After three disappointing, injury-riddled seasons, Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman knew he had to take better care of his body if he wanted consistent at-bats and better overall numbers.

In 2017, thanks to a new, "unexciting" workout routine, he has accomplished both goals — and put together one of the best offensive seasons of his 13-year MLB career.

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Zimmerman, 32, missed a total of 216 regular-season games between 2014 and 2016 because of various injuries to his shoulder, foot, ribs and other body parts that kept him from being the dependable mainstay he previously was in the Washington lineup.

“It’s been great just to be healthy again. That’s the main thing for me,” Zimmerman told Sporting News. “When you’re hurt and you can’t go out there every day, it’s frustrating. So for me coming into the year, the main goal was to basically stay on the field and get my at-bats.”

For the first time in four years, Zimmerman got more than 500 at-bats and 550 plate appearances. At the beginning of the year, he said if he could get 500 to 600 at-bats this season, “that I would be able to do what I’ve always done.”

He was right.

Zimmerman leads the Nationals in home runs, RBIs and total bases and was named a National League All-Star for the second time in his career. He was named the NL Player of the Month for April, when he slashed an other-worldly .420/.458/.886 with 11 homers and 29 RBIs. But it was staying healthy throughout the entire season that has made 2017 one that he and the team are so proud of.

“What he’s doing is something we all knew he could do,” said Nats starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez. “That’s the key guy that, knocking on wood, has been healthy all year and been seeing the ball really big. That’s the guy we’ve all been waiting for since we saw him, just a healthy young guy.”

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It took Zimmerman a few years to fully realize that he needed to do more to take care of his body so he could stay healthy for an entire season. The implementation of a new workout regimen planned out by he and the team training staff is finally paying off this season.

“It’s kind of evolved over the last couple of years just learning what kind of injuries I’ve had, my body and why [these injuries occurred],” he said.

He now focuses on functional body work, with stretching prioritized over lifting weights.

“The days of going in and lifting tons of weights and things like that are pretty much over,” Zimmerman said. “Unexciting workouts now.”

Zimmerman played at least 140 games in six of his first eight full big-league seasons, a period in his 20s when, as he put it, “you can do whatever you want and nothing hurts, nothing ever bothers you.”

Then the injuries came and Zimmerman missed those 200-plus games in his age 29-to-31 seasons.

“If you’re lucky enough to play this game at this level for a long time, things are going to happen,” Zimmerman said. “Hardly anyone plays for over 10 years and never has some sort of injury or something kind of go wrong.”

Zimmerman would consistently miss three or four weeks and then try to come back in the middle of the season, which was tough to do when teammates and opponents are at their physical peak while he felt like he was starting from Square 1.

“These guys are in midseason form, and you’re basically coming back from a rehab assignment,” Zimmerman said. “Consistency in this game is the key, and I think to achieve that, you have to play every day and get consistent at bats. And obviously, I wasn’t doing that when I was hurt.”

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Those new, unexciting workouts, the details of which Zimmerman was shy to share, plus a small change in the launch angles of his swings, have Zimmerman in contention for the NL’s Comeback Player of the Year award, which is something he has mixed feelings about.

“It’s one of those awards that I don’t know if anyone ever wants to win it, because that means something happened to the point where you had success at some point and then you lost it,” he said.

Whether or not Zimmerman comes home with the hardware, he’ll be happy to play in his fourth career postseason and the first time he and the Nats are in the playoffs in consecutive seasons.

“To be able to learn from it and grind through it,” Zimmerman said of this fully healthy year, “that’s what makes this special."

For this iteration of the Nationals franchise to win a playoff series, it’s going to need a healthy and productive Zimmerman to play a crucial role in the middle of the lineup. Zimmerman’s personal struggles are over, and he’ll now try to help the Nats end their collective postseason woes with an elusive trip to the League Championship Series.