Abfahrt:
I thought of that but I think it's better with bitwise math. The problem is, I can't think of a way to achieve that
I'm not sure in which way you think it's "better". The Arduino functions save you from having to understand how to use the bitwise operators ('&', '|', '~') yourself. If you want to use the bitwise operators yourself then you will need to work out how to use them. It isn't hard, and this is a standard part of the C++ language which is well documented. But if you don't know how to use the bitwise operators and don't want to learn how, then use the helper functions that Arduino provides. Since you're only accessing single bits, the helper functions do EXACTLY the same thing as the bitwise operators would, and are slightly simpler to use.