With regards to R-babe, you might want to hold the sets down to one each if your doing that five exercise ab cycle 3-4 times a week. In fact you probably could get away with just doing abs twice a week.
Different suggestions for ab exercises: Lying down (floor, bench, back seat of a '89 Ford..whatever) in the usually crunch position, hold a light BB overhead as if you were to do a BP. As you preform the crunch (or even a higher range of motion) movement keep the bar up and over the head at all times, not forward which you may tend to do. You can also do this with the bar (or DB) behind you head, at the start, as if you were going to do a BB pullover, keeping the bar at arm's length throughout the exercise. You could do these with a medicine ball also, which can be rather heavy at first.
Those Ab wheels at WalMart, or just about every where else, which most people think are just a toy, are very effective when working the total ab wall (upper/lower and even the obliques to a certain degree). Can be a serious tool for a heavy result producing ab workout. After gaining strength with it you can put your feet on a chair or bench to give added resistence.
Working ab's or cardio to lose inches: might try lowering the carbs to get rid of that layer of fat that covers the muscles themselves. Good Luck.
