Physical exercise in the great outdoors was intended for preventive healthcare and prevent postural damage in adults caused by imbalanced seated occupations and the health promotion of children, but it was also a life-reforming (Lebensreform) alternative to the decadence of city life with anxieties, lack of exercise and tobacco consumption as well as national movement based on the model of gymnastics father Friedrich Ludwig Jahn.

Aesthetically, the film stages the human body in the style of classical antiquity by recreating numerous ancient scenarios and shows it extremely freely for the time.

All in all, the film is about "the endeavors to ensure the proper care and training of the body" in large parts of the population, especially women with office activities in the expanding service sector.

[6] It is said to be of a "pure basic mood" and "far removed from arousing any offensive feelings with a fine tact"[7] or to appear too instructive.

The entire opening sequences of both parts of Riefenstahl's later Olympic film are almost "a copy of Ways to Strength and Beauty".