John
I would say that you need to change it up about every 8-10 weeks for best results.

Remember the idea is to keep your body off balance by making changes before it has a chance to adapt to your workout. Failure to do this will result in hitting what weightlifters like to call a plateau - period of little or no results. Nothing can be more frustrating than working hard and not progressing.

In my opinion age has a lot to do with how you should lift. Younger lifters can sometimes get away with doing just about anything and still make gains only to find out later in life that it takes a little brain power to continue getting results. I wish I had a nickel for every person that said to me, "You should have seen me when I was in high school. I was in great shape". My answer is always the same, "Of course you were. You were eighteen". If you want to impress me get in better shape as you grow older.

If you plan on making the sport of weight lifting a life long hobby you will have to learn to make your body work for you instead of against you. This requires learning how and when to make the necessary changes to your workout. Here are a few things I use to help my clients continue having success.

Try a reverse workout. Start at the end of your workout and work back to the beginning. For example if you are currently doing a full body workout and you always start with upper body first and end with legs, simply reverse the order- start with legs and end with upper body.

The same technique can be applied to a 3 or 4 day training split. For example if you always do chest before biceps on Mondays try doing biceps first and end with chest. This technique does not apply to cardio and abs which are always done at the end of the workout.

Create alternate workouts. Why risk getting bored with one workout when you can stay fresh by alternating between 2 different workouts. If you normally do bench press, dumbell press and peck deck flies for 3 sets of 10 repetitions to work your chest mix it up a little by alternating Incline press, decline press and push ups for 3 sets of 8, 10 and 12 repetitions. Alternate these two workouts every other week or flip a coin to see which one you are going to do next.

Change up the repetitions. Most people will go years doing the same amount of repetitions before it ever occurs to them to make changes. The truth of the matter is there is no magical number of repetitions that will give you instant success. The magic is in challenging your body and taking your workout to the next level. If you want to change it up and do sets of 10's, 12's, or 15's it doesn't matter as long as you use weights that are hard but allow you to use good form.

Take a break before starting a new routine. Smart lifters always add breaks to their training programs because they understand how important it is to physically and mentally recharge themselves. If you worked extra hard getting into bathing suit shape this summer take a week off in the fall and allow yourself to rest. Don't worry you won't get out of shape. You will only set yourself up for more gains in the future.  

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