What sort of problems might occur if every human gained extra muscle mass?

I'm doing some background work for a scifi/horror piece, and it includes "orcs", who are just humans that have undergone a series of mutations - the main one being that they no longer produce myostatin. This results in them having more muscle mass than a normal human - according to that article, in cattle this can result in up to 40% more than average. There have also been a few humans born with similar mutations, so it strikes me as being plausible.

One problem that the Wikipedia article above mentions is that it may result in the "orcs" requiring more food than a normal human - which, if nothing else, gives them a plausible reason to feud with normal humans. Another problem, again from that article, is that long-distance endurance and muscle mass aren't necessarily linked. What other problems might occur as a result of this, particularly for a character who recently mutated instead of inheriting the mutation?

posted almost 10 years ago

Philip Rowlands‭

1 reputation 7 0 0 0