intervene in the broken national system of animal sheltering and to care for the animals that are the collateral damage of that system.
If you’ve ever asked yourself “Am I doing too little or too many reps and sets?” then this guide is for you.
This article is part of our Strength 101 series, and we’ll show you exactly how to determine the number of repetitions and sets for specific exercises, so you can build your own workout routine.
It sounds easy, but depending on your goals, the answer to “How many reps and sets should I do?” can vary greatly.
We work hand-in-hand with our Online Coaching Clients to create the correct workout program that suits their goals, needs, and available equipment
In today’s guide on workout programing, we’ll cover (click each to get right to that answer):
As Coach Jim mentions above, “Rep” stands for “repetition” and defines one complete motion of an exercise.
And one “set” is a consecutive number of reps without stopping.
And one “smorgasbord” is a buffet of food.
(This has nothing to do with this article, but it’s a fun word to say.)
As we mentioned throughout our Strength Training 101 series, how many reps and sets you should do is really going to be dependent on your goals.
For example, is your goal to improve:
Muscular endurance
Muscular hypertrophy
Muscular strength
Muscular power
Depending on what your goal is, the sets, reps, and rest intervals will change.
Oh, you’re just starting your strength training journey?
Well, make sure you grab our free guide, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know. I’ll send it to you for free when you join the Rebellion (that’s us!).
Download our comprehensive guide
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
How to find the right gym and train properly in one.
Alright, let’s break down reps and sets for you, because I can see you still have questions.
The scientific term here is “sarcoplasmic hypertrophy,” as it focuses on increasing the amount of sarcoplasm, the non-contractile fluid found in your muscle.
Up to 30% of your muscle’s size is attributed to the sarcoplasm, so focusing on this type of hypertrophy helps build overall size (i.e., increased cross-sectional area of the muscle).
If you’re training for specific sports and just want to get stronger with more power – but not necessarily get bigger, this is the strategy for you.
This type of training focuses on strengthening the myofibril, the contractile part of the muscle, hence the name “myofibril hypertrophy.”
For this, target reps in the 1-5 range. And yep, that means you’re going to be picking up heavy weights, focusing all that concentrated effort into just one or a few reps.[4]
Something to note when lifting for strength and power: not only are you shocking your muscles, but you’re also putting a lot of pressure on your body’s central nervous system (CNS).
So what does this mean?
In a way, it means your body’s ability to communicate with its muscles has grown fatigued, and performance may suffer.
That’s why you may want to rest between 2-5 minutes in this range.
Oh, and your CNS will adapt and become stronger, which will be critical for building strength and power.[5]
Since powerlifting really taxes the central nervous system, you may be waiting 3-5 minutes between sets when training in this fashion.
TO RECAP, these are the rep ranges you should be considering:
Reps in the 1-5 range build super dense muscle and strength.
Reps in the 6-12 range build equal amounts of muscular power, strength, and size.
Reps in the 12+ range primarily build muscular endurance and size and also cardiovascular health.
I realize this is a lot to figure out, so if you are somebody – like me – who just wants to be told what to do and outsource all the worry of “am I doing the right workout for my goals?” I got you covered!
I’d love to learn your story, and then build a custom program that fits your goals. We’ll help you with your nutrition, your workouts, and even check in regularly to keep you accountable!
If you’re not sure if “3 sets of 10” or “5 sets of 5” is right for you, we got you covered.
We’ll build a program that fits your goals, and then adjust it each month based on your progress. Never guess or wonder what you should be doing again.
Now that you have “edumacated” yourself on how your specific goals influence the number of reps per set, and what sets actually are, you can build your workout program around this info.
TO RECAP, aim for 3-5 sets in the following rep rangers per exercise based on your goals:
Endurance: 12+ reps per set.
Hypertrophy (bigger muscles): 6-12 reps per set.
Strength (dense, powerful muscle): 1-5 reps per set.
Two points worth mentioning:
A recent study showed that heavier weight for low reps created more muscle mass than a higher volume (lower weight for more reps).[8]
Studies show that bodyweight training exercises can build muscle, but require a LARGE number of sets per rep, and pushing oneself to absolute failure.[9]
What this means: studies suggest targeting heavier weight with fewer reps for big lifts like squats and deadlifts to build muscle, while targeting high reps to absolute failure with bodyweight exercises for muscle building.
Just remember to rest enough between sets so you don’t fatigue your central nervous system too bad.[10]
One last point: Nutrition is still 90% of the equation!
Your rep range doesn’t matter nearly as much as you think, so don’t overthunk it!
It doesn’t matter if you train like a bodybuilder, you ALSO need to eat enough food to provide your muscles with enough calories to rebuild themselves bigger and stronger! This is the biggest mistake I see skinny people make when trying to bulk.
This brings me to my final point: because nutrition is 90% of the equation, your sets and reps don’t matter nearly as much as you think they do!
All that matters? Doing MORE this workout than the last workout.
Remember, how you build muscle and strength and burn fat: “progressive overload.”
One more rep than last time.
Doing one more set than last time.
Picking up a weight that’s 5 lbs. heavier than last week.
So get out of your own head, and START TODAY:
1) GET HELP: If you want expert guidance and accountability so you don’t have to figure out all of this stuff on your own, I got you.
Click the red button below to get the details about our amazing online coaching program:
2) FIGURING IT OUT OUT ON YOUR OWN!
Download our free Strength Training 101 Guide! You get it free when you join our Rebellion (the name of our awesome free online community). Sign up in the box below:
Download our comprehensive guide
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
How to find the right gym and train properly in one.
3) WORKOUTS YOU CAN DO NOW:
Remember: the goal should be to get stronger each workout.
Write down what you did last time, and then do MORE this time.
By continually challenging your muscles to do more, they’ll have to adapt by getting bigger, stronger, burning more calories, etc.
There are a lot of different truths and fallacies on plateaus and how your muscles can get “used” to working out and stop growing.
If that’s something you’re battling, here’s a way to continue making progress:
Spend a week in a different rep range with different amounts of weight.
This will introduce a little chaos into the system, which could be a good thing…unless you’re Batman.
What we’re talking about is muscle confusion theory, which is a preplanned period of variation.[13] Not, you know, wandering into the gym with no plan and just doing something different every time (whatever you feel like doing at that moment).
That won’t help.
But spend a week deliberating mixing it up. Then go back to your regularly scheduled routine and you’ll be right back on track.
Make sure you know what you want, and then design a plan to get there.
-Steve
PS: If you want a nice shiny app to tell you EXACTLY how many seps and reps to do, our shiny new app will do just that!
You can sign-up for a free 7-day trial to Nerd Fitness Journey, which will build a workout around your experience level!
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