What is a Chiropractic adjustment?
What the adjustment involves is me putting my hands on a joint, moving it a bit, and then applying a quick low amplitude-high velocity force through the joint under my hands. The adjustment may or may not result in a "popping" sound. The popping is simply the result of gasses moving around inside the joint, much like when you open a can of soda for the first time. It is safe and effective and results in restoring normal motion to the joint.
Muscles pull on bones, so technically I am affecting the tissues around a joint and inducing motion where there is lack of motion. The intrinsic homeo-dynamic mechanism is always working at correcting misalignment. When I make corrections, I am working with that mechanism, actually helping the body with what it is trying to do. In order for something to go out of place, it has to work against that homeostatic mechanism so it takes more force to create a misalignment than to correct one.
Chiropractic philosophy states that the intrinsic homeodynamic mechanism of the body is always working toward healing and knows just exactly how that healing needs to take place. The first maxim of the healer is to "do no harm". Alamkara is a yogic concept that basically means "just enough". Putting these three concepts together I feel that it is important to facilitate corrections to body function by putting "just enough" of my energy or force into a patient's body as possible to get the job done.