What kind of training would help me do more pullups aside from the obvious doing more pullups, Would bench pressing help? or how about curls?

Pull-ups focus on the Latissimus Dorsai muscles in your back and also your arms (depending on how you are grasping the bar).

Besides working your biceps and triceps,  your focus should be on the Lats.

Try this:
With a bench and a (heavyish) dumbbell,  take your left hand and left knee and put them on the bench as you stand next to it (the long side).  With the dumbbell on the ground next to the bench, grab it with your right hand and pull it up to your side such that your elbow clears your back.  Do 10 reps and switch to your left hand.  

Enjoy.
JDP

Sorry, Greg, but it has to be more pull-ups. Think of the muscles you are trying to work... it's the Latisimus Dorsi, or "Lats." You COULD work at seated lat pull-downs, but the best thing in the world is MORE pull-ups. If you can only do 8, that's good... maybe next week you'll do 10, and that's progress. According to Arnold (and he IS right...) you need to do at least 50 pull-ups (total) for the exercise to be sucessful. That's a total of 50 reps for the whole workout.
One weakness that I have noticed among people trying to blast back muscles is the grip... your grip will typically give out before your back muscles do. To compensate, try getting ahold of a pair of those wrist straps and wrap them tightly around the bar before you start.
BELIEVE me when I tell you that if you focus on this you WILL improve, and people will start coming to you for advice on this when they see your results. When I was into this real heavy several years back, I would do two sets of 40 reps (YES!), a set of maybe 35, and then as many as I could do, perhaps 20 or so. This was my warm-up on the nights that I worked my back. After that, I would continue with lat pull-downs and move on to the weights.
Try to remember, also, to FOCUS on feeling the Lats contract, and squeeze at the top of the motion. It will do you no good to "cheat" using arm strength. You need to have the guts to go PAST the pain; you WILL see results from this, and it will further boost your ego. HTH...

FITTER out

To get the full motion even after your muscles start to fail, cross your ankles and bend your knees. Have a friend put his hands under your ankles as you start to lose it, then pump out a few more as he compensates for as little of your body weight as necessary for you to do a correct pull up.

If you can't do your body weight for more than 10 reps, you need to start doing the machines (like upper pulley). Do the pull up (or pull down in this case) to the front of your chest. I used to do them behind the neck before I was told by several experts that behind the neck pull downs is hard on the rotator cuffs. I would start with 3 sets of ten reps to the front with 3 minute breaks between each set and then switch to the same except reversed-close grip (you will feel these more to your sides and biceps). After a week I add some one armed rows with your knee on a bench.

just my humble opinion,

Karl

When I was in boot camp we had a "machine" in the squad bay for building strength for pull ups. It had a rappelling type harness connected to a cable and pulley system. The cable was connected to an adjustable counter weight system that would assist you as you practiced your pull ups. As you built up your strength you could add less weight until you achieved you goal without using any counter weights. If you can picture what I'm describing perhaps you could make up something similar.

Doing more pullups will help you do more pullups as mentioned.  The bottom line is that you have to increase the strength in your back muscles.  The biceps, triceps, forearms and shoulders come into play as well so those should be strengthened  as well.

In addition to pullups, I would recommend rows (whether on a machine or with a barbell), lat pulldowns to the front, and dumbbell rows.  

I would recommend that you do some research on increasing your back muscles either on the Internet or in magazines and books.  There's tons of reference material out there.  Just remember to stay with the basics and use good form.

Hope this helps.

You can also try "negatives"

I used to do alot of these when I was big into rock climbing.

Do your pullups as normal,  when you can't do any more grab a chair and step up, holding the chinup position and let yourself down as slowly as possible.  Keep repeating until you can't hold yourself up anymore.  It is best to not let yourself down to a straight armed possition as some think it is bad for your joints.

I did many of these and then started working on one arm pullups using negatives,  used to be able to do 3 one arm pullups on each arm. Not just a stupid trick on some climbs.  You'll get really strong like this but be carefull as an excess of this will do bad things to your body.

Charlie

What you need to do is work the lats. If you don't have access to a bench or lat machine then your only alternative is to do more pullups. Take a look at this site:

http://www.planetkc.com/exrx/Lists/Directory.html

It will give you a list of which exercises train which muscles as well as which accessory muscles are used. Use it as a guide. Also, do not work your target muscles daily. Muscles do not grow during the exercise phase, they grow during the rest and recovery phase. You need to give yourself at least one or two days rest before hitting your lats again. Go slow and keep good form.

Good luck, Chris

I forgot to mention one other thing.  Pullups use the body for resistance so the more you weigh, the more you're pulling up.  Make sure that you're at the proper weight.  If not, every pound you lose is one less pound you're having to pull up.  Building muscle is great but diet and bodyfat are a very important part of the equation.

My other .02 cents.

[url]www.exrx.net[/url]

We used to have folks do pullups like Jarhead22 explained. Just make sure the person holding the ankles doesn't help too much.

This works well - Do as many pullups as you can, then wait (say, 2 minutes).  Do as many as you can again.  Let's say you did 10, then 5.  Shorten the rest interval each time your excercise by 10 seconds or so, until you can do all 15 with no rest.  On the second set work in some negatives or have a friend help when pulling up for a few more reps.  Make sure and get plenty of sleep and eat well.  

1911greg,

Do you simply want to increase the number of pull-ups (for some esoteric reason) or, do you want to exercise your Lats?

If its the former – simply slowly increase the number of pull-ups. BUT, give yourself at least a day of rest between any real intensive effort – don't try to exercise the same muscles everyday. If you are trying to increase strength and muscle-mass, you must break the muscle fibres. You have then to allow them time to rebuild themselves bigger and stronger. That's how it works!

If you want to improve your Lats, seated pull downs, behind your head, (using a machine) might be more productive. However, time for regeneration of the muscle fibres is equally important!

So whats the proper way to do a pull up all your body weight hanging with your arms straight then pulling ?

You should go all the way down but don't "hang".  Keep tension on your arms (or a slight bend in the elbows) as you go down and don't swing.  Then pull up until you pull your chin above the bar and repeat.  Tempo is important too.  Don't use your strength hanging on the bar... get it over with.  Use controlled movements up and down and then stop.  

One thing to remember is that muscles are built while you're resting, not while you're doing the actual exercise.  After you've done a hard workout, give your muscles a break before you trash them again.