Retaining muscle mass during a cut

[Pel10]

Gyms closed again in my country, but I haven’t completed my cut yet.
Are weighted pull ups and push ups enough to keep on exercising and retaining muscle mass at the same time?
I don’t know whether it’s better to continue my cut and rely on weighted push ups and pull ups or just take a break from everything. Any advice?

[faithbrah]

keep cutting or just maintain if you're afraid of losing muscle

[EiFit91]

Gyms closed again in my country, but I haven’t completed my cut yet.
Are weighted pull ups and push ups enough to keep on exercising and retaining muscle mass at the same time?
I don’t know whether it’s better to continue my cut and rely on weighted push ups and pull ups or just take a break from everything. Any advice?

Weighted pushups should be a good replacement for bench press provided intensity stays the same. There is a study showing that 6RM of bench press and 6RM of weighted pushups (loaded using resistance bands) provide similar strength gains - unfortunately cannot post links yet but the study should be easy to find, the title is "Bench press and push-up at comparable levels of muscle activity results in similar strength gains". I am for different reasons currently using weighted pushups as my primary horizontal pushing movement even though I have a bench at home and I have had no problem maintaining/adding strength.

This assumes that you are able to safely load the pushup so that it actually provides sufficient resistance (if you don't like resistance bands you could use a weighted vest or a backpack loaded with weights). If you want to control the resistance over time you can measure it by holding your hands at a scale in the pushup position after loading.

Pullups are really good and easier to load, but you should also replace horizontal pull movements in your program. E.g. replace dumbbell/barbell rows with inverted rows using a table, elevate your feet and/or add weights (backpack) to increase resistance.

[Pel10]

do you think they're enough to retain muscle mass while cutting?

[EiFit91]

do you think they're enough to retain muscle mass while cutting?

I think that as long as you keep doing resistance training on a reasonable program, unless you are either already very lean or in a very steep deficit you are unlikely to lose muscle (as long as you are eating enough protein and fat). And for a given training intensity and diet, the source of resistance (calisthenics/weighted calisthenics vs lifting in a gym) should not affect the rate of muscle loss/gain.

[Pel10]

Well I'm not very lean yet so I think I won't be losing much muscle mass